How far in advance do you book your holidays

[claret3189]

Just wanting some advice. How far in advance do you book your holidays abroad. I notice flights arent always released too far in advance. Any advice on how far i should leave it before booking for next year

Usually anything between 6 months and a couple of days! The exception being something like a big family trip skiing in half term where the good accommodation and childcare can book up, in that case I would book 9-12 months in advance. Often we wait for airlines to have sales and book then. Sometimes I do like a spontaneous last minute trip though.

Thank you struggling to find some flights a year in advance.

Airlines usually release flights around a year in advance so they should be available to book soon. I’d reccomend getting the sky scanner app and signing up for their flight alerts- they’ll tell you when the flights are released and you also get price change alerts which can help you decide when the best time to book is.

If booking a package through a travel agent then usually a year in advance.

If booking flights and accommodation separately I usually find and book the accommodation 9 or so months in advice to get exactly what we need and then wait for the flights to be released. I'm currently waiting for Easyjet to release their May half term flights which is supposed to happen on around the 20th Sept.

I have booked flights more than a year in advance by going through an agent called Charter Travel .They were able to pre register you for flights before they are released and can give you a pretty good estimate of cost. Not sure if that is still the case though.

Thank you thats a great help

Budget airlines - eg Easyjet and Ryanair you currently cannot book beyond the end of March 2019, Jet2 you can - so it depends on the airline. Long haul is different though.

You can track prices via Google Flights and then book when they email you about a price drop, also sign up to the email lists of the airlines that fly your route, that way you will get emails about any offers/sales.

If you are flexible on when and where you go then sign up at www.secretflying.com/posts/never-miss-a-secret-flying-error-fare-again/ for the flights departing from the UK email alerts.

@buttermilkwaffles thanks thats great

Longhaul & short haul budget airlines are very different & there's the odd airline like Norwegian that will have different release dates for different destinations within the same continent. We (well, me!)usually work out where we want to go 12 months in advance just so we can budget! I than look at Skyscanner, find out who flies there cheapest, speak to their Customer Services & find out the release date. Except for sales, flights are usually cheapest on release & before booking I'll double check there's nothing cheaper on Skyscanner. I love planning trips & could already list the countries i want to talk the DH into over the next 3 years but I appreciate most people usually look a lots of options!

@SJane45s brill i must admit i plan in advance too i already where i want to go a year in advance just need the best prices now lol