Avios and school holidays

[Jellycattoys]

I’ve seen positive mentions of Avios and I am interested. However, DC is starting school September which means we will be very restricted to be able to travel during school holidays only. We have been and plan to continue to do 5 holidays a year.

Is anyone able to share your experience of booking using avios for peak / school holiday long haul (e.g. Saturday out and Saturday back during the one week half term holiday) and European flights? Are you able to book at all or we should only bother with Avios if we are flexible with travel dates? Thanks

Hi. Yes I have booked many flights during school holidays. If you are organised enough, you can book when the flights are released 355 days out at midnight GMT (1am BST) on the US phone line (you can try online but if it’s a popular route, anyone on the phone will always get the tickets ahead of someone trying online).

Or you can wait until closer to the time and see what you can get using something like SeatSpy. I have been to Barbados, Doha and Antigua business class during school holidays at relatively short notice in the last 12 months.