When to book US flights for July 2010?

Burniebear

My wife and I are planning a holiday to Las Vegas/San Francisco/LA for 16 nights (approx) in July this year and would appreciate advice on when to book flights.

I have been keeping an eye on prices over the past couple of weeks (Kayak and other sites) and they appear to be rising. Flights are open jaw, departing Edinburgh to LA, and returning San Francisco to Edinburgh (currently circa £600 per person). Appreciate views on whether I should continue to wait or book as soon as possible? I am unsure whether airlines will now have flight sales that will cover the summer period. I realise deals may have been available for reservations further in advance but unfortunately we are only now in a position to book.

Due to work and other commitments, our entire trip must take place within July (though we are flexible on dates within July). I will book the internal flights and accommodation separately.

Grateful for any advice.

Thanks
B

nippa1

Not entirely sure what your flying itinery consists of but seat numbers over the Atlantic are well down over last year so bargains will be hard to find.

From Edinburgh , Continental is the obvious carrier straight to Newark but I find it's worth looking at KLM and Air France.
Currently USAir seem to be offering good prices and it's never a good idea just to solely rely on consolidating sites like Kayak or Netflights ; you need to go to each airline site and price things up.

If you look at Virgin Atlantic also look up code sharing partners Continental who sometimes show a lower price for the same flight.
Recently the Air France website was selling the Manchester-New York Delta Airlines flight for less than the Delta website.

Just lately I've found US Domestic flights to be expensive. Stay away from July 4th Independence Day.
Driving LA to Las Vegas is quite feasible and the coast road up to San Francisco from LA is worth doing.

Burniebear

Thanks. Itinerary is not set but thinking along the lines of internal flights LA to LV, and LV to SF. I haven't ruled out driving some or all of the journey though.

My main concern at moment is the flights to and from the US. I have been regularly checking the screenscrapers and airline's own sites (including those you mentioned) over the past couple of weeks and have noticed that just in the last day or two flights with a number of airlines (US Airways, Continental, Air Canada and others) have increased in cost considerably (up £100+ per person to £700 each on average) across July. I am now caught between booking now before prices rise any further, or waiting to see if they come down a little over the next couple of weeks.

B

ferf1223

I know you say you have to fly in July, but is there any way you can work out a way to fly out on 30th June? We're flying to the US and planned to fly out on 1st or 2nd July...until we figured out we would save £500 between us flying out on 30th June...the price jumped £250/per ticket as soon as we hit July...not sure if the same would be true for your itinerary.

It's difficult for anyone to say for sure if there will or will not be any better fares available, so you'll just have to decide if you're willing to risk fares going up if you wait. I tend to think that if they've been steadily creeping up lately it's a reasonably good sign to buy now...but it's really anyone's guess. If you do book, don't go back and check prices!

Burniebear

I noticed how much cheaper it was to fly on 30 June, but unfortunately work commitments mean we can't fly until the evening of 30 June at the earliest (and there appear to be no late flights), which means we're into July. Looks like I'll just need to risk either booking or waiting.

Would there be any reason why almost all airlines have just hiked there prices for July at the same time? I wonder if prices could level out again?

Thanks
B

ginjim

have you tried flying in out of different airports.
we were going to do this trip and found out it would have been much cheaper if we flew into sf rather than la

Burniebear

I've been checking every permutation in/out of LA, San Fran, Vegas, as well as straightforward return flights to these three destinations, and flying into LA and out of SF appears to be as cheap, if not cheaper, than the other options.

B

richardw

Are 'inclusive tour' fares any cheaper, if available.

mackemdave

I saw flights from LA to LV for as little as £29/person on edreams.co.uk

ferf1223

we booked our July flights on 19th Jan...and the jump in prices from 1st July was already there at that point...this was when the airline (AA) had a sale on too. I've no idea if that is any help at all (probably not).