When to book flights to the US?

Foxtbh

Hi guys,

I'm going to California in September and am struggling to work out when the best time to book flights is. Conventional wisdom is to book as far in advance as possible, but I got burnt doing that last year so I'm not keen to do it again.

Last year I went to Australia for the Summer - in January/February I was finding flights for £700. So when, in March, I found flights for just £560 I jumped at the chance and booked. By the following month, Singapore Airlines was offering the same tickets for just £399. As you can imagine I was understandably dissapointed.

This is not something I wish to repeat.

So far my initial research started in January where indirect flights were circa £360 from LHR to LAX, and direct flights came in at £400. As I write this, there isnt anything below £450 for the dates I have in mind.
Whats the best thing to do? Is there a 'best time' to book? What is the figure I should be aiming for for a direct flight to LA, and what figure should I aim for for an indirect flight? I've no idea what the 'floor' is for this route - anyone here have any ideas?

Thanks!

richardw

Foxtbh wrote: »

I found flights for just £560 I jumped at the chance and booked

Great price for such a long way, well done!

The best I've ever seen was for LA was £300, so £400 is a good price.

lfc321

Always difficult to predict. Looking between now and September (kayak enables you to go through month by month looking at the lowest fares found recently for each month) the cheapest seem to be around the £385 mark (they're indirect flights with AA in April). So the £360 flights you were seeing for January were very good, although Jan is obviously low season.

Personally if my dates were fixed I would be booking now. If my dates were not fixed I might be tempted to wait a little.

And (assuming you're not stopping-over on the way) I would be prepared to pay a few £ extra to go non-stop on a decent airline rather than indirect via some hellish hub with a US carrier. I'd definitely be looking at Air New Zealand personally - around the £450 mark for most of September. Impossible to know whether that will rise or fall.

Don't beat yourself up about the Australia tickets - £560 was a really, really good price. The fact that you missed a frankly unbelievable price is annoying, but you still did well. I've paid well over £1000 for economy RTN to Australia when my dates have been fixed.

eslick

18 mths ago booked flights about 9 months before we went and they didnt change, up and down a tenner but no real change. had been looking for a pattern for our next one. last year booked for easter this year in july, 4 tickets from newcastle to atlanta via amsterdam for £1100 knew it was cheap. at Christmas one of the flight time changed and we were moved to another flight. was speaking with the agent and logged on to see what the flight times were and the same flight we were on was nearly a grand each. the agent said that when we booked they hadnt factored in easter, however true that is.

anyway dont think it really matters when you book, as many say on here find a price you are happy with and dont look again