When to buy flights to Boston for October

Jamp

Hi All,

I am due to go to Boston in October and wondering when is likely to be best for booking flights for this time. Anyone know when there are reliable summer sales etc? We're going at half term so are these flights likely to be excluded from sales? Someone has advised me best to book early, but that isn't really my experience with TATL flights and they're £500+ at present. I'd be disappointed not to get them for under £350 to the east coast, is that realistic for October?

I'd prefer to fly KLM/Skyteam but will be buying on price and times mainly. Going from MAN, LBA or BHX is easiest but LHR doable, especially for a direct flight (albeit not with Skyteam).

Cheers,

Jamp

cactusdust

Under £350 is a bit too optimistic to be honest. It's a possibility but ideally you need to be booking as soon as you find a price you're happy with. Don't get too torn up with checking prices after you've booked either.. it's pointless cuz there aint' nothing you can do.

Just had a quick look and found a return from LHR to BOS on Air Canada/United Airlines for £426pp departing 24/10 and returning one week later. Depending on where you live, Swiss are cheapest from MAN and BHX same dates @ £485pp. Flying on AF-KLM from either BHX or MAN is around £524. Likewise, from LBA £526 on KLM.

Sacrificing your choice of the Skyteam Alliance might be the way forward here, if you want the best prices.

Jamp

Thanks Cactus. Need to be there on the 22nd at latest (attending wedding on 23rd), but thanks for doing the search. Its tricky to book this early as my girlfriend doesn't know what her job situation will be - she's hoping to start teaching in Sept so would need to stick to the half term. I, on the other hand, quite fancy staying for an extra week, perhaps coming back from Toronto. We're not quite at the stage to be booking yet, as you can gather!

Are there not likely to be any sales covering these flights then? The reason I fixed on £350 is I was helping someone book flights to the west coast (SFO) recently and they were £350 so I can't bring myself to pay more for a much shorter journey!

Pelican_eats_pigeon

Personally I'd be tempted to book in August around 8 weeks prior to travel but I know many others would disagree with me. I would target around £380 as the price range you'd look for.

Jamp

Thanks Pelican. I'm inclined to wait, particularly given our indecision over dates etc. Will see how the prices develop. Cheers.

Jamp

Hi All,

Any further comment on this topic now we're a bit closer to the time? I've read around and it seems everyone is paying a lot more for flights to the US this summer, although I did get LHR-SFO for £350 or so in Feb/March. Despite this, I'm becoming resigned to paying over £400 for these flights.

Aer Lingus and Delta seem to have the best deals this week, and Delta have started flying to LHR direct. I could do Delta LHR - BOS 20/10/11 - 5/10/11 for £434 each. Not usually a fan of Delta but their TATL 752s and 764s look to have pretty good legroom on Seatguru. The 764 is nice for having lots of seat pairs for some privacy also. Any views on whether I should just go for these now, or are the other players likely to start competing and doing sales through August?

Foxtbh

The time to buy was, literally, last week. All the major carriers had sales which have now ended.

Picked up flights into New York and out of Miami in October for £387.

Jamp

Ok well that's a shame, thanks for the info. Short of jumping into my time machine then, what's my best strategy now do you think?

Foxtbh

Your best strategy is to book now!

Staggeringly Virgin Atlantic have just launched YET ANOTHER sale to the USA.

This time its even cheaper than before!

Jamp

Ok, thanks. I have taken your advice and booked. It seems the sales are offering £400 or so as the best fare for a return the east coast, so based on that I wasn't doing too bad. Ended up with Delta for £460 via Expedia. That's for LHR-BOS and BUF-JFK-LHR. Straight back from BOS or JFK would have been cheaper but this is handier for us.

Delta themselves were charging over £500 for the same flights. I was tempted to test test out their 'Best Fare Guarantee' which gets you a refund on the difference and a $100 voucher, but it seemed a bit of a risk for not much gain.

Doshwaster

October is a busy time for Boston. New England is a popular destination in the autumn an there are a lot of big conventions in the city at that time of year.

Six weeks out is typically the latest you should be looking to book if you want a decent fare but if you see one now that is acceptable then just go for it. Better to be safe than sorry.