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A question about : Cheap Flights

Destination : Portugal (villa booked set dates)

I have read afew reports suggesting that to find cheap flights to Europe the optimum time to book is 50-60 days before you are due to fly. Has anyone experienced this?

If we booked the flights now they around the Ј290 mark so I am sure if we waited we would get a cheaper deal BUT there are 9 of us going so are we running the risk of not enough seats being available? or would I answer my own question by saying 'I suppose there are enough chartered flights from enough airports to be ok?'

Thankyou

Best answers:

• Airline tickets have a multitude of variables. Often for peak travel periods, seats will be cheapest far in advance and only ever get more expensive. Its all well and good saying that its cheapest 50 days in advance but what's that based on? If it's for one seat on a Tuesday to an airport you don't want to go to then its no use.
  If you are fortunate enough to be able to be flexible, have no set destination or dates than you can always chance it and see what's available. But you already have a booking and need 9 seats on set dates. What happens if you get to 50 days before and can't get seats and have only watched prices rise?
  When are you travelling? Ј290 seems at the high end of the spectrum for Portugal. But if its peak July/August school holidays it may well be the going rate.
• Pay the money. Book the 9 seats. Relax and look forward to your holiday.
  Job Done.
• A Saturday in School Holidays, say no more. Also, you are booking 9 at a time meaning you may not be unlocking the best fares.
  Most airlines will sell X amount of seats at a given fare, and then raise the price for the next X amount of seats and so on. However a lot will also only sell all seats on one booking at the same fare. So, for example of theres 5 seats at Ј100, then the next bracket is Ј120, when you search for 9, they'll give a result of 9 seats at Ј120, not 5 at Ј100 and 4 at Ј120.
  You could try searching/booking at say 2 at a time. However there's no guarantee that if the first few do save a few quid, the price won't be higher than the last few...
• Airlines usually use a dynamic pricing policy. This means prices can go up and down depending upon supply and demand over set periods of time.
  So, if a lot of tickets for a flight are sold over a short period the price rises. If sales then stagnate the price will drop again until it stimulates more sales. This can happen an infinite number of times. The art is to work out when the peaks and troughs are likely to occur. The 50 day suggestion is what has been found to be the mean period when a trough will occur closest to the departure date.
  This description is a bit simplistic, but hopefully it offers a bit of background?
• You don't say where you're flying from or to. Or what your return date is. I've assumed Faro, returning a week later.
  Flexibility over airport could save you over Ј100 per person.
  Skyscanner (using UK as departure point) suggests Glasgow at Ј155 on Ryanair. Doubtless that excludes hold luggage.
  Stansted to Lisbon is under Ј150. Probably not an option, but Dublin to Lisbon comes in at Ј113.
  To answer the question, book now. But think about your starting point. A couple of family railcards and the right start point could get excellent value.
• Yes sorry 15-22nd Aug to/faro I would always avoid Saturday flights but unfortunately and understandably the villa owners were not prepared to split up two weeks in their most busy time.
  I've looked at most airports, but mainly Manchester/Brum(too expensive), Liverpool, London and EMA.
  I've seen the Glasgow prices but I know 2 or 3 if the travellers won't out themselves where I'm a tight wad lol
  I've even looked at flying from Brum to Glasgow but need to sit down and do the figures with luggage , taxi return to Brum etc.
• Booked flights Saturday Ј275p/p fee's+baggage, if we had waited till the next day would have been an extra Ј50p/p same flight.
  Thankyou all for your help.