Is there a best time to book flights from European city to Ireland

luckylucky

My wife and I plan to fly back to Cork from Lisbon this summer for a wedding. I'm not exactly flush with cash at the mo so trying to keep costs to a minimum - I wouldn't be going back at all except it's a big occasion and I don't want to miss it. Anyway I was reading on a US site that best time on average to book flights is 8 weeks beforehand but the post was a couple of years old and even if that was true then it might have changed in the meanwhile, also it might work a bit differently in Europe.

Anyone have any ideas of when's a good time to book. Obviously I'm mostly interested in the specifics of flying from Lisbon to Cork but others might be interested also from other European destinations to Ireland and perhaps UK.

lc180

I've flown a lot with Ryanair and I'd say I've got the best deals around 6 or 7 weeks prior to departure.
Keep an eye out for their flight sales, usually every every couple of weeks and pounce as quickly as possible as seat price usually increase the more the flight books up.

There no real science to all this, I think luck plays a big factor in finding cheap flights! So best of luck.

luckylucky

lc180 wrote: »

I've flown a lot with Ryanair and I'd say I've got the best deals around 6 or 7 weeks prior to departure.
Keep an eye out for their flight sales, usually every every couple of weeks and pounce as quickly as possible as seat price usually increase the more the flight books up.

There no real science to all this, I think luck plays a big factor in finding cheap flights! So best of luck.

Cheers for the reply

My only option for a direct flight to Cork from Lisbon is with Aer Lingus. At the minute it's just a bit more money than going with Ryanair from Porto to Dublin so I'll almost defo be going with Aer Lingus as it's still ends up cheaper and much more convenient than gettng train/bus from Dublin to Cork, unless Ryanair have some mega sale on. I was guessing to wait about 8 weeks beforehand - but like you say it's not an exact science. Going to take a chance and leave it till 8 weeks anyway.

AIDO Tours

Think about the days you are travelling as well.

This is just in general rather than specifically on the ORK-LIS route. If you want to leave on Monday morning early well all the business people are doing the same. They are in the business of making money and you have to spend it to make it as they say so they fly as necessary, pushing up the price. Same for weekly commuters (they do exist) flying home for the weekend Friday evening and back to work on Sunday evening.

I don't know the details but I can't imagine Aer Lingus having three flights a day to Lisbon so you probably don't have a choice there but you should keep in mind the times of the day that are busiest if you have a choice of times. For example if the price goes up for the 9am flight it probably won't go back down as it is a nice time to fly and so will be popular.

On a side note I remember The Times of London doing an article on cheap flights a few years back and they compared getting from central London to Central Frankfort with BA and Ryanair. The cheapest ticket on Ryanair was free and it cost them £5 less when the train fares were taken into account. However getting to Stanstead instead of Heathrow and to what Ryanair call their Frankfort airport took about 3hours longer. In that case you are basically occupying 3hours of your time in a way you don't want to (working) for £1.60 and hour. Not really worth it.

I know this was mostly rambling bollox but I like rambling, mostly in the mountains, but as it is raining I can do it on here instead.

Hope the ideas helped.

munchkin_utd

just looked up the flights for july/ august and its universally 156euro return on a monday to monday to cork from lisbon which for peak holiday season is pretty reasonable.

considering taxes are €50 the fare is "only" 48euro each way (so not an awful lot of wiggle room for massive reductions).
To fly to Dublin is silly money, well north of 200 return for pretty much any time over the peak holiday season.

If I was in your position I'd be booking the flight at that price as there really isnt much of a saving to be made and theres only 2 flights per WEEK so any class of group booking will boost those prices considerably.

ive been flying from the continent back to Ireland during the peak holiday season for the past 12 years now and am happy to see anything convienent for less than 200 euro, even ended up being thankful of a 250 euro return with Lufthansa for a mid august wedding a number of years back.

so to summarize, summer can be a balls for flights and bargains are not to be relied on ESPECIALLY if you must be home on a certain date for wedding etc.

EDIT: to put it in context of what peak holiday season means - Ryanairs new route from knock to Faro is €300 each return on many dates during the summer and it runs more regularly than Cork-Lisbon. There is a reason that Ryanair can offer selected 1 euro flights and still make milions in profit!

luckylucky

munchkin_utd wrote: »

just looked up the flights for july/ august and its universally 156euro return on a monday to monday to cork from lisbon which for peak holiday season is pretty reasonable. ......

If I was in your position I'd be booking the flight at that price as there really isnt much of a saving to be made and theres only 2 flights per WEEK so any class of group booking will boost those prices considerably.

Thanks for the info. This was what I was worried about, that a sudden big booking would screw the price up. If that happened I'd probably have to give the wedding a skip. The price I'm looking at for the dates I have in mind is unfortunately a bit more than 156, not much more but even at that I might have to forego going home tbh. I realise price isn't that bad at all for summer time but still a lot for me at the minute. Sort of have no choice really but to wait a bit and hope price comes down and/or I get some dosh together.