Is booking your flights early a good idea?

Dozen Wicked Words

Right, so not a world traveller at all, never been outside Europe and haven't even been outside UK or Ireland for ages.

So my question, me and my family of 5 in total are hopefully going to visit my wife's relatives in the USA next summer. Will it be cheaper booking them as soon as they become available on the website or waiting until much nearer the dates. I would assume the earlier the better but I could be completely wrong.


Also what amount of cover for travel insurance is going to be sensible for travel in the US, particularly for 3 kids under 12.

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THEIRISHMOB

Sign up to Aerlingus newsletter as they seem to have a sale every second week so u should save 10% on that.
Compare against the US airlines for prices.

For insurance I recommend AA insurance worldwide. I have family of 4 for the 5star option for approx. 120 a year. great value and very good insurance.

Have a great trip but deffo the earlier you book the better. Prices only ever go up...

DoYouEvenLift

THEIRISHMOB wrote: »

Sign up to Aerlingus newsletter as they seem to have a sale every second week so u should save 10% on that.
Compare against the US airlines for prices.

For insurance I recommend AA insurance worldwide. I have family of 4 for the 5star option for approx. 120 a year. great value and very good insurance.

Have a great trip but deffo the earlier you book the better. Prices only ever go up...

Nope! Depends on the flights/routes and how popular they are and how well the specific flights are selling. Last flights I booked were almost two months in advance of the trip and two weeks before the flight I checked how much they were out of curiosity and they were almost half the price I had paid, pretty terrible feeling knowing you got screwed but some airlines will refund the difference in America apparently.

fits

Start keeping an eye on it now. The prices should drop and then climb again but timing of that process is uncertain.

coylemj

fits wrote: »

Start keeping an eye on it now. The prices should drop and then climb again but timing of that process is uncertain.

+1 It all depends on how the seats are selling and how much capacity is on the route.

DoYouEvenLift

I used to use skyscanner as well but this is the cheapest site I've found over time for flights as well: http://www.jetcost.com


For flights to America, anything around/under the €500 mark per person would be worth just buying to be safe since that's a fair price. Just be careful that the flights you're looking at don't have too many stops.


Look out for aer lingus' deals on their site as well though because they have bargains every year, a few months ago they had ~€400 flights to a few US destinations.

Dozen Wicked Words

Thanks for all the advice lads, much appreciated, I'll keep a good eye out for the next while.