When to book flights?

[UpTheVilla26]

Hoping a few may be more clued up than myself. 

We've booked a family holiday at the end of July next year to Portugal. 13 of us going, so we've booked a Villa. 

The closest Airport to us is Bristol, though I'm happy to drive to Gatwick and fly. We'd be going into Faro which is about half hour from the Villa. 

We haven't been abroad much, last time was about 8 years ago and my Dad sorted it all. 

When is the best time to book flights? Easyjet released a load today. Is it worth waiting or getting in early? 

Any advice appreciated as we are a bit out the loop. 

[AVFC_Hitz]

Try sites such as SkyScanner and eDreams first. Put in the dates you want and see the available flights (and Airlines) then go to the specific airline website and see if it's cheaper. I'm not sure if RyanAir or EasyJet are on these sites but it's worth a look. 

Are you booking the flights for all 13 people? 

[Milfner]

Assuming by late July you mean it’ll be in the six weeks holiday, a flight to the Algarve will be pretty full (if not completely full) and therefore will get more expensive over time. 

I’d also say look at booking all at once, if you book in smaller groups it’ll likely surge it for the group booking afterwards. 

You can add your bags on at a later date too if you are worried about the cost now.

If those flights are sub-200 I’d pull the trigger.

Have you looked at Southampton airport, maybe even Exeter too?

[Wainy316]

We flew to Faro from Brum last month (school hols) at about £400 a head.  Booked that in January so yeah I'd try and get in early if it's a fair bit lower than that at the moment.

[villa4europe]

On 04/09/2024 at 08:13, AVFC_Hitz said:

Try sites such as SkyScanner and eDreams first. Put in the dates you want and see the available flights (and Airlines) then go to the specific airline website and see if it's cheaper. I'm not sure if RyanAir or EasyJet are on these sites but it's worth a look. 

Are you booking the flights for all 13 people? 

also on skyscanner you can put "uk" as the departure ariport and then "faro" as the destination and it will tell you the flight price from every uk airport and every airline

[UpTheVilla26]

Cheers guys. Think I'll bite the bullet and book next month, prices seem to be steady at the moment and around £230ish return for each person. 

[tonyh29]

If you ring BA they do a group booking feature  , the advantage with this is that they automatically include checked luggage in the price   , which might be useful if you are doing a family holiday

A random Faro return on their website  in July from LGW came up as £254 with hand luggage only  .. so you might get a group booking for around that price with the checked luggage thrown in  , which Easyjet etc will spank you heavily for  

 

 

 

[choffer]

On 04/09/2024 at 07:13, AVFC_Hitz said:

Try sites such as SkyScanner and eDreams first. Put in the dates you want and see the available flights (and Airlines) then go to the specific airline website and see if it's cheaper.

Also, whenever you search for fights, clear your browser cache as many booking sites increase the prices with every visit. 

[choffer]

28 minutes ago, tonyh29 said:

If you ring BA they do a group booking feature

And BA have a sale running until the end of the month. Not sure how many fares are discounted but we found LHR/JFK returns flights for £370 the other day.

[T-Dog]

Probably no good for you in this instance, but Google Flights seems to be a bit of diamond in the rough at the minute, very few seem to use it, but it has some fantastic features, including email alerts if a flight drops under a certain price, average price by month, all sorts of good stuff.