tickets to the states for holidays....

anyone have any hints for getting lower cost flights to the states over christmas?

the ones i'm finding now are about 500 quid a pop....wondering if booking later would save or hinder...as i've seen them around 800 a few months ago.......

thanks!

I'm searching for low fares for a trip in September ... I'd think I might have better luck than you! Christmas is bound to be higher, isn't it? Someone told me to wait until about 2 months before I want to go to get the best fares, so I'm holding out until July. Right now, all I'm seeing is £450-500 (opodo seems to have the lowest fares) -- not much different from what you're seeing for Christmas. I'm no expert as this is my first trip back to the US, but £500 doesn't sound so bad for the holiday season. Anyone else?

I'm having the same problem - and I have 4 of us to get over there - to Florida of all places!  And lucky us, the youngest hits adult fare age with his birthday in November.  

I started trying in March, and even that seemed to be too late to get the right dates.  

We've used www.airline-network.co.uk for our past 3 or 4 trips and they've been great.  Haven't seen lower prices anywhere (and believe me, I've looked -- I'm one of those people who goes to about 900 different sites comparing every possible airline and ticket/date/destination combination!).

Hmmm---I've looked at that site and everytime I find a fare I like, it's never good for when I need it. 

I hate what Expedia does more often than not - shows you a great "exclusive" fare and then when you start booking it, comes up with a message how the fare has *suddenly* changed - from 5 seconds previous! - and is now much more. 

I call the airline directly and ask what the last date is before the rates go up for the holidays.  Then I get all the flight info to book, then I call dad, who then calls and books them on his card so they are purchased by the dollar .

i book things on my dollar card sometimes, but sometimes sterling is better...on aa they pretty  much match up...

i'm not thinking 500 is too bad either, considering i have about 300 in credit with aa.  we may have to bite the bullet and do it...which sucks....

I think it would pay to hold out for a couple more months because the prices are bound to go down between now and then.  I think we usually buy our Christmas tickets in October.

Every year for the past 4 years American Airlines offered a buy one get one free offer. We usually use it around xmas but xmas is a blackout day. One year we had to buy 12 bags of Dorito's to get the free ticket but it was well worth it. After summer is over watch the papers and TV.
Also Air India is always cheap. I dont think they change their fares like the rest of the airlines do and now I heard they fly from Birmingham.

I think last year we flew out on 26 Dec and back hmmm, well we got back late because of Richard getting sick, but it was like two weeks later and we paid £400 a ticket.  Rich got them 2 months before we left, I think.  It does tend to get cheaper though closer to the date.