Student visa, entry date, and plane ticket

For those of you who have gone through the visa mess...I know I cannot apply for my student visa until at least 90 days before my course begins (which would be 25 June), but how much of a gamble is it to go ahead and buy my plane ticket?  There's a really good flight out there for $299 which I am paranoid will be gone by the time I apply and receive my visa.  The thing is that I really want to fly in on 1 September to give me time to settle in, find a flat, etc. before uni starts.  Would it be a problem to get my visa issued for this early before my course begins?  If there's a risk they won't give me a date until later in September, I don't want to buy the ticket - but I also don't want to wait too long and have the good price go away.  Advice?

Well, one piece of advice is that while someone may buy the $299 seat, the price normally won't start going up until 21 days prior to travel.  Do you know what the capacity on the flight is and what airline?  The capacity thing would look something like: F9Y9B9M9E9U9H9Q9V9W9S9T0K9L0G0P9A9, which represents the different classes of service and how many seats are available.  If you are seeing 9's across the board, then the flight is fairly open.  Also if you can find out what class of service the price is for then you can keep an eye just on that number.

Also, what restrictions are on the fare.  If for example you do need to move the date, they are not going to refund you the money and probablly charge you a $150 change fee and you will be stuck with that airline.  At that rate, you might be better off waiting until you have the visa in hand and paying $450 for the seat.

I am assuming you are working through an international student travel company, if not, you should because especially in Europe, they really cater to students and give steep discounts for just about everything if you know how to work the system.

Well, one piece of advice is that while someone may buy the $299 seat, the price normally won't start going up until 21 days prior to travel.  Do you know what the capacity on the flight is and what airline?  The capacity thing would look something like: F9Y9B9M9E9U9H9Q9V9W9S9T0K9L0G0P9A9, which represents the different classes of service and how many seats are available.  If you are seeing 9's across the board, then the flight is fairly open.  Also if you can find out what class of service the price is for then you can keep an eye just on that number.

Nice!

Where can I find the meaning of the alpha characters? 

Following up from Garry, how do we manage to see these capacity figures?

Cheers!

For those of you who have gone through the visa mess...I know I cannot apply for my student visa until at least 90 days before my course begins (which would be 25 June)

The day before I get to make my application, good thing there's no quotas, or we'd have problems mate 

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Well, one piece of advice is that while someone may buy the $299 seat, the price normally won't start going up until 21 days prior to travel.  Do you know what the capacity on the flight is and what airline?  The capacity thing would look something like: F9Y9B9M9E9U9H9Q9V9W9S9T0K9L0G0P9A9, which represents the different classes of service and how many seats are available.  If you are seeing 9's across the board, then the flight is fairly open.  Also if you can find out what class of service the price is for then you can keep an eye just on that number.

That's really intriguing to know.  I generally use websites like Travelocity or CheapTickets, so those are quite restrictive in their airfares.  I'm just an impatient person and want to get the plane-ticket part out of the way so I can have a definitive travel date.  I also like to well-organised and NOT having an exact date drives me crazy.  Guess I'll just have to wait until July unfortunately.  Some people replied on another board I posted to saying that they've gotten their visas for earlier (so long as you provide a good reason), but then the BritCouncil website mentions the figure of two weeks.  So confused!

I bought my plane ticket before I had my student visa because I found a cheap flight.  You will have to tell the consulate when you are arriving in the UK and that's the start date they put on your visa.  I left in August, school started in October.  You can apply for 90 days ahead and they should give you time after your course is over too.  I think mine was about 4 months additional at the end of my course, in addition to the 2 at the start.

That's really intriguing to know.  I generally use websites like Travelocity or CheapTickets, so those are quite restrictive in their airfares.  I'm just an impatient person and want to get the plane-ticket part out of the way so I can have a definitive travel date.  I also like to well-organised and NOT having an exact date drives me crazy.  Guess I'll just have to wait until July unfortunately.  Some people replied on another board I posted to saying that they've gotten their visas for earlier (so long as you provide a good reason), but then the BritCouncil website mentions the figure of two weeks.  So confused!

I agree with you about not having the exact date, it's rather annoying. As far as how early you come over, I've heard numbers from 2 weeks, to 3 months, I'm planning on requesting an entry date of June 29th, course starts August 28th (my birrthday, YAY) If they ask why so early, I'll tell them the truth, I want to have time to find a flat and settle in, I dont think thats too much to ask.

EDIT: added: Also if I understand right the visa will usually be valid until the end(ish) of the summer, because in the UK the school year doesnt technically end until the next one begins. Dont quote me though

Nice!

Where can I find the meaning of the alpha characters?

Well that varies by airline... generally speaking, the further to the "right" it is, then the cheaper the ticket and the more restricted. 

So for a little education, in the example I pulled was for a United Airlines Flight (and I am not a super expert but consulted with an airline for 2 years and learned some of their dirty tricks):
F9 - Means there are at least 9 first class tickets available
Y9 - Means there are at least 9 coach tickets available
B9M9 - Typical "semi-restricted" seats here
E9U9H9Q9V9W9S9T0K9 - Cheap economy fares with lots of restrictions
L0G0P9A9 - Special fares that normal people usually can't get

But basically this class has a bearing on the fare basis for the flight, which is another code they use internally to figure out the actual price for the ticket.  You will only see this on your receipt.  There is a big block of text on most receipts and you are looking for a code right after the cost of the ticket.  For example a recent flight for me was SE14A1N which meant that is was a "S" class ticket 14 advanced purchase with restrictions.

The biggest problem with this is these are the tickets the airline will let you sell, not really how many seats that are truly left.  Airlines almost always oversell flights (as you probablly know) and I have often seen it where you will see seats available when the flight is way oversold.  The airline has access to the real "load" numbers but they are not allowed to share them, even with travel agents.  When I was consulting I used to have access to see if a flight really had seats on it or not, but alas now, I have to call in favours.

I agree with you about not having the exact date, it's rather annoying. As far as how early you come over, I've heard numbers from 2 weeks, to 3 months, I'm planning on requesting an entry date of June 29th, course starts August 28th (my birrthday, YAY) If they ask why so early, I'll tell them the truth, I want to have time to find a flat and settle in, I dont think thats too much to ask.

Let us know how that goes, since you get to apply a full month before me.  I really don't think that 24 days early is too much to ask, especially since I have friends/boyfriend where I'll be going.  I'd really just like to have a bit of time to take it easy in a new country before the stress of school.  Not to mention I want to see the boyfriend as soon as possible, but I doubt I'll mention that in the visa application  .  I wonder if a convincing argument for a start date could be that you've ALREADY bought the plane ticket, so you really need it for that date??

I wonder if a convincing argument for a start date could be that you've ALREADY bought the plane ticket, so you really need it for that date??

Probably not...

The biggest problem with this is these are the tickets the airline will let you sell, not really how many seats that are truly left.  Airlines almost always oversell flights (as you probablly know) and I have often seen it where you will see seats available when the flight is way oversold.  The airline has access to the real "load" numbers but they are not allowed to share them, even with travel agents.  When I was consulting I used to have access to see if a flight really had seats on it or not, but alas now, I have to call in favours.

Very interesting!  TA!

Normally on website you don't get to see what classes are available......unless you have a website I don't know about.......lol

I use the Galileo system at work......and after i pick a class for outbound and inbound I have a command to ask for the cheapest available..and it ususally tells me what to change it to.......

Normally on website you don't get to see what classes are available......unless you have a website I don't know about.......lol

I use the Galileo system at work......and after i pick a class for outbound and inbound I have a command to ask for the cheapest available..and it ususally tells me what to change it to.......

Usually on some of the ITN "powered" websites you can go into your preferences and choose "expert mode" which will give you the list.  Currently my corporate travel allows me to choose this so I get the class of service array.

I use the Galileo system at work......and after i pick a class for outbound and inbound I have a command to ask for the cheapest available..and it ususally tells me what to change it to.......

So is there any way we average Joes can access this information from our own homes?