Flights for Christmas 2009

Hello All 

Looking to book my flight to see my lovely and his fam! Leaving from MCO (Orlando, FL) to MAN (Manchester) departure 18 Dec and coming back 4 Jan. Have been tracking flights on Expedia for about a month or two and have seen the price jump up and down.

Right now it is $848 direct with Virgin - I know the airlines have some sort of system they use to decided when prices go up or down but have yet to figure it out.

Should I go with it or wait?

Cheers

Christina x

www.atiflights.com shows flights on those dates (on Virgin, even) for $706. I don't know if those will change as the date gets closer, though. The only rule of thumb I've heard are to buy no earlier than 3 months in advance.

i always use farecompare.com to check out month to month or sign up for the emails sent to you showing you the prices daily

also, i was reading this the other day:
http://www.farecompare.com/articles/holiday-travel-2009-guide-for-buying-cheap-holiday-flights/

looks like they are predicting have your ticket purchased by the end of october for the best deal...ill be just like you... looking for the cheapest flight. hope you find what youre looking for. cheers!

I did buy mine for home already, despite that whole three month rule.  Round trip, Heathrow to JFK direct for £404, leaving the 17th, returning the 1st. 

Not the BEST deal, but from when I started looking, prices only seemed to be going up, and I was prepared to pay around that much anyway.

we booked our christmas flights already-- heathrow direct to raleigh, nc for around $750 per person after taxes (dec 16 through dec 30) on american.  a bit more than we hoped to pay, but we jumped at the chance to get direct flights for that price.  this was through expedia (but i think we originally saw it on kayak.com). 

we also just purchased flights from gatwick to greensboro, nc (via charlotte, nc) on us airways for $500 per person after taxes for april 27 to may 16, which is perhaps the best price i've ever seen to fly into my hometown from london...so maybe there are exceptions to the three month rule?   

   

i always use farecompare.com to check out month to month or sign up for the emails sent to you showing you the prices daily

also, i was reading this the other day:
http://www.farecompare.com/articles/holiday-travel-2009-guide-for-buying-cheap-holiday-flights/

looks like they are predicting have your ticket purchased by the end of october for the best deal...ill be just like you... looking for the cheapest flight. hope you find what youre looking for. cheers!

Many many thanks! I used farecompare and saw that my flight had reduced down to $696 Orlando to Manchester. So I logged on to my Expedia account and low and behold it was true

It's booked and we are both thrilled to not have to pay over $900.

Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season with your loved ones far away. This is our first Christmas and New Years together as a family - so will be very special.

Cheers

Christina

I know the OP already has the tix booked...but thought I would throw in a plug for Vayama.com. I've always found THE cheapest flights off them. They have a Virgin Atlantic for $650 for that same flight...so not too much more of a savings, but just an FYI as another site to peruse.

i have always found that it is better to buy very early if you are flying to the US the day after school is out for the holidays.... 

Me too... Otherwise you end up paying more or changeing the date you want to fly because economy is booked!

I know the OP already has the tix booked...but thought I would throw in a plug for Vayama.com. I've always found THE cheapest flights off them. They have a Virgin Atlantic for $650 for that same flight...so not too much more of a savings, but just an FYI as another site to peruse.

Great site! Thank you Will use it for furture travel plans. It's very helpful for hotels too!

I'm using a site called Yapta to track flights, prices etc. I'm in the same boat going from Boston to Heathrow right around mid december. Cheapest flight ive found was $702RT, but now its up to about $780. I'ts like a big gamble waiting for the airline ticket prices to drop. Im thinking of using the name your own price on Expedia and giving that a whirl although I really want a non stop flight.

We booked our flights from Glasgow to Philly in August and I haven't seen anything better so far (and I've checked twice per week just to be sure). After taxes and travel insurance, we spent $960 per person. Friends of ours here said they spent £1000 per person last year, so I felt like that was a seriously good deal. However, the harder thing for us was getting a second flight in the US, as we have family in New Orleans. We used to get that flight direct from Philly to New Orleans on Southwest (and even USAir sometimes) for under $200 pp (typically around $160-$170). The very best we were able to dig up was a flight with Continental for $300 pp and that included a layover in Newark (we were able to save $50 pp by driving to Newark for the departure flight but we couldn't do that for the return as the flight is basically connecting with our return flight to Glasgow). With that kind of cost, we could easily travel to the Mediterranean...In fact, we are as we caught RyanAir on a good day with a no taxes/fees deal to Alicante for £30 pp.

We booked our flights for Christmas back at the end of June from Healthrow to Atlanta non-stop for my family and with insurance included it was a little over £1500. Just checked the same flight and with no insurance it is £2119. We wouldn't be going back to visit for that price.

We booked yesterday, Manchester to Houston- for two of us, it came to £952. (And it took me forever to find that since every search engine was trying to give me flights with a 1 or 1.5 hour connection in Frankfurt or Paris- no thanks!) We're only going because I haven't been home for Christmas in 4 years and I promised my mum...but after this, we won't be traveling overseas at Christmas again.

We're flying through Canada, but it will be £352 for my husband's ticket and mine is £357 (different dates).
Air Canada often has cheaper fares--if you are willing to do a 2 hour layover in toronto or montreal.

Hooray!