Booking tickets - how far ahead?

[Benni]

Well crap! Just checked the site that had the perfect flight times for me and, now, that flight no longer shows! All of the returning flights leave out at 5:30 am and the one I wanted left out at 1:40pm which was perfect!

Now what do I do? I don't want to get up in the middle of the night to be to the airport at 4:30am!! I wonder if I could go ahead and make the reservations but change it and fly out at a later time that day? Would there be an extra charge?

[MattDavies86]

a lot of it depends of course on where and what time of the year your flying, if the location has an "off season" they will be that bit cheaper if you fly then.

Also seats on the plane, each time someone books a seat, all the remaining seats go up in price, so I would advice booking in as advance as you can to be honest to ensure a cheaper deal! There are of course those who say last minute are really cheap, it's true but it's not worth the risk of one not being available.

I booked my flight in May about a month ago to be honest, and by that time the price had gone from around £580 to £630 so I still lost out on a potential £50 saving!

Next I need to book 4 flights! single to Thailand, 2x singles from Thailand and 1x single to Thailand again lol, before August! So I need to get my skates on :P

[Benni]

Thanks Matt. I will be flying there for Easter week -- March 30 - April 6. I did call and found out if I want to take a later flight it will cost me $150 changing fee plus the cost difference between the 2 flights. $150 doesn't bother me but the price difference could be as much as $300 on top of that so I don't know if I'm going to do that or not.