Christmas European flights - should I wait until Black Friday Sale?

We go over every other year for the Xmas Markets and we always get our best price on opening day which is 330 days from return flight back home. We book MulitCity Tickets - this year into Vienna and out of Munich - we got Business Class for less than $900. Coach was $780. We've never had luck with Black Friday sales - but we also fly Delta usually as they have best price for us and the airports we use.

No one really knows, as airlines rates are so chaotic, and one year's experience has no relationship to the next year- there's too many international variables in play. Also, various classes of seats can trend differently.
I have seen the best connections get more expensive as the date nears, but again, this may mean nothing.
However, you could do some research on Google Flights, which has price history, but I don't know how far back the app tracks.
Are you flexible on dates?
I have flown internationally on Thanksgiving, and that terminal was empty.
You can also set up price Google Alerts, so that if you see a number you can live with, grab it.
If you figure a way to predict air fare trends, please share your gift. Safe travels!

@chinalake67,
Is that business class one way or round trip for $800? If it's round trip, wow!

It is MultiCity - into Vienna from NC, and home back to NC from Munich. (basically round trip, but they are MultiCity Tickets as we always fly into one town and back home from another). We always book very early and typically get very good deals.

ChinaLakes67, very interesting thanks! I'm assuming that's a codeshare with Delta? I'm looking now at Christmas 2024 flights & thinking 3 months out will be cheaper than closer to the date. Why not book a ticket (on any major carrier, but check fine print) that is exchangeable, doesn't have to be refundable, and if price comes down you can rebook it & keep the remaining credit in your account up to a year from date of purchase?

I have flown internationally on Thanksgiving, and that terminal was empty.
You can also set up price Google Alerts, so that if you see a number you can live with, grab it.

Pat, agreed, last year I flew the day after Thanksgiving, assume everyone had turkey hangovers, flight was almost empty!

Hi Pat.. yes I agree.. the airline pricing is all over the place..
I looked up a flight leaving on Thanksgiving and/or black friday - and they are much higher than Tuesday after.. why?? there should be no demand for flight on black friday date...
and yes.. My dates are flexible..

ChinaLake67 - My trip is a multicity as well.. how do I get 900 business class?? that's just nuts.. should I push back my christmas travel to 2025 to take advantage of this?? LOL..

So my dilemma is this..
I just found a flight for trip to Germany on Dec for around $495 on TAP airlines..
Last year, TAP had amazing Black Friday deal, where one can get a trip to Frankfurt for $330 RT - for any date before May 2024... so that should include the Christmas holiday..

Should I get this now?? or wait till Black Friday sale?? I am torn right now...
furthermore, Booking have Black Friday sale as well.. should I wait for the BF sale or book hotel right now.. how's hotel availability in Germany during Christmas season?//

Sandancisco -- I don't know what you mean by a 'codeshare' w/Delta. We go to Europe twice a year and we make our plans very far in advance and we've ALWAYS gotten very good prices in Business or Premium Select by booking around our 330 day mark. We've done this for years. I must say, once we book, we don't look back, so I have no idea what prices are like closer to travel - BUT I do know we have the seats we like and the times and plane we like.

Gene - we book our hotels for the Markets a year in advance also as we like to be very close to the markets and we know the hotels we like. We booked Vienna, Salzburg, Nuremberg, & Munich a year ago.

I agree with China Lake, book hotels asap! The year I went, many hotels were fully booked by June, esp on the weekends.
Gene, I'm confused by "Booking has BF sakes as well" ? Hopefully you're not talking about a third party vendor for flights? Alway book directly with the airlines.
We always fly British Airways ( husband insists, whatever.) In July 2023 I bought business class for spring 2024 for $1850 RT each ( from the west coast ).
This July 2024 I bought RT business for spring 2025 for &2250 each. I've never seen the prices ChinaLakes has gotten, and I put significant energy into the project.
We stack the AARP discount with the British Airlines Visa 10% discount.
Good luck and pls keep us posted .
Safe travels!

Ok... so after discussion with my wife, we decided the following.

Mind you, this Christmas itinerary will be only 5 weeks after we come back from Egypt travel - so we were leary of having another international travel so soon after.
Taking that to account, we decided to pivot, and postpone our Germany Christmas trip to 2025 and do what ChinaLake did.. buy Business class around 330 day mark.. (why 330 day, ChinaLake?? - is that the earliest you can purchase advance??) That would be around Feb 2025 to start looking for the itineray..... any special hack I can do to get a cheap business class??

Instead will be planning New Zealand travel on Feb 2025.. that will give us some space for us to recuperate from Egypt travel, and take an advantage of Black Friday sale for NZ trip...

Now if Black Friday have amazing sale for Germany this Christmas, I may pivot.. but that's my plan for now..
thank you..

YES -- 330 days from your RETURN FLIGHT BACK HOME is the earliest you can buy tickets for domestic and International flights. We start looking a month before then by punching in the same days of the week to see what the prices look like. Then we usually find our best price 300-330 days out. We always do MULTICITY.

Def join some facebook groups about the markets - you'll learn a ton - our favs are Vienna, Salzburg, Regensburg Thurn & Taxis market (get tickets online before you go), Nuremberg. We also LOVE the Xmas Market River Cruises and then add a week on our own post cruise.

Good facebook group - MAGICAL CHRISTMAS MARKETS OF EUROPE

If you fly Delta - their PREMIUM SELECT seats are also VERY NICE.

Book hotels for the markets ASAP.

I’m going to be realistic, the $900 business class somebody’s talking about on here is a unicorn at least on Delta. Now it happens and sometimes they’re sales and sometimes there are error airfares that you can get a deal on but if you’re sitting out here right now, “I’m going to wait on a business class fare at $900.” You’re more than likely going to be disappointed. I track these fares pretty regularly. We buy them for people at work and we pay attention to them and that’s a unicorn

And please, please, please ignore the siren call of the cheap airfare fairy. Yes, you’ll see her and she will offer you a deal on a business class fare . You just have to reach out to them. If you can’t find it on an airline website, you’re going to regret it. If you don’t believe me, go over to Tripadvisor and do some research read the forums and the air travel forum where people are panicking because they booked with the cheap airfare fairy and now they’re stuck. The airfare fairy will be giving your prices She can’t actually meet and then she’ll just keep hitting up for another hundred dollars until you paid more than you would have paid directly and of course, when the airline makes it change to your schedule, you get to deal with the cheap airfare fairy who has absolutely no customer service because the cheap airfare fairy is the airlines customer not you. or the cheap airfare ferry is selling miles, which is a violation of every frequent program out there, and And when the airline catches on you will be stuck. And that includes people who have flown to their destination only to discover the airline canceled the return flight because the cheap airfare fairy sld a mileage ticket that violated the terms and conditions. The fact that you didn’t know that’s what you were buying will not be considered an excuse.

If you look at the forum i linked below, you will see various airfares that are considered good deals in business class. Now I have to be honest this is not for the fainthearted. You need to understand airline codes and city codes. This is not where you go to ask about finding a deal - it’s where you want to see what kind of deals are coming up. And you won’t see many $900 international business class airfares on here.

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/premium-fare-deals-740/

I've purchased deals for $900-$1100 each way, on a RT ticket, direct from British Airways, stacking the AARP and BA Visa discounts. But $900 RT for business class- I've never seen that.
Thanks, Carol, for sharing your experience.

It's not truly round trip- it's MultiCity

We go over every other year and always book around our 330 day mark

We typically fly Delta Premium Select (which is amazing) for $1200-1400

This year- we got it for $900 in February for December - into Vienna and out of Munich.
(Delta & AirFrance)

Hi ChinaLake..
To be clear, this $900 business class on multicity is for BOTH legs of the multi city and NOT for each leg.. right??

YES -- $900 total per ticket (both ways) - but as others have said, it must be a unicorn.

Everyone deserves at least one unicorn in their lifetime!