Timing of booking flights

Posted by nats4500 on 05/30/25 08:19 PM

Hello!
We are planning a long first trip to UK/Ireland from mid Sept to the end of October. 2 questions (for right now!)
1. Flying in and out of London ideally, from Seattle - BA. I'm wondering if it would be advisable to just book the outbound flight now and hold off until during the trip to book the return, in case over those 6 weeks there are hiccups that might delay us a bit in returning? It looks like it's a pretty flexible ticket, so maybe that doesn't matter.
2. Similarly, we'll likely fly from Liverpool to Belfast in early October, and from Dublin to Glasgow or Edinburgh a bit later. Should we wait to book those in case things come up? I see there are a few flights each day on those routes - just not sure how far in advance they might fill up?

Thanks so much!

Posted by ramblin' on 😎

Angleterre

05/30/25 08:44 PM

2913 posts

One-way tickets are more expensive than return tickets - what hiccups are you concerned about?

For the internal UK/Ireland flights, if you know your dates, buy the tickets now - prices will only increase.

Posted by Frank II

Freedonia

05/31/25 01:23 AM

19604 posts

I suggest you take a look at the price difference between round trip tickets and one way tickets. A one way ticket could, at times, cost more than a round trip on longer flights.

As an example, I chose two days Sep 16 and Oct 28 as your days of travel.

Booking today, you can get a round trip SEA-LHR-SEA for $704. If you booked two one way tickets on those days they would be SEA-LHR for $502 and LHR -SEA of $909 or a total of $1411. Basically double the round trip price.

As stated previously, you probably don't have to worry about them filling up but they get more expensive the closer you get to the day of travel.

If money is not a concern, then fly business class and do what you want.

Posted by Gail

Downingtown, USA

05/31/25 02:25 AM

2792 posts

I agree with the roundtrip tickets. No Need to back track and fly in and out of London. Book multi city ticket which allows you to fly Into one city and home from another. It is not more expensive. . we did a similar trip last September flying from NYC to Dublin then bus to Belfast and Easyjet to Edinburgh and train to London and home to NYC from London. We booked as soon as we decided on our dates as the longer you wait the more expensive they are.

Posted by nats4500 OP

05/31/25 06:48 AM

2 posts

As far as the internal UK/Ireland flights, I was just thinking of all the moving pieces of the 2-3 weeks after arriving and before we fly. Wondering if it’s worth keeping some flexibility in play in case unexpected things come up. Thanks.

Posted by acraven

Washington DC

05/31/25 09:16 AM

30654 posts

I keep my trips as flexible as possible, but flexibility comes at a price. I avoid mid-trip flights as much as possible, but when I need to take one, I book it well in advance (maybe 6 to 8 weeks ahead of time, and with that timing I am already paying quite a bit extra).

In the UK, late purchase of train tickets can triple or quadruple the fare you'd get by buying a train-specific Advance ticket early. I suggest playing around on scotrail.co.uk to see the sometimes-huge price differences between buying well in advance and buying tickets one day ahead or on the day of travel. That information will make it easier for you to evaluate the financial risk of waiting.

Posted by mbosteder

06/03/25 12:30 AM

141 posts

You may want to look at flights to Dublin. For some reason it is always cheaper then London. Then travel to London or Scotland from Ireland. Just make two tickets. One from Seattle to Dublin. Then another round trip to cities in Great Britain.