Booking trips far in advance

Well……. I do. The trip I have that is currently the farthest out is Japan , April 2025.

No, you are not alone. Our May trip to Norway, all booked already. We booked our hotels in June. We purchased the flights in early October, but our travel companions booked 2 months before us.
We’re planning a late September trip to walk the last part of the Camino (already booked) then Portugal for 2 weeks. Checking hotels and flights now.
I’m trying to convince my husband to go back in early December to Paris then some Christmas markets ending in Switzerland. I’m researching train connections, hotels, flights now. He keeps saying it’s way too early, but is it?
I need to carefully reread Pam’s thread on organizing your planning. lol.

This past July I found a great business class rate to Amsterdam, for April, 2024, and we booked our air tickets. I like to have choices in hotels, which are usually small, so nine months out is our normal. I have found that lodging rates go up the closer you get to your dates, and choices are more limited.
The year we went to the Xmas markets, I found some hotels already fully booked by June, especially for weekend dates.
Happy planning!

The answer for me is "yes", but the drift toward somewhat earlier booking began before the pandemic when I observed I had to make unfortunate trade-offs between lodging cost and convenience of location. I'm not picky about my lodgings (don't care about character, etc., just the basics), but I don't like wasting money. An extra $20 or $40 per night becomes huge when the trip is over 120 days long.

I'm still stubbornly waiting to book a lot of my hotels in a lot of cities until I'm within 3 days to 2 weeks of arrival. It depends on whether it's a high-traffic destination. Unfortunately for me, sometimes it turns out a presumed-secondary destination has something special going on, and my relaxed planning strategy is painfully costly. The nearly 200 euros per night I paid in Tartu, Finland, still stings.

It's when I'm traveling with someone else for part of a trip that I have to really get moving early. Most people aren't comfortable buying airline tickets without knowing where they'll be sleeping each night.

I find I'm generally booking 3 to (no more than) six months in advance for flights, which is about the same as pre-COVID. For hotels, I generally book them at the same time, but occasionally leave it later if its a big city with plenty of options. So overall not much change.

I book 11 months out using points. As we take 2 month trips, I book one-way then a couple of months later book the return as a one-way. Has worked well for years. I’ve been doing this for most trips since 2018.

When I discovered the hotels in Rome I was interested in for May 2024 had few rooms left, I booked in August 2023 — 9 months ahead. In October a friend decided to join us on our trip. She was able to get a room at our hotel, but the rate is now €70 more per night (for the exact same room type)! Our friend looked for other hotels and all of them were much more expensive than when I was looking. So I suspect in Rome at least hotels are continuing to raise prices to see what the market will bear.
I also purchased (fully refundable) plane tickets in August, because we had decided to splurge on Polaris class for the red eye flight to Rome (with economy return). I was able to cancel and rebook the same flight a month later when the price per ticket dropped by $450. I’ve continued to watch the flight (along with other flights a day or 2 before and after) and for the past month the tickets are $2000 more than what we paid. I would be surprised if they don’t drop back down between now and May….but—yikes—what a jump in price.
So, yes, I too am booking further in advance.

Yes. I booked my flights and hotels last month for my trips in May and August, 2024. I was already seeing diminishing inventory for some of my hotels.

I have done this for several years but am feeling more last minute for 2024. That being said, I have Norway in March booked and several pieces of May/June and of August booked - just no airfare yet. I think I am feeling later and slower simply because I usually book airfare way early and haven’t been satisfied yet with what I am finding.

I would but I can't. What if the market takes a nose dive and inflatiinbgoes wild, or a war where I'm going, or COVID2, or the budget doesn't pass the House and my government check doesn't come, or the '73 Ford Ranger peekup needs a new water pump, or ... And who knows if I will even be "at liberty" in 12 months? I do good to buy 90 days out. Still, with a bit of creativity I get where I want to go on the cheap. The ticket for next week I bought 6 weeks ago, and as of two days ago the price has gone down, not up. Way down, crazy down.

In 2020, I had to cancel a trip I had already booked for late Dec 2020.

And then you book a trip far in advance - next August - and you get a wedding invitation right in the middle of trip. And of course you have to go, because the wedding is in Istanbul!!

Thank heavens for flexible flights and hotels!

Sitting here enjoying my last night in London. Paid airfare and booked accommodations for this trip 6 months ago.

Once home I'll contemplate the next trip, track prices through the winter and book at a good price point in the spring for next autumn.

For an Alps motorcycle trip I plan on doing in September 2026 I know I will have to pre-book my Munich hotel at least a year or so out since the ride is during Oktoberfest.

Two weeks ago I finished booking my flights and lodging for part of the Camino de Santiago (Portugal/Spain) I will be doing at the end of May 2024. Still too early to book my train routes.

I generally book as far in advance as possible. Generally Airfare is cheaper either in money or miles . Availability of best accommodation is vastly better.
I currently have booked airfare and accommodations for Slovenia may 29 to June 12,booked 6 months ago
Copenhagen in July 8 to July 20, booked 4 months ago.
And just last week, Ireland September 13 to September 24.
I plan to escape the 2024 election season, leaving around October 25, and returning around November 10. I'm considering Algarve or Seville.
I had a trip in october 2023 to Italy so will need to make sure that I'm under the 90 days/180 day rule but Ireland is "free" in the sense that it is not part of Schengen.

Yes and no. Some things I like to lock down earlier than others, but the nature of traveling also forces some patience to fully firm up plans. Flights remain a wait and see item for me starting 9 months out just to get an idea of options, BUT reward miles make that a different process due to the "cost" being different currency and subject to different rules. Hotels in cities are less worrisome for availability, and some also may offer free cancellations, so can lock in, but keep looking for better options up until the cancel date. Planning sites and visits is sometimes riskiest as many may not have a 12 month window - and may be super short (like Anne Frank house), so I regularly have to plan out making sure I don't miss those windows.

The interesting stuff from below is the airplane bit where too far out (non-points) and they KNOW you are "desperate" or rigid in your options so can keep the fares high until more folks are competing for tickets and using cost as a big determinant.

From a recent WSJ article:

Bide your time

Knowing when to book your ticket is key to scoring a deal. Booking summer travel now may not be ideal.
“Airlines know that travelers booking that far in advance are either anxious or not flexible,” Berg says. She expects prices for spring and summer international flights to drop in the months ahead.
She suggests booking in January for spring trips and March for summer trips. Don’t wait too long, though—people who purchase summer flights to Europe in May likely will have to pay more, Berg says.
If travelers are agnostic about where they visit, open-ended searches for flights on sites such as Kayak or Google could turn up bargains. Otherwise, travelers should set up price alerts to track where prices are headed.
Knowing when to visit, and which places to avoid, also helps.

I have one example. About 5 months ago I set up google to track a round trip to Europe at the end of December. The price was about $930. About 2 months ago it started going up. Conventional wisdom said buy it quickly. I didn't, don't need it but decided to keep tracking it. It peaked about a six weeks ago at $1413. Now it's $780.

Google also lists alternative flights and those options have bounced all over the place too.

Google keeps a graph on the price change. Pretty amazing to see.

I have two requirements--a good airfare price and a room that works for me. The airfare is straight-forward - I see a price I like and I will put together a trip, I have done this as much as 8 or 9 months out as there are often price drops that last for nano-seconds. And this allows me to get the room requirements I need--mid level price (not extravagant, and I am not too proud to use Ibis), I must have en suite (I am not going down the hallway 4 times a night), and bed must be at least American queen in width, (5 feet or over 150 cm), or 2 singles. The room stuff is non-negotiable for me and my partner (was my ex-wife, we could not sleep in less than a queen over many years, but my new girl friend loves to travel in my light style, and we need a queen too, although we have found that WE can manage on a double if need be). The lodging also needs to be convenient to what we are doing and to access our connection points. Booking far out lets us get what we need. Yes, got burned on two trips booked in 2019 for 2020, but was able to get refunds or extensions on my prepayments and lost almost nothing when redoing the trips in 2022 (other than said wife and her airfare, traveled with daughter-in-law).

YES!! Looking at availability of Hotels and events for September 2024 for Ireland/Scotland and already seeing sold out for previous two months, so thinking I need to jump on it now. I was looking to do a Mediterranean Cruise Summer 2024 and the class of room we wanted is sold out on the dates/Ship/ports we wanted making the next class of room very expensive so moving that to fall of 2025, booking that cruise now with black Friday deals for availability only. Crazy, who knows what can happen between now and then...but I will buy insurance and hope for the best.

Sold, or showing not available (yet)?

Only for airline mile flights. Otherwise I'll eat a couple hundred bucks for the privilege of more planning flexibility.

Nope sold out or most of the dates greyed out with availability on other dates so looking like available to book.

Yes, i tend to book trips far in advance, usually the flight first, as soon as my dates are open. (11 months out). I started watching for the fare for a few months and ready to buy when i see the right price. This strategy has saved me a lot. I was able to get 3 RT fares from Seattle to Dublin for Aug 2024 for $658 each on Icelandair economy standard. (This is not their saver fare btw).
Then i booked all my lodging. No advanced payment required.
Not all bnbs in Ireland open their booking system this far in advance. I'm still waiting for one more accomodation to open their reservation.

Laughing a bit because in my mind anything a year or under is not “far out.” I guess it is all a matter of perspective.

I'm rather wary of all the cute little maxims about when best to purchase airfare, but I'm also wary of purchasing airfare as soon as it's available.

I believe we all tend to answer questions like this from our own perspective, but for airline tickets there are several factors at play:

• Are you looking for business class?
• Are you trying to fly from an airport with limited carrier options?
• Do you want to use frequent-flyer miles? (Double whammy if for business-class seats)

Maybe also:

• Does your outbound US airport have just one departure that's acceptable to you?
• Do you insist on flying a particular airline/alliance even though you have additional options?

We do real mix as far as how far out we book. For Iceland we try to book a year in advance since that is necessary to get the best options and things go really fast there.

I just booked tickets to Norway for late August and a few hotels, but even with that I am feeling like I am behind the 8 ball because the rest of it is not nailed down.

Our Amsterdam trip in February though, I am taking a very lazy approach. I will book the Van Gogh museum today, but otherwise nothing else will be planned.

I am planning a Vienna Christmas Market trip for Dec. 2024. I will book that as soon as I can, using miles.

My husband has an adventure expedition this summer, and they put the link up this morning for the deposit, so now I will work on his flights/hotels for the start/end of the trip.

For me, the answer is yes and no. My choice to book early (9+ months out) depends on a few factors:
1) time of year
2) events happening at my chosen location that may impact travel
3) deals/sales
I usually book my summer tickets to Europe in Dec/Jan (this year especially with the Olympics in France-factors #1 & 2) but with my Spring or Fall trips, I wait until a couple months out to plan/purchase any details. The exception being my Spring 2024 tickets as I found a great deal using miles for rt tickets to France that I had to buy (see factor #3.) I also just secured hotel for September 2024 in Munich (Oktoberfest.) But I haven't done any bookings for our Spring trip to Loire Valley (I'll probably do these in Jan/Feb) as we are flexible on dates and areas to stay plus March isn't typically too busy of a season there.