Booking flights and hotels

Hi
You may find that May 2015 is still a bit too far in advance for most hotels. Try emailing them.

Thank you for the information. That's very helpful.

I usually start booking five or so months out, unless there is a particular property I want to book.

"Here’s why you shouldn’t buy a US-to-Europe flight more than two months in advance" You can read the article that Dick recommends but I would hate to base my ticket purchase on this data.

We start looking 330 days before we travel to Europe. We look creatively on ITS software for airports within a certain range of where we'd like to end up in Europe. This year we booked tickets on September 21, 2013 for our upcoming July-August 2014 trip for $895 pp including all taxes and fees. I see that on Kayak's model of 53 days out, the tickets to our destination did spike lower to about $1250 per ticket and now they are up around $2000 per ticket. If you are serious about finding better airfares, look very early, creatively and look often.

Yes, as the others are saying, wait to book. But that doesn't mean you can't do the research and planning for the trip in the meantime.

lb

Although it's not true with frequent flier mileage awards, nearly anything else that looks like it's "sold out" 11 months ahead is just not yet available. Smaller, family-run hotels might use an even shorter timeframe, to help reduce cancellations.

Very helpful suggestions. Thanks to all!