Buying tickets to England

Jessica,

I normally book the air tickets first and then book the lodgings once those are confirmed. Unfortunately, I don't believe that ticket prices for June 2009 will be posted until close to the end of this year. That way if my arrival and departure days have to be "adjusted", I don't have to go through the trouble of changing reservation dates.

Cheers!

We're going to England in May 2009 and I bought our tickets on Virgin Atlantic last month. This will be our third time going to England and I've always bought the airline tickets as soon as I've gotten a good price (before booking, I'll track ticket prices for a few months to see which months are better to buy in). Generally, the further out you buy your tickets the better price you can get. However, with oil prices the way they've been, you might take a look at ticket prices now and then again in a month. Keep in mind, too, that June is a high travel month, so ticket prices might be a bit higher.

I know you are flying from the states, but this is just a suggestion. If you would like to tour anywhere else in Europe, they have a cheap airline ryanair.com that travles throughout Europe. I live in Germany with the military and just booked my flight to London for FREE, only had to pay taxes which were 80 dollars for two people. Just a little hint if you decide to go other places while you are here. I booked my hotel in Victoria, London. Surtees hotel is the name. I have kept in constant contact with the consierge, Maria. She is extremely helpful and offered lots of information and the hotel is pretty reasonable. Hope you have a good time planning.

I usually fly in and out of SFO. I've paid anywhere between $450-1,200 for tickets depending on the time of year etc.

I'd say if you find anything hovering around $800 don't hesitate to book it. Occasionally you will find seasonal sales but I've never been gusty enough to wait that long. This last trip I could have saved £20 if I waited a week but the peace of mind was worth of having a ticket booked in the middle of this fuel crisis was worth it.

I already bought my round trip ticket this week for my trip from Denver to London in December(off season)for $842 (including tax and fuel charges). I used www.flycheapabroad.com. It was the cheapest time to go, otherwise its around $1,100 all the other times. June is in season and will be expensive no matter who you buy them through. I wouldnt dream of booking a hotel or any other tickets before having my airfare purchased, because you may be locked into a certain date and everything can get messed up. Lets say you book hotel, railpasses, etc for June 10th through the 20th. Lets say then that you can only get the airfare you want june 5th. Or 30th. It can cause a chain reaction of messes!

We will start shopping for tickets in September for our trip in September next year. I always start w/British Air since it is non-stop from here..Seattle. Thursdays are cheaper for flying out and we usually fly back on a Mon or Tue. Saves hundreds of dollars. FOI what do you consider to be "harder to get places"?

p.s. The only thing I've booked before airline tickets is the car rental. You need to grab them when you can because they get more and more expensive as the season goes on. Most of the rental agencies will happily change your dates keeping with the same price and some will adjust if it goes down. This was an expensive lesson for us our last trip.