Best time to book to US for December

[perthgirl1]

Hi - we want to travel to US in Dec, returning in Jan. The travel agent said we should book (and pay!) as soon as flights are released to lock in the lowest price. Do you agree? I know it is peak season......

Also, would you use FF points internally in US on AA (we are with Qantas) or book a flight with a low cost airline such as Southwest if available and not too expensive? Seems like there are alot of choices in the US. Thanks

 

[trippin_the_rift]

I would book when you are comfortable with the price and not worry about any potential sales that may or may not appear.

Anything under 1500 rt (economy) , 4000(premium) and 7000(biz) from east coast is reasonable.... Kayak may be able to provide with more insight.

As for using QF points there are many options with advantages/disadvantages. I generally book separate tickets on American but that may not work for you.... You should d'o some searhung on the forum to get some more ideas as there are many many options

 

[perthgirl1]

Regretably fares are currently around $2300 pp rtn. Are they likely to go down or up?

 

[dfcatch]

Regretably fares are currently around $2300 pp rtn. Are they likely to go down or up?

I would wait, as long as you are prepared to fly no later than 1st week December then fares from east coast Australia to west coast USA should be cheaper than that. Around $1500 per person or less should be about right.

Departure dates in November through beginning of December are usually the cheapest part of the year.

Will of course be more expensive if flying from west coast Australia or to east coast USA.

 

[trooper]

Agreed.... I'd expect better fares than currently quoted.. but only if you are flying early Dec....

As to the domestic flights... I suspect better value is available in buying the flights rather than redeeming miles.... and I wouldn't necessarily expect Southwest to be cheaper than AA etc... (that has been my experience lately anyway... YMMV!)

Well worth checking ALL of them.

 

[perthgirl1]

Thanks everyone. We can leave as early as midnight on Wed 7th Dec (school finishes on the 7th and our daughter has to go to her presentation night) so I hope that is still the cheaper time.

We are actually going Perth/New York/Orlando/Washington DC (but from Daytona if we can) Las Vegas/LA/Perth (leaving LA around 8th or 9th of Jan) I was going to book Perth - NY and then LA to Perth if not much more than Perth - LA return and then either book seats or us FF for the internal flights. If we can get seats for around $1500 then it will be possible for me to pay for tickets. If they stay around $2300 I am going to be scrabbling!

I don't really have time to check Qantas every day- any idea when the seats might come down? I have a travel agent looking as well but she is the one who said to lock in now!

 

[cove]

You may want to do the SYD-DFW direct going over if that is cheaper and then home LAX-SYD or MEL.
Going direct to Dallas gets you very close to your starting point of New York.
The Perth start does add a bit as does getting from LAX or DFW to New York so 2300 is not as high as I first thought.
That said you should be sub $2k to consider it a bargain.

 

[dfcatch]

Yeah that changes the picture. I would seriously consider the new DFW flights and price them ex-Perth.

Jump on AA.com and have a quick look how much extra if you book flights ex-Dallas direct.

Qantas quite often charge a premium to east coast cities as part of the itinerary when booking the exact same flight via AA can be significantly cheaper.

Bear in mind that connecting on separate bookings does expose you to risks of misconnection, so make sure you understand the pros and cons.

 

[Meggsy]

We did a very similar trip last year leaving on the 1st of December and returning on the 6th January. As a comparison my wife, kids and I flew Las Vegas-Phoenix-DallasFW-Orlando-New York(LGA via Miami)-San Francisco all in Y on AA using QFF points. From memory it was about 80,000 points each and had to be done via the assisted award booking method. A friend who travelled with us on the same flights booked and paid for these through AA as a multi leg flight and it cost him about $600 AU all up so I think if you can afford the cash it is a cheaper option. We also got flights with Hawaiian airlines to Las Vegas from Gold Coast via Sydney / Honolulu for $1400 return. These became available in about April/May for travel over the christmas period. Good luck with it all but it does take some time searching or a good TA to find some of these fares.

 

[mhubert]

Remember that all the airlines set prices based on the greatest yield for them. Last year we saw all the fares drop hugely as each tried to get market share. They will hold the prices as high as they can for as long as they can. UA & Delta will always be cheaper than QF & VA as they have much bigger networks & can afford to run low yields as a marketing exercise offering through travel to Yanks.

So as someone else said here - decide what price point you like then book it.

Forget about whether it "might go down" as it might not if our economy is good, etc - there's too many factors you have no control over. (And watch QF's site where it gives you prices through the year - a trend down gives you an idea what the market will be like).

 

[nicki5]

we are just back from a similar trip - we left NZ on 27 December 2010 and flew to LA - but blizzards in New York prevented us getting our connecting flight. We ended up wasting 3 days in LA, hanging around the airport before finally flying to a very snowy New York. Then a day later we were off to Orlando. I wish we'd booked the whole trip for just Orlando, it was fantastic, and a more reliable destination in winter than New York! (over 6000 flights to NY were cancelled while we were waiting in LA).
Don't miss Discovery Cove, it was the highlight of our stay in Orlando.

 

[Cocitus23]

A thought occurs to me. Aren't Perth and New York 12 time zones apart? In which case it does not matter much which way around the globe you travel. Why not go one way and come back the other, i.e. go around the world? And if you are doing this, why not do it on a One World Round-The-World (RTW) ticket, the value of which has been spoken of many times on this site?
And it would give you the chance to really enrich your itinerary at no extra cost, should you so wish.

Cocitus23