Big trip to England, in December

[Mcnock]

Greeting fellow travellers,
I have just started planning a family (3 adult fares) trip to the UK in December/ January, and would appreciate a few tips from the seasoned travellers.

When is the (approx.) best time to book flights ( we are planning on Sydney-London 8th or 9th Dec, returning 18 Jan) - now, couple months... I have an alert set up on Skyscanner to assist.

I have almost 200k QF points, and am tempted by the idea of an upgrade on the way over, but vastly confused on how this works with Qantas. Other airlines are not out of the question, within reason - ???.

Thanks in advance.

 

[RooFlyer]

Flying at that time of year I wouldn't count on any sales, so I would be looking to book sooner rather than later.

Do you have status with Qantas? What cabin class?

If you book a revenue fare (I'm assuming Y), and wish to apply for an upgrade, make sure you buy a class of fare that is upgradable - the cheapest aren't (I think). Then, having purchased the tickets, go to 'Manage my booking' on the Qantas web site and apply for an upgrade. If it comes through, you won't know until a day or so before the flight. If you don't have status, you will be near the end of the queue to get upgraded, although if you buy and apply soon, that helps your chances.

Unless you are wedded to Qantas, I'd definitely look at other airlines - Qatar, Finnair in OneWorld and even Lufthansa.

Finnair and Lufthansa don't fly into Australia, but often offer attractive 'combo' fares where they fly you to an Asian port (on QF or SQ for instance), then you fly to their hub (HEL or FRA) and then onto your destination. It sounds a bit complicated, but isn't, and the fares can be really attractive. A travel agent (not a Flight centre type) would be good to look at these for you; I think you can book them on line, but I've never tried.


Finnair do offer good specials during the year but again, Christmas probably isn't a time they offer.

 

[clazman]

Rooflyer is spot on.... the sooner the better

 

[alieninperth]

As others have said prices really kick up at that time of year. If you can go in early Dec you should be able to avoid the worst of the price hikes, although you will pay more in accommodation when you're there over Christmas.

For ease of travel I would avoid London, dependant on your final destination of course, Birmingham, Manchester and Newcastle offer decent alternatives in England if you are staying outside the South East.

In saying that I've just looked on Google flights and I saw these flights https://www.google.com/flights/?cur...GTW,LHR,BHX,MAN,NCL;d=2017-12-10;r=2018-01-04