European travel - return January 2017? Best air fares/tips?

[Adamski]

Hi AFFers,

New member here! Hoping you can help.

My girlfriend and I are planning a European Winter at the end of next year and looking to find some good deals that aren't going to set us back a small fortune.

Our original plan was to fly Sydney--->Amsterdam, departing 30 Nov and then fly out of London on 2 Jan back to Sydney on 4 Jan. Also happy to consider flights leaving Europe on 29 December and returning to Syd on NYE 2016 if there is a significant cheaper fare we can get.

We had been looking at Cathay Pacific's promo which expires on 31 Dec for bookings made before 30 Nov 2016. Issue is the Cathay promo doesn't yet cover the return flights for Jan 2017 as it is too far out and then it starts to get expensive ($2500+ for return) with fare hikes and rebooking fees with no deal benefit at all - similar-ish to a cost you would find in Feb/March for example.

Would love to hear any suggestions of any other deals we could take advantage of, or any tips of upcoming deals in January we should be aware of. Is there a 'best' time to book for this period of travel?

Thanks in advance!

 

[OATEK]

It can be difficult to book specials this far out, I have found there are good deals between 9 and 6 months out on CX and AY, and subscribe to their email. We used AY this year and CX next, and in both cases booked about 9 months out when the early bird deals for the period we wanted were released.