VA: When to book PER-SYD/BNE-LAX-SFO

[kingsley]

Hi all,

New member here and also Velocity FF

I am planning a trip to San Francisco from Perth in late Jun 2016. Should I book the flights now or wait? Does the fare increase over time?

Thanks in advance.

K

 

[Winston1]

Book whenever you can see availability in the class you want. Airlines do devalue their award charts over time. VA has a pretty good cancellation policy so very little reason not to book early..
just don't expect to find business class seats...

edit. Sorry. Thought for some reason you were going to book with points.
if paying cash, I'd just look out for a good fare. When you see one book it. But unlike points, you can't just cancel cheap cash fares and get your money back.

 

[kingsley]

Thanks, Winston1. Yes I am paying for the trip. What do you think would be a good business class fare? Sorry I don't usually travel but it would likely to increase in the near future due to job requirement.

 

[Winston1]

The general rule of thumb is prices begin to rise as departure date approaches.
Recently, I've seen tickets to the US for a little over 1k which I think is great value. If you're sure of the travel dates, I'd be taking advantage of these sales. If not it may be worth holding off till you do.
to be honest, I wouldn't know about the prices of business fares..

 

[Collie]

Try skyscanner.net which looks across the airlines. Virgin have their Weekly Happy Hour sale on every thursday at 4pm-11pm (Sydney time) whicih is always worth keeping an eye on.

You could acquire bonus points with Credit cards, buy economy and try to use the points to upgrade to business. Amex had a great prom to the end of Sept which gave you 110k bonus points. It's finished now but I think you still get 50k/80k. NAB have a promo which gives you 60k bonus points

 

[Winston1]

Virgin business awards are VERY scarce at the moment. Not sure how that would affect chances of getting points upgrade?