cheap flights- when is best to book?
 

have pulled numerous sites for cheap flights within Europe from this forum. All good information. However, I have a query. I am looking for flights for 4 people flying from london to sicily at the end of sept 07. The flights I have found are reasonable but not cheap (was hoping for better). Am I better off to book now to secure seats.OR. Should I give it another month or so and hope for a better offer price wise. Do they get cheaper closer to the departure date or are they most likly going to be as good as it gets without risking last min flights. Prob a silly question but just thought I would put it out there not having done this before(ie booking our own holiday).ta

It's completely random. Sometimes it can be very expensive coming up to the date and sometimes cheap. If one carrier has a sale then another may have one too.

For September, if the flights are expensive, I'd tend to hold off - as its not peak holiday time anyway.

There are great deals I've noticed on Sky Europe at the moment. I'm just going to book a few flights now.

My recommendation would be - strike while the iron is hot.

If you were intento on using a budget carrier such as Ryanair to somewhere like Palermo my advice would always be to book ASAP since fares always rise as the fly date gets closer.

However, for non-budget airlines I agree with Lydio's advice.

Hi Debs - Are you looking for one-way or return flights? Are your dates flexible?

Ryanair has one-way flights Stansted-Palermo for £25 (£1.79 plus tax) on some dates in late September.

You won't get cheaper than that. With Ryanair - if it suites, don't delay, book today ...

Steve

Yes, book ASAP on the budget airlines. We couldn't and didn't last December, and paid 120£ each for STN-PMO. Ryanair is the only airline for London - Palermo non-stop, so there's no alternative for us.

There are more options for Catania.

Thanks Steve, which site were you looking at to get those prices? I was going to fly into Catania but may have compromise for better fairs. debs

Their website is:

ryanair.com

Hope this helps ...

Steve

Hi H,

Also look at www.whichbudget.com

((I))

hi Steve and Ira, Steve thanks for the info, Ryan Air came through with fares for one pound (plus tax) to palermo. So it looks like Palermo is the go. Thanks also to Ira. I have looked at which budget after pulling it from one of your previous threads. Thanks for the help. debs

<<< Ryan Air came through with fares for one pound (plus tax) to palermo >>>

plus PSC plus insurance & wheelchair levy plus baggage charge plus internet checkin/priority boarding plus CC fee per person per flight...

No need to pay insurance, though, and you particularly shouldn't if you are from the US, because the insurance doesn't apply to US residents (or people of most nationalities). I would expect that with all those fees, the costs come to about 35 pounds per person (from the original 1), but that's still a good deal for a very significant distance. (I haven't checked the Ryanair site - just guesstimating on the final cost.)

yeah, I did know about the fees but it is still very cheap. thanks