It would appear we will be having a little trip to New Zealand at the end of January. Not being accustomed to jetting off on foreign travels, I was wondering when is the best time to get a good deal on plane tickets? Now, three months before, one month before or when?

The longer you leave it the more expensive it gets

Yep, January will be high season there – best value will be had by booking as far in advance as you can (seats are released 11 months in advance).

Sometimes airlines will launch tactical sales for off-peak travel which might provide lower prices than the lowest (standard) fares you could book when the seats first come on sale. So, for e.g., BA often have a seat sale in January and September. If you were planning to fly on BA to (say) the Caribbean in May/June, your best bet would be either picking up the cheap seats when they come on sale in the previous June/July, or hoping that there is capacity left for route you want and the airline offer some reductions in January.

In your case, travelling high season, you won’t gain anything by leaving it – shop around for the best fare you can find and book it right away if you can. Fares won’t differ much from one broker to another.

ASAP, my folks used trail finders who came up with a very good deal including internal flights for Oz which was cheaper than we could get locally at the time.

It’s hard to get NZ direct these days but there are a few, after that Regional UK>Dubai>Sydney>NZ seems to be good with Emirates, not haiving to go to London is a good thing.

Get it asap. I waited for a week and the price went up by £30. If I waited for another week it would go up even more! 😯

I am flying with Emirates from GeordieLand to M’sia capital. I am avoiding London Heathrow the dreadful place. My flight will stop at Dubai to change plane so giving me time to shop for some duty free tobacco.

Also I have called Emirates to confirm my flight path and they told me the flight path would not be through Ukraine but further south.

😐

Edit: Emirates are also cancelling all flights to Kiev for good … I think. Their announcement here.

Book sooner and search quickly – don’t dawdle and re-search as the ticketing systems interpret that as increased demand. Tickets are released in groups at a certain starting price. Airlines never reveal when exactly before departure that is so you never know when or if you’re getting the best deal.

Incredibly sick and wrong, but the likely reality is that tickets won’t be cheaper at any other time than in the next few days.

Never experienced the search=demand thing and tiers being released at certain dates.
Normally from my experience (book flights a lot)there are a number of seats at a price, when they sell the next block is up for sale and so on until the flight is full (I can book flights tomorrow for bargain prices and the plane will be empty or 3 months time for top dollar because the flight is nearly full). Use a comparison tool to check the overall prices then look direct.

Also make sure you get the best change times there are a few that do 2-3hrs in Dubai and some that do 7-9hrs, it’s mostly like an Essex shopping centre in Dubai airport.

mikewsmith – Member
Also make sure you get the best change times there are a few that do 2-3hrs in Dubai and some that do 7-9hrs, it’s mostly like an Essex shopping centre in Dubai airport.

Ya, it’s 2-3 hour stopping over at the Dubai Essex shopping centre for me … 😆

I once stopped for 10hrs … 😯

It’s a toss up though as the last time I ended up in Melbourne at 2am waiting for a 7am domestic connection. The airport is closed until 5am… It was the longest/crapest wait as I was by myself and had all my luggage back at that stage and nothing was open. I could have done 5 hrs in Dubai with lots of facilities and no luggage.

Air NZ are hands-down the best airline I’ve flown with.

Also (and this might be my imagination) I have always found it easier to deal with the UK/Australia jetlag when I arrive in Australia first thing in the morning – BA via singapore lands at 6 or 7am I think.

I’ve just got back to Aus from the UK – flew with Thai (pretty good btw), and the flight arrived at 8pm. The jetlag has been absolutely brutal this time 😥

So my advice is to pick a flight that lands early morning – I think getting off the plane to sunrise/morning sunshine helps your body adapt…. or summint.

Air NZ are top, best I have flown too especially the premium economy as an option. But if your doing the UK it will probably be Virgin/Ethiad – not done long haul on either but they handle the big stuff as codeshare. Also the land in the morning and stay up as long as you can is really good advice, was in time zone by the next morning last time.

Kayak has a “confidence rating” which makes a prediction about whether flights are likely to increase or decrease in price over the next 7 days. But imvho you might as well just book now and save yourself the grief of a hassle-filled gamble with poor odds.

I don’t think there is really a quiet season on the Europe-Antipodes route – there’s always something happening somewhere.

Not nearly as clear cut as most are saying, definitely not earlier = better. Can get pretty big day-day fluctuations too, just watch them for a while, buy at a price you’re happy and don’t look again!

and sort out your passport now, if it needs doing

Oh, yes – passport 😳

As an airline professional for over 20 years most spent in pricing, revenue management and sales then my general advice is if you snooze you lose. From a lay person’s view my vote goes for konabunny’s advice.