What’s the best price I’m likely to get this August? Better to book now or wait a bit longer?

According to skyscanner your cheapest August flights are just under £800 return. I doubt they will be getting cheaper, as planes are filling up and it’s peak season.

Also look at flights to Oakland or San Jose, as they are only a $30 uber fare from downtown.

Cheapest with a stop if you don’t mind the extra time. Best to book now if you want to travel on fixed dates.

Return flights can be had for around €530 from Dublin. Ryanair flights to Dublin from UK are usually around £30.

Plus you can pre-clear US border control in Dublin airport. Next time I fly to US I’ll be going that way with a short hop to Dublin from Bristol.

Get the app called Hopper. It tries to identify the best time to book. I suspect in this case it will just tell you to get on with it.

Return flights can be had for around €530 from Dublin. Ryanair flights to Dublin from UK are usually around £30

If you are doing that make sure you have excellent travel insurance or a long gap in travel or overnight in Dublin. Any issues with Ryan air flight and your San Francisco flight will not be waiting for you and you will be paying for the next one.

Definitely better to book now. Most of the cheaper fares have a 30-day or 21-day advance purchase limit. Once you are in to 21 days, prices will go up and stay high. Also cheapest fares include Saturday night stay. Sale fares for July-August went on sale in June to fill up seats.

Google flights (google.co.uk/flights) should have correct fares and is great for searching options. You can put in up to 5 airports at a time, to and from, so for the north: MAN, BHX, EDI, GLA to SFO, SJC, OAK, when you click on the calendar it will show you ‘best’ deals it can find on any day. You can also filter by time of day, duration, airlines, etc. There are £500 fares from Birmingham via Dublin (so including pre-clearance which is ace) at the end of the month, but within 21 days you are looking at ~£1000.