Business class book time?

[old grump]

Just signed on for a Aug 2010 Prague-Budapest river cruise. Looking for advise on Bus class booking time. As far out as possible or with almost a year til time, should I wait for specials with the risk of a sudden increase in T/A flight demand? Looked at Kayak last night and flights 330 days out are expensive at least from my limited view.

[chipmaster]

Just signed on for a Aug 2010 Prague-Budapest river cruise. Looking for advise on Bus class booking time. As far out as possible or with almost a year til time, should I wait for specials with the risk of a sudden increase in T/A flight demand? Looked at Kayak last night and flights 330 days out are expensive at least from my limited view.

 

You should go look at farecompare to see what the historical trend as airfare to a larger extend follow seasonal patterns, but like past performance are no prediction of future. Expensive is a relative statement. If you ask the airlines they'd say tickets are incredible cheap as airlines are still losing billions at the moment.

 

When it comes to planning vacations that involve airfare I always take into account the airfare at the decision point. Hopefully you already are ready to pay for the current air fare as nobody can predict between economy, airline longterm capacity plans whether tickets will be in short supply ( means higher prices ) or excess ( means lower price ).

[fbgd]

The more discounted fare classes are rarely loaded into the reservation systems 330 days out. I buy business class fares on a pretty regular basis and find that as long as you book more than 42 days out you can avoid getting stung.

 

The prices don't move around on a near hourly basis like economy class fares do because there are less fare buckets for business tickets. Wait too late and you could easily pay $8000+ per person across the pond.

[old grump]

Thanks fbgd,since the cruise is still over 11 months out, I suspect the airfares are in the " this is what I want to get range" now. I will talk to my TA but the question will be; do we go with cruise air( Tauck) or lurk in the weeds and try to time a better deal!:)

[Gardyloo]

Actually, it's not uncommon for business class fares to Europe to be lower for mid-summer than at other times of the year, due to the fact that ...business travel... is at a lower level. For instance I can see various airlines with "I" business class fares from Memphis or other nearby airports to places like Munich for right around $3000 for early August 2010 (or a couple hundred more for Budapest.) "I" fares are discount business class fares that have change and cancellation penalties similar to advance purchase coach fares. The mega-bucks business class fares often are more liberal with change fees etc. (as they ought to be for that price.)

 

It's hard to know if business-class travel will pick up in the new year; if the economy starts recovering those fares might not reappear. If that price range is acceptable to you then you might consider getting ticketed now and focus on other things for the next 11 months.

[Keith1010]

I would narrow the search down to the airlines and flights you are most interested in and just make it a point to check them often. You will get a sense for the fares and know when you see the one you like.

 

Keith