Flights to Europe

[nathani]

I'm looking to book flights to Europe (preferably the UK). Around April 1st and then back home July 1st. Does anyone have any advice on where to look.

Most importantly I want to know WHEN to book. Travel agents have told me to book immediately. I don't know though. I've had excellent luck booking last minute flights to Mexico. And I've found that flights generally keep decreasing in price as the date gets closer. Is it true with flights to europe as well, just certain carriers?

Thanks for any help in advance.

[nathani]

Oh yeah, and I can fly either from Calgary, Vancouver or Seattle if need be. But I wouldn't have any family to park my car with in Seattle so the saving would have to be more to justify that.

[Reba]

Generally speaking, you should book a flight no less than 2 weeks in advance. If you book it less than 2 weeks, the price starts to go up again for some reason.

There may be last minute stuff available with travel agencies that "specialise" in last minute, but I dunno, I always try to book directly thru the airlines themselves. Fares are usually cheaper that way, as you're not paying the travel agency's fee.

[SW1392]

If you are flying from Toronto Air Transat has a charter flight once a week (Tuesday?) to Exeter in South West England. It is one of the lowest cost flights to the UK I have found.

From Exeter you can catch the train to anywhere in the UK (and on from London to Europe).

[Steven]

It depends on the airline, if you use someone like Air Transat or Zoom, then the flight price keeps going down IF they still have empty seats on the flight because they want it to be fully booked, but Air Transat and Zoom rarely have empty seats at any vaguely popular time of the year. I'd say avoid public holidays like Easter and Canada Day. At popular times the prices keep going up because they know they will sell them all.

If you use a big carrier like Air Canada or British Airways, they usually sell blocks of seats to travel agents, so if you use someone like Thompson's or some of the big travel websites you can get a lower fare than booking it direct on popular routes. What happens then is any unsold seats get kicked back to the airline a couple of weeks before the flight goes and those tickets will be dirt cheap. After that you get hit with higher prices because there are only a few seats left and those are usually bought by business travellers who get short notice of the need to fly somewhere.

So I'd say aim to buy the ticket about three weeks prior (unless you know for certain it's likely to be a full flight), unless your travel agent gives you an okay price.

[Steven]

If you are flying from Toronto Air Transat has a charter flight once a week (Tuesday?) to Exeter in South West England. It is one of the lowest cost flights to the UK I have found.

From Exeter you can catch the train to anywhere in the UK (and on from London to Europe).

It actually carries onto Birmingham from Exeter, I've been on it a couple of times. Birmingham is a hub for flights to the rest of Europe.

[riverfox]

I'm currently flying Air transat from Vancouver to London Gatwick in March. It's the cheapest flight I've been able to find thus far.

[williamgeorge]

Flying with Air canada can be hit and miss because they are the main airline in Canada many Canadians complain about their service, and I've had both good and bad experiences with them. They are however starting to modernize more of their aircraft with tv screens in seat-backs and other such amenities. The new Air Canada Jazz airline is a good alternative with flight costs as low or even lower than West Jet.
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williamgeorge
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