Booking air fares

krappyrubsnif

Very much general chat.

I could do with some good advice on booking a long haul flight. I'm arranging a trip to South Africa in August. It seems like decades since I booked a flight to anywhere except Europe or the USA and things are always changing. Do any world travellers here have tips on the best way to go about this currently?

My fellow traveller is pretty much convinced that we should go down to the nearest travel agent or click on the SAA web site and book the cheapest flights we can find right away, on the grounds that air fares will only get more expensive or the planes will get full. Then it's done. Also, if we don't get a flight soon, the accommodation we want will get booked out. I reckon it could be worth waiting a bit. Do air fare prices drop?

I am sure we could spend time hunting for a better deal, but would we be wasting our time at this stage - is it too early? How late can we leave it? I have no idea what are currently the best search engines and web sites to check for flight deals and get advice. What would you do? Anyone have a particular recommendation and when's the best time to shell out?

There is no way, incidentally, that we are going to wait until the last minute and hope for a cut price deal a week before departure. No way. Absolutely no way no matter how cheap. For the sake of my sanity if nothing else, I reckon this has to be booked in about the next couple of weeks.

WillM

try trip advisor and opodo as a starting point.

krappyrubsnif

Trip Advisor - check. Will do Opodo, ta.

Tallboy

As a bench mark, I've flown twice to Cape Town in the past couple of years. First time was with Emirates, via Dubai which cost £500. Last year flew with KLM via Amsterdam and that was about £600.

BA currently have a sale on, direct to Cape Town is about £700. Other airlines normally have sales around this time of year so check their sites. And sign up to travelzoo.co.uk - they will alert to any special deals.

miss annie

Have a look at skyscanners for flights. I usually use ebookers or trailfinders too, at least one of them will have a sale on right now. Flights don't really go down until really near departure dates, I'd say hang on 'til Spring when more seats might be available. Not all airlines release seats so far in advance. Good luck.

tosscat

Personally I find places like opodo to be comparatively expensive. A sale price of £700 doesn't look cheap to me. I always have a quick trawl around sites like Cheap Flights to get a feel for what the bucket shops are doing, then give them a try. Don't bother trying to second guess the airlines' pricing algorithms, it'll end in tears, just blitz the web for a couple of hours then book the cheapest.

procax

Big fan of kayak.co.uk Seems to search all the other sites in one go.

andy

I agree with tosscat. I'll add www.netflights.com to the mix, but the others are good.

I don't think long-haul really gets cheaper the closer you get to departure any more. The 'bucket shop' thing doesn't really happen.

Netflights is giving me prices to JNB starting at c.£600. Seems about right.

Colette

If you're flying in August, it's going to be expensive whenever you book I'm afraid. If you're flying to Cape Town you could consider getting a direct flight to Johannesburg and then an internal flight to Cape Town. Flights to Joburg are usually a fair bit cheaper, and internal flights can be pretty good value as there are a number of airlines. You can try Kulula, 1Time and Mango.

Alex

Another vote for Kayak, which is very user-friendly and comprehensive. A meta-guide to the various cheap flight sites and approaches is [here](http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/cheap-flights#scrapers).

Ali

Try http://uk.fly.com/ Is it not Winter in SA during August ? You could gi skiing !