Booking business class in advance - return flight advice please

[BigRichard]

Guys it seems most carriers only out up there schedules 12 months in advance so booking a return on the same day is not possible.

Im planning on either a 60 day or hopefully (75 day trip if the 45 day stays the same) starting around the 15th of Jan 2024.  

So my question is if I book now for say 4 months time I can get a price on a round trip . If I book for mid Jan when they come available 12 months up front how do I know I’m going to get the same return trip with the same carrier or I’m not going to get ripped off ?

Or is it best to wait for the 75 days to pass to get the same date ?

 

ta

[davidge]

3 minutes ago, BigRichard said:

Guys it seems most carriers only out up there schedules 12 months in advance so booking a return on the same day is not possible.

Im planning on either a 60 day or hopefully (75 day trip if the 45 day stays the same) starting around the 15th of Jan 2024.  

So my question is if I book now for say 4 months time I can get a price on a round trip . If I book for mid Jan when they come available 12 months up front how do I know I’m going to get the same return trip with the same carrier or I’m not going to get ripped off ?

Or is it best to wait for the 75 days to pass to get the same date ?

 

ta

You’ll have to wait until the return flight shows on the airline website if you want to be sure of the fare.

[Kandinski]

7 minutes ago, BigRichard said:

Guys it seems most carriers only out up there schedules 12 months in advance so booking a return on the same day is not possible.

Im planning on either a 60 day or hopefully (75 day trip if the 45 day stays the same) starting around the 15th of Jan 2024.  

So my question is if I book now for say 4 months time I can get a price on a round trip . If I book for mid Jan when they come available 12 months up front how do I know I’m going to get the same return trip with the same carrier or I’m not going to get ripped off ?

Or is it best to wait for the 75 days to pass to get the same date ?

 

ta

I'm in that situation now. Booked back in Feb 2021 for Nov to Feb but it was impossible to change until beyond the 1 year limit. Luckily Air France cancelled a flight which allowed my to choose return late March for free. Had a look at my current change options and appears as I more or less have to buy a new ticket if further change.

Assume you plan is to buy cheapest possible and will highly recommend you read all the fine print that comes with the cheapest fare

[BigRichard]

1 hour ago, Kandinski said:

I'm in that situation now. Booked back in Feb 2021 for Nov to Feb but it was impossible to change until beyond the 1 year limit. Luckily Air France cancelled a flight which allowed my to choose return late March for free. Had a look at my current change options and appears as I more or less have to buy a new ticket if further change.

Assume you plan is to buy cheapest possible and will highly recommend you read all the fine print that comes with the cheapest fare

Yes within reason, I want to travel BC . Budgeting around £2500 

[davidge]

21 minutes ago, BigRichard said:

Yes within reason, I want to travel BC . Budgeting around £2500 

It’s too far off to be certain, but £2500 should certainly be doable. I flew direct with Eva this trip and will next trip and it’s around £2900. Indirect should be cheaper, though Emirates and Qatar are still asking high fares at the moment. Some of the European legacy carriers are usually cheaper.

15 January is just about outside of peak season so shouldn’t be silly prices. I just checked and Good Friday is 29 March in 2024 so the first 2 weeks in April could well see higher fares, and flights out of Thailand are often more expensive around Songkran.

 

[Kandinski]

20 minutes ago, BigRichard said:

Yes within reason, I want to travel BC . Budgeting around £2500 

My advise is you book T/R to fit you dates in on go and within the 1 year limit all carrier operates within. If you have flexible dates just keep calm and you should be fine

[Judge Dredd]

I’m guessing you are from UK. It’s always worth looking at Business class flight prices out of Amsterdam and Oslo. Flights are usually 30-40% cheaper than flying out of the UK

[BigRichard]

35 minutes ago, Judge Dredd said:

I’m guessing you are from UK. It’s always worth looking at Business class flight prices out of Amsterdam and Oslo. Flights are usually 30-40% cheaper than flying out of the UK

Planning to go from Vienna about £2200 return ( return leg is via Taipei though ,plus the Hop from the UK . Apparently EVA’S 787-9 business class is something else . 

[Chrisrs]

8 hours ago, BigRichard said:

Planning to go from Vienna about £2200 return ( return leg is via Taipei though ,plus the Hop from the UK . Apparently EVA’S 787-9 business class is something else . 

Swiss good and priced competitively, Eva ok but currently expensive, I also had a great deal with gulf about 3 years ago and it was the best of the 3 airlines.

I’m going out from Birmingham in March 23 with Turkish, 3 hour layover in Istanbul and apparently the lounge there is awesome so that’s fine. Paid £2400 with was the most competitive with decent flight times when I booked it a month ago. Interestingly Bhx saved roughly £400 on a Lhr flight so worth looking at regional airports. For me I’m 40 minutes from Birmingham and 2 hours from Heathrow so a win win.

all direct flights from Heathrow were in the region of £4k when I was looking.

 

good luck hunting for what you want

[Greg_B]

Flights are loaded 300 days in advance not 365 days

[Kandinski]

6 minutes ago, Greg_B said:

Flights are loaded 300 days in advance not 365 days

It varies from carrier to carrier when flights are load;  validity of ticket is max. 365 days

[jaynewcastle]

Surely you can't book a return flight for the dates you want to travel, until the date of the return flight actually becomes available, roughly 11 months in advance ?

 

(I am assuming business-class flights are the same as economy (which is all I can afford)

Edited December 19, 2022 by jaynewcastle

[Billy Baht]

If you have enough frequent flyer miles, that can be a great arbitrage if your schedule is flexible. I've seen some Japan Airlines business class one way tickets, bookable with 60k American Airlines miles. DFW to NRT. But often the award space is only available with in a few weeks of departure date.