To book or not to book!

I know this is a question without a sure fire answer - but the opinions of others would be appreciated!

I am planning to spend Christmas/New Year 2009 in and around Boston.

I can book now through VH and would pay around 390 per person econ to fly out on Christmas day and back 3rd Jan 2010.

However, In the current VS Sale I could book a ticket in econ for around 300 per person for this christmas.

So, the age old question, book through VH now, and know it is sorted or wait and hope to get a similar VS flight offer when the seats are released. The other thing of course is that VH is rarely a bargain for upgrades if I wanted to do PE...

What does everyone think?!

[Nottingham Nick]

I stand to be corrected on this, but in the past most, if not all VS sales always seems to exclude reductions for travel around Christmas - especially departures before Christmas Eve. In fact bargain trips that can be completed within normal school holidays are quite rare.

There are often some sale fares to be had for outbound travel on or after 26th December, but if you are tied to dates - that seems a good price to me, but a lot can change before Christmas '09.

Nick

[honey lamb]

Nick is correct. In the current VS fare sale to the US the exclusion dates are 9 December - 25th December with the exception of MCO when the latter date is extended to 31st December.

Interestingly the UC fare sale for the US is between 16th December and 5th January. Obviously business travel is down between those dates

[mitchja]

Individual hotel prices are usually always sky-high for New Year as well.

I'd say book the VH package now. You can always pay VS for upgrades on the day of travel at the airport for VH bookings. I've done that in the past, although I often travel at New year and flights are always chocker coming home the first few days in Jan.

Regards

Good plan! Will bite the bullet and get booking. Will wait until I get back from Antigua to see if I want to do PE!?

Originally posted by honey lamb
Interestingly the UC fare sale for the US is between 16th December and 5th January. Obviously business travel is down between those dates

This is VERY common - we have never (well since 2000 ish) had a problem getting cheap Business Class tickets over the Christmas period... (generally to LA, but to quite a gfe wother destinations too). At least on the 'Business' routes (not so sure about the 'Bucket & Spade' routes), there is a lot less traffic over Christmas.

Boo