[mossum]

Hi guys

Just wondering if we should book flights now ( NEVER thought i'd say that ) .
If I book online with singapore air do I choose the fully flexi option or shall I wait a while - My buyers hope to exchange 11/8 & complete 18/8 . I don't want to risk tickets being sold out :uhoh

LOL - to think I was moaning about nothing happening only a few weks ago !!!

What did you do ? anyone with any pearls of wisdom ?

thanks

vic x

[marcia]

Vic - you have a buyer!!!

Wow have I missed a post somewhere didn't hear that bit of news!!

Congratulations! :clap

[Cardy]

Hello Marcia dont want to be a killjoy and i hope everything goes to plan for you . But our house sale fell through right at the last moment and we had packed in our jobs and bought the flights it was a nightmare ,left us in a very bad position. We had some hard decisions to make very quickly to try and save everything we had worked for ,i would just be a bit careful. Eventually we just came to nz without selling and prayed we would get a buyer before we ran out of cash and luckily someone was listening as we completed with a new buyer about 10 weeks later. Good luck Cardy

[willsken]

Vic

I think it is always a chance if you book your flights before things complete but if it makes you feel any better we are about to book ours and our house isn't even going on the market until next week! :D Ever the optimist!

[mossum]

I am (touch wood ) reasonably confidant :o

My buyers have lost their intended house- seller pulled out & they will actually be homeless in 2 weeks .

We have told them we are moving to MIL's so they are not tempted to do the dirty on us & have also told them I need to give 3 months notice at work & we are going to move early only to accommodate them as they have 2 small children . They want to keep my beloved cat - hooray !

we are not in a position where any family can actually accommodate us so timings are crucial - as we dont want to throw money away on hotel accommodation if we can help it .

And to think I thought this would be the easy bit :p

vic x

[Debbie]

Mossum
May be worth seeing how much more you would have to pay for your flights through an agent like Trailfinders. I think we will book through them only because the tickets we want work out £100 more in total (4 of us) but because we don't have to pay them for the tickets until 4weeks before we go we can change dates no trouble. I explained to the lady there what we were doing and she was able to offer us 'special terms' where we could delay final payment on the tickets until the 18th Aug (for 2sept flight) and therefore change dates up to that point.
This may have been some specail deal they were able to do on our flight but it's worth looking into.
Debbie

[katandbob]

just an extra bit of info for all you UK folks planning for airfares....If you need to do an internal flight, ANZ are actually cheaper to a rural airport (trying to sort getting our boys from Christchurch to Invercargill) any way, in my search, I actually found that booking through ebookers, if I changed the kids flights through them it would cost me £1568 plus taxes, and I paid £1,066 inc taxes. so thats £502 extra......I know I had booked these ages ago so the price was cheaper then - but I just did it now and it still works out at £90 for the internal leg of the journey, that works out at $270ish...I can get it for $141.

But ANZ has some good fares at the minute, their prices were (for the 5th sept) £479 LHR to CHCH and LHR to INV was £477!!!

any way theres my little bit of info

Good luck on the house exchange....Mossum

Kat

[Lupin]

I booked my flights through expedia and had to change the dates. It cost me nothing, despite the fact that had I bought tickets for the dates I ended up from the start with it would have been more expensive! I didn't complain :)

I second Kat, ime, ANZ internal flights are cheaper through them then anywhere else I could find them.

[Miggy]

We waited until we'd exchanged contracts on the house (last Friday) before booking anything. I suppose its personal preference but we couldn't take the risk. We also have no family who can accommodate us here when we move out of our house on the 21st July and we thought we'd be in hotels - sleeping rough (LOL) fortunately my aunt goes away on the 23rd for 2 weeks so we’ve offered to house sit :-) We've got a great deal through Austravel - flying Singapore Airlines in August with a 3 night stop over in Singapore (4 Star hotel) £2800 for 2 adults and 1 child - and thats a return which you can change the return date up to 3 times without charge.

[spudulike]

We were in the same position as you so I called singapore airlines, they said you can change dates at no extra cost. The only point they did make is if the your flight changed into what would naturally be a more expensive time to fly you would need to pay the ammended price. Call them and check anyway - I found they were really helpful.

Louise

[Jameelka]

We booked our flights a week past Friday.The date we wanted had gone up nearly £400 for the 4 of us,so had to book for 2 days after that!
If we change or canx we will loose £30pp,which we can live with,but as we are flying out kids hols it's busy!
Booked with Air New Zealand with 3 days at LAX, as kids are missing out on the hol we have had to canx to Orlando,which we were due to go with my brother in Oct.
Still this is their BIG adventure now,just fingers crossed we get a visa!!!!
:raebanana

[diforsyth]

We booked our flights 6 months in advance to take adantage of an Airmiles booking. The flights are flexible but limited by seat availability which actually makes them fixed. The 6 months was to allow plently of time to sell the house and then to give my employer 3 months notice afterwards to make sure there was money to pay the mortgage. It didn't work out that way though and I was forced to hand in my notice before the sale. Our fallback was we would both travel to NZ and find a house. My wife would then return to complete the house sale and hand in her notice (her wage would just cover the mortgage). Fortunately the house has since been sold and she will not have to make an extra trip.

A bit long winded, I know, but what I'm trying to get across is that even if you buy non flexible tickets you can plan ways around things just in case luck is not on your side.

[mossum]

hi all ,

well think we are going to book once we have exchanged , its cutting it fine but i have booked with only 36 hours notice before & got seats ok .

It would be especially good if we cant sit together as DH is an awful flyer :laugh

vic x