We are planning to buy round trip tickets from China to Montreal to
visit home during the Christmas season.

Generally, what is the latest date we could book and still avoid the
jump in rates due to the Christmas travel high season?

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Refer me to at least one really good discount airline ticket web site
for a nice  tip.

Some airlines progressively reduce their discounts consistent with
their level of bookings.

Therefore, the sooner the book, the better.

Do it now!

I would definately book before October 22!!! That date seems to be a
*milestone* of some sort, so go ahead and purchase your tickets before
then.

Steph53

Wait as second.

I need to understand better the relationship between the price and the
date that you book the ticket and the date you choose for departure.

Are you people saying that the date on which you book the flight is
more important than the date you choose as the departure date?

Someone help me untangle this gordian knot.

Hi, Augusta

My understanding is that prices are all flight specific and they are
adjusted consistent with booking load.

So, whatever flight from China to Montreal is currently near empty you
should get a better price than when it becomes near full.

I discovered this to my cost on one occasion where I enquired about a
price one week (from London to Brussels) but failed to book. Then when
I did book the following week, I had to dig deeper.

Now, as Christmas is a busy period anyway, the sooner you book the better!

Of course, there are many better places to go to than Montreal in
Winter ... Please remember to pack a snowplough, a sleigh and a team
of huskies.

Have you thought of Baghdad? It should be altogether hotter there.

Wherever you go, have a great trip at a great price!

All the Best

Bryan

This is helpful.

But isn't also true that... as the date of departure nears and the
airline is concerned about unsold seats on the flight, there is a good
chance that they will lower the price in order to reduce the number of
empty seats in the plane when it takes off?

Obviously this is not the case during peak seasons or on high traffic
routes, but if you have a reasonable expectation that there will be
empty seats, doesn't it make sense that the later you book the higher
the chance of reduced prices?

They all play tricks to try to jack up their revenues.

For example, I know one airline executive who consistently over-booked
- when he could - (most of them do it to cover no-shows) then he
watched the queues at the check-in.

If the queue looked too long, he used to try to persuade the customers
at the end of the queue to use another airline.

If the queue looked too short, he would go to the queues for other
airlines and try to steal some business.

The name of the game is to fill as many seats as possible for the best
possible price but as a customer you have no way of knowing the score
at any time ... unless you have a pal at the airline.

The budget customers are most at risk - nobody wants to lose its
premium class customers with a flexible ticket - so if you are looking
for a budget deal the trick is to book early and don't be late at
checkin.

Or better still, travel first class and - who knows? - you may get a
seat next to nnnnn where nnnnn = a famous somebody.

On second thoughts, there won't be any famous somebodies flying into
Montreal at Christmas.

All the Best!

probonopublico-ga:

Hey, some of my best friends happen to call Montreal home! So no more
raggin' on Montreal! :)

augusta-ga:

It is possible, using the "view rules" capability on many of the
online travel sites such as Expedia.ca, to determine when the
Christmas peak season begins. Just by selecting a travel date mid-week
in the first two weeks of December, you will usually be quoted a fare
that is based on whichever promotional rate is in effect before the
high season starts.

By viewing the rules on a sample trip from Shanghai to Montreal, I see
that December 15th is the end of the shoulder season, and that the
shoulder season rate is blacked out from Dec. 16th through Dec. 23rd.
Last ticketing date is Dec. 3rd, 2004. This is for Northwest Airlines;
the returned options for other airlines were all at significantly
higher rates, meaning either that all of their cheap seats have
already been sold, or that their high seasons start quite early. Your
best bet is to play around like this on the online travel sites,
restricting your search to your preferred airlines and adjusting the
dates to see if there is any impact on the price, then view the rules
and restrictions on any particular fare to see what the actual
blackout period and ticketing requirements may be.

Hope this comment helps you,

aht-ga
Google Answers Researcher

Okay. Thanks. I'll try it.

I found a definition of 'shoulder season' here:

http://airtravel.about.com/library/glossary/blshoulderseason.htm

This looks like a good site to continue my education on the air travel industry.

As a travel agent, let me clear up a few questions

There are generally three factors that will effect the price of a
ticket. Advance Purchase, Minimium Stay, and Availability.

A) Advance Purchase.  Some fares require you to purchase your ticket
7, 14 or sometimes 21 days in advance.  Less and less airlines are
using this policy, but this still exists in a lot of international
fare rules.  This really is not an issue in your case.... more on this
in Availability.

B) Minimium Stay.  Most International fares require either a min stay
of a Sat. Night, or seven days.  As you are travelling from China to
Montreal I am going to assume that you are not coming home for
Christmas for two days.  So, not really an issue for you in this case.

C) Availability.  This is your biggest issue.  While an aircraft may
have 200 economy class seats on a flight, not everyone pays the same
price.  Most airlines work on a "Yield Management" pricing scheme. 
What this means is that within in the econo cabin, their may be up to
12 or 15 different "Fare Basis".  What happens is that the airline
will allocate a certain number of seats to each fair basis.  This
allows them to advertise a really low price, but may only allocate a
dozen or so seats to this fare.  Other rules such as min stay and
advance purchase can effect this also.  Generally, the earlier you
book the fare, the better price you will get.

Generally, depending on the airline and the destination, high season
will start between the 10th and 15th of December.

In regards to your question re: the sell off of seats closer to
departure, do not plan on this. this is something that occurs strictly
on chartered aircraft.  This is something that you would expect to see
on an airline such as Air Transat.  They operate flights for tour
operators who will be paying for those seats whether or not someone is
sitting in them.  Scheduled air carries i.e. Air Canada, due to their
Yield Management pricing will only get more expensive as the
individual flight gets closer to selling out.  Consider it a sort of
supply and demand model.

My advise to you is to visit a traditional brick and mortar travel
agency as they often have privately contracted fares that can not be
found online... this generally only holds true for international
flights.

Hope this helps!

Also, try using alternate airports.  Try looking into flights into
Toronto rather than Montreal.  There are many more flights into
Toronto.  You can then use WestJet, Jetsgo, Air Canada or even Via
Rail to get from Toronto to Montreal.  You could even rent a car...
although I wouldn't want to drive the 401 in the winter after a long
haul flight from China!