Best time to buy airfares for Istanbul - Jun 2019

[Angers3]

Looking for some advice. We as a family of 5 (4 x adult fares and 1 x child fare) are looking to travel to Istanbul around the 20th Jun 2019. Looking to return back flying out of Rome around 25th Jul via Doha or Dubai (two day stop over in either city) back to Sydney.

I am keeping an eye on pricing now but it is hovering around $1800-$1900 mark per person through reputable agents (e.g. Expedia/AMEX etc) rather than some of the dodgy operators that come up on Skyscanner/IWantThatFlight that are $200 pax below the above.

Obviously the carriers would be either Emirates or Qatar depending on which city for the stop over. The early bird specials are out but is this the best time to buy? I understand that specials also come out in Jan time frame depending on the carrier.

I also understand that the longer you leave it seats disappear. Do Emirates or Qatar have further specials? I know we are travelling peaking season and school holiday time but do you think I can get better pricing?

Any advise from seasoned travellers would be appreciated.

 

[Forg]

I’m just parroting a frequent-flying friend; but he reckons about 6 months out is generally the sweet-spot ... according to his theory, more seats will be released between now & then, and specials should theoretically pop-up.

Imhave nearly zero experience applying his theory, but it did work for me travelling to the UK in June this year.

 

[RooFlyer]

Welcome to AFF, Angers3.

Can't help with your exact query, sorry, but tips for getting cheap fares are:

For airlines like QR and EK, sometimes prices out of Asian ports (say Indonesia) are very cheap. If you don't mind going to the trouble of finding a second cheap fare up to there and connecting then that's a possibility.

QR do sometimes have good sales. @Pushka may be able to help us further.

Don't just price the trip out of Sydney. QR for instance flies out of Adelaide and being a less competitive route, might be worth looking at but again, you'd have to find a cheap flights to/from there and Sydney.

 

[Angers3]

I’m just parroting a frequent-flying friend; but he reckons about 6 months out is generally the sweet-spot ... according to his theory, more seats will be released between now & then, and specials should theoretically pop-up.

Imhave nearly zero experience applying his theory, but it did work for me travelling to the UK in June this year.

Thanks may be good advice.

 

[Angers3]

Welcome to AFF, Angers3.

Can't help with your exact query, sorry, but tips for getting cheap fares are:

For airlines like QR and EK, sometimes prices out of Asian ports (say Indonesia) are very cheap. If you don't mind going to the trouble of finding a second cheap fare up to there and connecting then that's a possibility.

QR do sometimes have good sales. @Pushka may be able to help us further.

Don't just price the trip out of Sydney. QR for instance flies out of Adelaide and being a less competitive route, might be worth looking at but again, you'd have to find a cheap flights to/from there and Sydney.

Thanks, but too much of a headache looking to fly out of another city. Since there are 5 of us it would probably cost more to get there let alone the extra time needed.

 

[HockeyMonkey]

I regularly book directly with Qantas and then make a price match claim against a cheapie website. This way you get Qantas service at the cheaper price.

It needs to have an ABN and the cheaper price screenshot needs to be within 24 hours of booking with Qantas and not before.

 

[Mattg]

I would book now as the early-bird sales are currently on. You'll be travelling at a peak time, so the airfares will not get much lower than they already are now.

Looking to return back flying out of Rome around 25th Jul via Doha or Dubai (two day stop over in either city) back to Sydney.

This is one of the busiest times of the year (if not THE busiest) for travel from Europe (especially Italy) to Australia. All of the flights will be full and prices will be high. If you're not happy with the price you're seeing now, change your travel dates.

 

[Boca68]

I agree with MattG's thoughts. The timing will make it expensive. And I doubt it will get any cheaper.

Perhaps if you could return out of Istanbul , might reduce the cost rather than Rome. Actually Rome might work better if you could fly out from MIlan.

 

[Angers3]

Thanks for the responses. I guess the fares will keep going up from here.