I just realized that I may be difficult to make plans with, especially when it comes to booking travel because I’m starting to realize that there’s absolutely no rhyme or reason to my life. For example, I’m supposed to be *moving* in 9 days, and I still don’t even have a plan, and half the time I don’t even know if or when I’ll be working until the day before.
I’m told that my life is pretty nutty, but that keeps things exciting, I guess. But the real question is – what’s “normal” anyway? I mean, we all have to be a bit quirky ourselves if we’re involved in the crazy world of points and miles, right?
All of this prompts me to bring a discussion to the table:
Exactly how far out in advance do you plan your trips?
I know I’m certainly not “normal” in this case, but for me, I usually find myself revolving my travel planning around the latest deals, mistake fares, and impulsive redemptions. I usually find myself planning and booking my trips in the 1 day – one-month-in-advance range.
My dad on the other hand, is a very structured and careful planner, and usually likes to plan vacations down to the nitty-gritty 6-months to a year out. Don’t ask how we can possibly be related…
Where do you stand? Feel free to share your planning “style” in the comments below.
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Let’s connect: 
For anything that involves stepping on a plane, I’m planning 6-12 months out.
I enjoy reading about destinations, especially historical sites, prior to the trip. So I plan trips to Europe more than one year before flying there. Even with research, your exploration of a property or a neighborhood is still filled with plenty of fun surprises.
Personal travel, 1 month minimum. Work travel, less than 24 hours notice is not unheard of. Have to plan personal travel ahead of time to get the time off of work.
Award travel, I try to plan/book the first few days they open up booking ( 330 days out most instances)
There was a time that I started planning a trip a month or two after we returned home from vacation. Once I became adept at using my miles, I would start the planning at 9 – 10 months out.
These days, with mistake fares, I plan on the fly. For example, we booked JFK/TLV on the $337 R/T fare, but planned it 6 months out, while most folks took that trip already. ;)
Currently, I’m planning a trip to SEA and CHS for spring/summer. I’m not wasting my UA or AA miles. I’m using the Southwest Companion Pass.
For a weekend trip, I can depart the next day on a whim! Did this for a few mileage runs, and surprised my co-workers by bringing by larger back-pack to work. Being in Boston, when I said I was going to Portland for the weekend, they thought Portland, ME. Nope, I was doing a mileage run to Portland and staying for two nights!
For a longer international trip, I’ll probably plan 1-3 months before.
I will ‘plan’ a trip 1-4 months out. That said I won’t book a trip until inside 7 days – as this is when the best award seats are typically available in the premium cabin.
This past summer I actually booked JFK-HKG in F(via FRA and BKK) at noon for a 9pm same day departure.
I got in the habit of planning early when I joined a ski club and I had to sign up in August to be sure I got on the Jan/Feb trip of my choice. I’ve found I like having something to look forward to. Thanks to tools like Yapta I can now monitor air prices months in advance to ensure I get a pretty good deal when I don’t want to burn miles. I’m currently planning for a 2015 trip by building up my miles & points balances so I’ll have what I need for a dream vacation.
We do one “big” trip a year. We plan it 6-12 months in advance. We are a family of four and our kids are little.
I also have a spreadsheet where I keep a list of trip ideas and I have loosely slotted a few based on the ages of my kids and what they will be able to do as they get bigger.
In that same spreadsheet I have a few short hop (Avios) long weekend type ideas that aren’t slotted at all.
…so says the girl who booked her flight to Oktoberfest in December… :)
I typically plan my trips at least a month in advance. But if I’m feeling random, I’m down to hit the road on a whim. One of the craziest trips I’ve ever booked was after waking up one sunny spring morning and deciding at breakfast that I wanted to go to Thailand. I was sifting around for a same-day reward flight for fun, and low and behold, I was packing my bags an hour later for a same-day flight out of the country. The close-in fee sucked, but the pure spontaneous nature behind the trip more than made up for it.
As soon as I get back from one trip, I’m thinking about my next. Sometimes even sooner. I have tentative outlines for vacations in April (two different award tickets booked at the moment) and November of next year and even one for the World Cup in Brazil, with calendar reminders 330 days out to look for award flights. That said, I’ll hop on a plane tomorrow to who knows where if I get the whim (and have the time off). Bottom line: I love to travel, especially internationally and to new places.
Usually 3-6 months for me, so I can be sure to get decent hotel rates, decent seats on the plane, etc. If it’s a mileage award trip, sometimes even further. For example I’m going to China next November for a wedding celebration, and I’ve already booked F on Cathay with miles for my wife and myself. That’s sort of a necessity as there are only 2 award seats per flight in the front cabin on Cathay’s US to Asia flights.
Our lifestyle is like yours… we are 100% travel and rarely know more than about a week in advance where we’re going to be or when a block of time will open up. What is your favorite site(s) to find great last minute deals? We often find out on Friday the next week’s engagement has been pushed back so we want to go somewhere interesting. I’m always looking for ways to find great fares.
Planning? Not with our lifestyle. We generally don’t know more than a few days in advance… lucky if we have the 3 week window.