advice re:prices and waiting to book

[bryan_sq]

Hi All first post ever here, happy to be here

im actually after some advice re booking and prices and waiting or not waiting... First some background, im lookint at going from Melbourne to Tokyo with SQ on october 31st or so and then for my return flight im going to saunter down to Singapore by land via Korea and China and then I want my return flight to go Singapore Melbourne on around the 20th of December or so... wow long background but anyway....
Ive been getting quotes form travel agents and checking the SQ website and the best price is from the website of around $1763, my question is according to your guys and girls knowledge/experiences will this get cheaper ? or am I best to book it now because it might get more expensive? im confused ive never flown with SQ before or on a 747 or A380 so im kida excited to fly with them so any advice would be muchly appreciated

Thanks and i look forward to chatting with you people in the near future

cheers

Bryan

[SQ238]

I am more than happy to be proven wrong, but in my experience doing multi leg bookings the prices don't change much even when specials are on, in other words the price is the price.

If you play around with dates you may get a price which is $100 better in early November as in the past flights out of Australia have been cheaper around that time of year, with a return close to Christmas you may struggle on a cheaper price though.

The price will drop if fuel surcharges are reduced, at this point in time SQ are very, very slow in reducing those surcharges. The prices from Australia are nothing short of a joke at present with the current price of fuel. If you wait a few months I don't think the price should increase, don't leave it too late though as flights in/out of Australia around Christmas are always sold out fairly early.

Good luck.

SQ238.

[N_Architect]

Bryan,

First of all, welcome to SQTalk.

Although a number of people in this forum travel more extensively than me and can certainly give more solid advice (and provide the rational reasoning behind it as well), from personal experience I have to say that the price is the price, as SQ238 just said.

Leaving aside the recent generous reduction in fares (for certain routes) which is due to a number of specific reasons and also taking into account SQ's latest offers (free upgrade, KF anniversary promos, etc.), you will notice in the long run that the price SQ web quotes for you will not change considerably, currency fluctuations and fuel price changes aside, of course.

[Kyo]

I would wait one more month or at least a few more weeks and hope that the rumours surrounding the expected drop in fuel surcharges would actually take place.

It may be soon as next week, but fingers crossed, of course.

After they drop, and I would wait, with that much time to go til October 31st - then I'd go for it. I wanted to hold out for my Easter trip but it was cutting it too close, especially because I needed to clear the waiting list for two upgrade redemptions.

I don't think you have anything to lose and I don't think overall the price will drop too far either. Pocket change, at best enough for a nice dinner for two.

[jjpb3]

I agree with Kyo that it's worth waiting for a couple of weeks to see if the fuel surcharge drops. But I don't agree as much about waiting until October to book. The return leg SIN-Oz on 20 December may become problematic, because the kangaroo route for the week preceding Christmas tends to book up very early in the year. OP might have to shorten his travels if he waits too long to book.

[leo]

welcome bryan sq!

My TA has also indicated to me to hold on to my travel plans from May onwards in view of an anticipated reduction in fuel surcharges by SQ.

I book my flights (more into Europe though) a little over 2 weeks in advance and have been able to secure (via my TA which has allotments on SQ) fares in the E and M buckets successfully on all occasions. However, that's Europe with many options. I don't know much about your destinations though..

Cheers!