Travel Question of the Day: Simon Calder on how far in advance to pay for a trip

Have a travel question that needs answering? Ask our expert Simon Calder

New Zealand: November is a great time to visit

Q I am planning a big trip for the whole of November taking in the Gulf, South East Asia and Australasia. I am going through a well-known travel agent. They want me to pay for the whole trip immediately, and say that fares will go up if I hesitate. Are they telling the truth?

Name withheld

A For anything beyond a simple there-and-back trip, it’s a good decision to consult a real, live travel agent to whom you can talk face-to-face or by phone. While the cost might be slightly higher than doing everything yourself online with the airline, a good agent can add all manner of expertise. That could range from advising on airlines’ differing baggage limits to recommending ways to expand a trip - such as a “surface” sector between Bangkok and Singapore, allowing you to explore southern Thailand and Malaysia without any increase in fare. They may also have access to special fares that are not available direct from airlines. Humans are also, in my experience, more responsive than online travel agents, whose location may be a mystery and whose customer service may be dismal.

November is an excellent to fly off to warmer locations, especially New Zealand and the southern part of Australia, where it is early summer. Having said that, your agent’s implication that you must pay now to guarantee the best deal looks questionable, to say the least. November is the lowest of seasons, and with so much capacity available the airlines will be struggling to fill their planes right up to the day of departure.

Buy now, and you’ll be tying up cash needlessly early. And you will also be in a pickle if you need to cancel for reasons that are not insurable, such as a change in family or work circumstances. I hear all too many cases where people have committed unnecessarily early to a trip; something unexpected happens, they cancel the trip and end up losing hundreds or thousands of pounds.

Were I in your fortunate position of taking November off to travel, I would be looking to book no earlier than late August - which is also a popular time for airline seat sales.

Every day, our travel correspondent Simon Calder tackles readers’ questions. Just email yours to: s@hols.tv or tweet @simoncalder