Travel question of the day: Simon Calder on the best time to book flights

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(Simon Calder)

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Q When is the best time to book flights for the most reasonable price? As a family of four we are looking to book flights to Boston for July 2017 (I like to plan ahead!). Our local airport is Newcastle but I suspect we'll probably go via one of the London airports. How far in advance can we book? And is it better to wait rather than book as soon as flights become available?

Joanne Reid

A First, is there any chance I can persuade you to delay your trip a little, and specifically to travel around 21 August 2017? The biggest tourist event of all time is happening in the US: a total solar eclipse that will sweep across America from Oregon to South Carolina. If you could adjust your plans to be somewhere along the Line of Totality, I can guarantee an experience of a lifetime.

Next, if you simply want to get from Newcastle to Boston, I must say I would strongly suggest you choose another way of getting there that doesn't include flying via London. I happen to have flown Heathrow-Boston last July, but paid plenty for the privilege, because I happen to live in London and had specific timing issues.

Were I travelling from Newcastle with a bit of flexibility, I would be looking at transiting Iceland, which means a flight from Edinburgh on Wow Air or from Glasgow on Icelandair. I reckon that if you buy when the flights go on sale, which is likely to be 11 to 11.5 months ahead, you could pay around £500-£600 each for adults, and £75 less for under-16s (who pay no Air Passenger Duty). That is likely to be several hundred pounds cheaper than the alternatives.

While it's a no-frills experience on either airline, the actual time in the air on a Edinburgh-Reykjavik-Boston trip is less than a Newcastle-Heathrow-Boston flight. And you also get time to stretch your legs at Keflavik airport in Iceland, which is a perfectly pleasant place to be. If you are able, you can also build in a stopover outbound (and benefit from a reduced Air Passenger Duty obligation) with time to explore Reykjavik.

The other option that could prove competitively priced is Aer Lingus from Newcastle via Dublin; again, if you build in an outbound stopover you can save on APD. And if the Irish airline is continuing is new service to Hartford, Connecticut next summer, that might prove a low-cost gateway to New England.