When and how of winter/spring cheap flights?

A snowHead

Finally plucking up courage to arrange (hopefully several) DIY trips; maybe. Haven't booked a flight only for very many a year, so any pointers for when (and where) to start looking would be most appreciated.
Don't know who to look at: presume EasyJet, Ryan, Monarch, Thompson, BA... Others? Do you have to visit sites individually or is there a site-scraper which covers every one?
Will be looking for flights out of Manchester (preferably), or perhaps Leeds or E. Mids or Birmingham, to get to Austria or Italy, maybe also Norway/Sweden, any time when I can get a reasonably snow-sure trip, any resort but preferentially near glacial areas (obv in A or I) if early or late season. Does not need to be in school holidays, do not want to go over Xmas or New Year.
How early/late could I go for, say, Hintertux (or others)? How late for Scandanavia?
Are there any airlines which are better or worse when it comes to taking skis/boards and reasonable amount of gear? (used to TO's standard ski carriage + normal 20kg old bags + cabin rucksac)
And, allied to this, do I need to get Sat-Sat flights, or Sun to Sun or what? Do specific areas have specific change-over days, can I get accommodation (cheap B&B or SC for 2) only for set restricted days/periods or otherwise...?
Is it best to book flights as soon as they come out, or is there often late/last-minute availability at reasonable prices coupled with some accommodation at reasonable prices?

Cheers for any advice.

A snowHead

https://www.skyscanner.net/ is pretty useful.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

'Budget' airlines (not always cheapest!) usually get more expensive as the seats sell, so cheaper sooner.

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We use lufthansa (Inc ski carriage and drinks on-board) from Manchester to Munich then private transfer to Austria.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

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"And, allied to this, do I need to get Sat-Sat flights, or Sun to Sun or what? Do specific areas have specific change-over days, can I get accommodation (cheap B&B or SC for 2) only for set restricted days/periods or otherwise...?
Is it best to book flights as soon as they come out, or is there often late/last-minute availability at reasonable prices coupled with some accommodation at reasonable prices? "

If the accom is in or very close to ski resort, may well be sat to sat only

However if you move a few km from the ski resort, accom can be had on nightly basis. Use google maps or booking.com to find.
its not a bad idea to get accom in a satellite town at lower altitude , because you have less chance of snow related road chaos
You then need to get to the nearest lift every day, so accom somewhere within 15 mins drive ideal

"Farefinder" on Ryanair can be good for finding cheap flights

Avoid mid term and also local holidays festival periods , if you want reasonably priced accom
Jan usually cheapest month

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

I've booked (last week) flights to Turin from Manchester for late next January, with Jet 2; £109 pp return, no luggage booked yet. Good flight times and, having flown with Jet 2 several times in the past couple of years, had no problems.

After all it is free

@koru, scandi resorts often change over on a Sunday, at least the Skistar ones do. You did say... Laughing

We've used Jet2 twice this year. Once from Manchester (package holiday) the other Leeds Bradford both to Salzburg. Highly recommended and not too expensive for the flight from Leeds considering it was half term and we only booked a few weeks before.

Look out for Jet2's ski carriage offer, they're often selling this for 50p each way!

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

Thanks all.
But the fundamental question - when do they come out? i.e. when do I start looking; and what do they usually release at once - i.e. do they cover December through May or, say, December to March, then May is released later (IF May is still a goer - see question about glacier areas).

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@mgrolf@koru ski star is Friday Saturday Sunday for a full week but you can do short weeks too.

snow reports

I've used lufthansa to Munich, from Manchester a few times and found the price to be noticeably cheaper than similar timed, charter flights to innsbruck. Skyscanner is great, so a second vote for that. From Munich St Anton, Solden and Ischgl are under three hours and pretty Snowsure. This Easter I've got cheap Easyjet flights to Turin which is under two hours to Cervinia (I'll report back how that works out!)

I'd recommend Zest for car hire, they're a broker with good service and rates.

I've gone DIY twice and found it fairly straightforward and worth the saving. Book flights as soon as you can, then accommodation and then hire car would be my suggestion.

I have used BA and SAS to Norway many times, usually cheaper than budget airlines and economy car rentals are very affordable

You know it makes sense.

@Grizzler, sign up to the mailing list for all of the budget carriers and you'll be notified when the flights come out. They don't tend to make it known beforehand, and the release dates move.

From MoneySavingExpert's site re EasyJet:

"The orange-loving airline releases seats in four tranches throughout the year. The most recent release was in Dec 2016 for flights in September/October 2017. The next set of seats has yet to be announced."

I've normally booked Jan-Mar flights around August, from memory.

Re: accommodation, it is harder to find places outside of the Sat-Sat or Sun-Sun strictures, but not impossible. Air BnB is an option on that front.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

Easyjet now release their release dates a week before, if you google Easyjet release dates

A snowHead

In high season, a late flight on Friday and a hotel room might be cheaper than a Saturday flight. It's an option worth bearing in mind.

For western Austria, budget flights to Zurich can sometimes be cheaper than flights to Innsbruck, if the transfers work.

I don't find skyscanner very reliable for budget airline prices (particularly for easyJet).

A snowHead

@Grizzler, you can sign up with airlines to receive email/text alerts about flight release dates. If booking well in advance, worth getting online immediately the flights are released. Return prices for popular dates increase substantially during the first few hours after release.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

For Stelios' Orange Airborne Taxis

http://www.easyjet.com/en/schedule-release

They will firm up a couple of weeks before.

This site is also very good, a simple e email and no spam in between

http://www.lowcostroutes.com/en/

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Brill. Thanks guys & gals, I now feel much more educated and into the 21st Century Smile

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Skyscanner all the way.

Don't be put off by a reasonably new kid on the block....Norwegian Airlines. Have used them twice out of Gatwick, and was very impressed both times.

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This site will send you email alerts when flights for your chosen routes/dates become available.
http://www.lowcostroutes.com/en/flights_alert

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

Booked a DIY weekend in Jan to France, pulled it together over a couple of days as last minute and doing another to Trysil for Easter.

Used Skyscanner for flights, always get too excited about the pricing there before remembering that its without all the extras like being able to take a bag, paying to sit together and sometimes the cost/time getting to that god forsaken airport that the cheapies like to fly out of. But a good place to start. Read the T&Cs carefully. In Jan we went easyjet, for Easter we are going BA. Scheduled airlines seem to have better flight times. BA allow hand luggage plus another small bag carry on, 23kg checked bag which can be swapped for a ski bag within generous size limits and without that nonsense of only one pair per bag, and if you're a child you can take a car seat as well to avoid those extortionate rental rates for things like that. Also BA let you cancel within 24 hours after paying for no reason, so can do a hold then think or have a better look.

But generally buy flights early or very late. If only 2 of you then easier to wait and book late than for us with 4.

The normal week at Skistar managed accommodation is Sunday to Sunday but there are hotels they have that do day by day, or stay a bit outside the resort and commute in but accommodation seems much less in evidence outside or you can go to other Scandinavian resorts not run by them . Skistar resorts have a good choice of S/C.

Booked rental cars with the associated website to Booking.com, but when I see the deal I will also check directly on the rental firms own site as I think its better to book direct if you can. Used to use Nova but have gone off them when recently trying to call their helpdesk for some help and couldnt get to a human, in fact it wouldn't recognise any key presses from a mobile to select any menu choices, not great if you are stuck without a car somewhere if things go wrong.

Look out if you are doing mid-week to mid week timings on car rates, as in Norway there was a big incremental cost when starting on a Friday vs a Saturday when I looked.

Good thing about DIY is that it makes you find out more about the place you are going, you don't just turn up and get whisked to the door. Scandinavia is also great for DIY as they all seem to speak fantastic English. And its well worth saving that money that the TO would take, more to spend on skiing!

After all it is free

[quote="swiftoid"]

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

Have regularly used Easyjet out of Scotland (both Glasgow and Edinburgh). Always have two pairs of skis in one ski bag and never had a problem. Doing so again on Saturday! 😜

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[quote="ster"]

Help!!

When and how of winter/spring cheap flights?

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