Booking in advance. You've been told to do so. And at same time many people have told you to wait until the very last moment and get last minute deals. They have also told you that last minute deals are a lot cheaper than the ones that you get by booking in advance.

Well, some things are true, some others not. Leaving apart the typical things that everybody knows concerning the flexibility you need to have when booking last minute deals and so on, let me focus on what very few people knows.

Prices for last minute deals are exactly the same as the ones for booking in advance, with only one difference: you need to hurry and be very lucky to catch one of them. The first places in a plane have the lowest price. As it is a long way for the day of departure in a flight or stay at a hotel, nearly nobody books between 3 and 6 months before this dates, so you can be relaxed. That is the recommended time to book, and if any deal exist, you will find it during those dates.

Special discounts are always planned ahead and there nearly do not exist the special discounts of last minute. But then, what about the low prices for last minute deals? They exist sometimes, and some others not, and when they exist they have the same price as the first places on the plane or hotel had.Booking in advance is safer. Do not risk, book ahead and get the cheap places. Only look for last minute deals in the worst of cases, when you missed all the other opportunities before.

Many airlines and hotels already have in place many travel incentives as the ones that I normally use to travel around to fill in the expected empty seats or rooms. We travel nearly for free, paying only the taxes, and we are asked to book ahead. The atravel providers prefer the plane or hotel at full capacity, even if the price you have payed is not so high rather than waiting to the last minute and relying on last minute deals hunters. This makes that last minute deals rare to find.

In the end, the worst thing you can probably do is to book 1 or 2 weeks before your holiday. At this period, the most expensive seats and rooms will be sold, no discounts will be available, you have lost the benefits of booking in advance, and last minute deals will not be in place still, if they are expected to be at all. Common sense, avoid being the one that payed most for the same place!

Finally, there is another thing I wanted to tell readers about. Booking too much in advance (more than 7 or 8 months) can give absolutely crazy prices on the screen, specially for airlines. To place an example, if you try to book with Singapore airlines for the next September or October from Spain to New Zealand, you will find out that they tell you to pay about 8000 Euros. But if you check a bit earlier, you will find out that they fly for just 1000.

The reason for airlines doing like this is the insecurity that the highly dynamic market have nowadays. They need to plan ahead, but not too much, because changes happen suddenly. The worst thing that could happen to an airline is to have thousands of passengers booked for future flights and having to cancel all them. Normally they simply should not allow to show any rates further from what they consider adequate, but in some cases you will simply find enormous prices that you will never pay for. Don't get scared, check earlier flights, and be prepared to jump on them as soon as the fares enter the normal pricing.

A good strategy is to focus on how many days ahead the airlines is planning. When you discover it, you have two good things. Be the one to take the first seat in the flight and be the one that find out the computer mistakes. Updating the system can cause some numbers to go flying around, and in some cases this could turn into a nice surprise. Keep an eye on it!