It's Time to Book Your Autumn Travel

Welcome back. If your mind is already wandering and you're thinking about your next time off, then you're in the right frame of mind: push your work to the side for another hour and get ready to book your September 3-5 weekend and your October 1, week-long holiday.

Our Talking Travel maxim prevails: book your next holiday as soon as you return from your previous one. Actually, you're about six weeks late for October 1 at this point, but that shouldn't stop you. Better late than never, but better early than late, especially when it comes to air tickets.

We suggested that ironic travel is the way to go September 3-5, and you'd be hard pressed to do better than Japan – except of course, for Beijing itself, so maybe do a bit of staycationing then. Let's focus on the big one, October 1, really the only golden week left on the Chinese calendar.

We looked at airfares for major Southeast Asian destinations back in May, so we won't rehash every single one of them. But we'll take a quick look at where we are about six weeks hence to see if they're heading up or down.

We would suggest avoiding the Philippines during October 1 holiday. Great destination, we love it, but early October is still typhoon season, and the Philippines gets typhoons, and how. You might go and have very little rain or you might go and spend the night hoping the palm fronds on your beach hut don't blow off. Save it for later in the cold weather.

Beijing-Bangkok
Some good news here for those of you willing to time-shift, also known as burning a couple of vacation days to get better prices and availability. Departures to Bangkok on October 1 and returning October 7 are all well north of RMB 4,000 per person, but leave October 4 and return October 10, and you're paying RMB 3,076 per person on Cathay Pacific Airlines, and that includes tax. Do that.

Beijing-Bali
Remember, Bali is far, like eight hours of air travel far. Flights on October 1 and returning October 7, or leaving October 2 and back October 8, will cost over RMB 6,000 per person on Garuda Indonesia and Cathay Pacific (we know Air China flies to Bali, but couldn't get their site to give us Bali or Denpasar as a destination). However, October 4-8 on Cathay and you can get there and back for about RMB 4,935, including tax, although that's a long way to go for such little time on the ground.

Beijing-Ho Chi Minh City
Reaching Vietnam's most popular city will cost RMB 5,490 on Air China, excluding tax. It doesn't have flights on October 1, so it's an October 2 departure and October 8 return. Yikes, that's a fortune for a place so relatively close and otherwise inexpensive. Once again it's Cathay, even more than Vietnam Airlines, that gets you there for about RMB 3,600 including tax.

Start booking now. Those flights will only fill up with every passing day.

Photo: The Peninsula Bangkok