Welcome to the forum.
People on here are already booking flights at around £700pp which could be around the correct price for next season with quite a few operators, as usual flights around the world keep going up.
Quite a few though like ourselves hang on in case bargains come up - we always go last 2 weeks in March or early April (due to fly out a week on Sunday - YIPPEEE)
On our return last year we kept an eye on this site for any info, and someone published an offer from Qatar going from Manchester for £450pp This is the cheapest we have had in 14 years so jumped on it. This info was put on the site mid June, so yeah early booking for a change.
Qatar did put this offer on another 3 times up to November, so keep an eye on here or Qatar site.
http://www.qatarairways.com
Also look out for bargain package trips, at times they can work out better than the cost of 2 DIY flights -just don't stay at the hotel they put you in (Albuquerque is a great place)
Don't forget about the timing of your Visas, your going in March, so you need to get the on-line application done and all sent off by at least mid January.

Thats brilliant thank you, i have been told that most flights only leave the uk say on a monday and come back on a tuesday. Is this correct? Thank you

Not sure about that, hope others can give some feed back. We have mostly flown with Monarch from Manchester and last few years they have gone late Friday arriving in Goa 9.30am Sat morning. 1st time with Qatar for us, out early Sunday Morning, and land Goa 3.30am.

Regarding your flight queries, yea all package tours fly from Manchester or Gatwick. If yoy choose that route dont forget the Trans Pennine trains run into Manchester Airport terminal, which can make things easier. Another option is schedule flights with Emirates from Newcastle via Dubai, then into Goa via Mumbai or Bangalore. Very competetive prices, the last i had from them was £519 return to Bangalore, add another £60/80 return to Goa and it comes out better than most flight only deals with package companies, or even if slightly more you have the added bonus of free inflight service etc.

Charter flights only fly on certain days of the week and a charter non stop flight takes about 9 to10 hours to Goa but some scheduled flights like Jet Airways fly a couple of times a day from Heathrow to Mumbai and then on to Goa via there domestic flights but with the stop over in Mumbai it takes 12 to 16 hours

Qatar fly most if not all days from Manchester and London to Doha but not everyday to Goa, so you need to pick a flight with only a short stopover and you can get to Goa in about 12 hours and the same on the return

Most charter flights charge for everything on top of the quoted price, extra leg room, booking seats together, luggage allowance, drinks and meals even head phones for the IFE but scheduled flight tend to have better leg room and wider seats to start with and all the other bits are included, Jet even give you 46 kg of hold luggage

Thanks guys, great advice, yes I had thought about emirates from my home airport but thought they would be way way over the top price wise, would anyone happen to know that this september emirates are changing the aircraft they are operating out of newcastle to dubai from an a330 to a boeing 777, do you think this could make travel cheaper if they are almost doubling flight occupancy?

thanks again

Hi Mark - I agree with all the excellent advice given here.

I think Qatar are your best bet - we've travelled with then 4 or 5 times and they're excellent.

Just keep checking the website, making sure you've got good connection times and pounce when the price is right. It's a game of chicken as the airlines drop prices occasionally but nobody knows when and holds back from booking. You've got bags of time so just keep checking every week. Hope all goes well!

Best thing is to subscribe to receive the Qatar news letter at http://www.qatarairways.co.uk then you will be able to see the offers as they become available

they have offers on at the moment but it has been running for a while and many of the best deals may have gone