When to buy airline tickets

[Beast2Prince]

My wife and I won't be going until May, but I was wondering how long I should wait to buy airline tickets so that I can get them cheaper? We will be flying out of Indianapolis and the flights right now are around $235 r/t. I was hoping for something around $100-150 r/t. Is this expecting too much, or do airlines typically drop flight prices closer to the day of departure?

[wbk]

I would think ATA would be your cheapest flight out of Indianapolis. In the Quad Cities (MLI) ATA and AirTran wage a continual battle for the cheapest fares to Orlando. Sometimes even American beats them.

Does your newspaper feature ads for specials? If so, they usually are very predicatable as to when they offer the reduced fares. They seem to do it at the same time every year. Just be vigilant and patient.

[Gabrielle]

I check the air fare every couple days to assess stability. More and more, I'm finding it's best to wait until about 2 weeks before you fly.

[MELSMICE]

FYI - My sister is a travel agent & she says that typically prices are least expensive the further away from your trip you are. They get more expensive the closer you get to wanting to fly.

Keep checking!!

[Gabrielle]

That's just not true anymore that air fare is less expensive the further away from your trip. You can prove it by going onto the airline web sites and choosing the "flexible" feature. The best deals are the ones 2-3 weeks before travel time.

It's best to track these changes over a few months to ensure that the desired price pattern has a high probability of occurring the closer you get to your travel date.

[Brave Little Tailor]

Hi, I also fly out of Indianapolis. I ordered tickets in August for our flight in December. I found the flying down on Wed. and back on Tuesday was cheeper than flying during the weekends or on Mondays. We got a better deal on Delta this time (last year ATA was what we used) Our tickets are $136.50 Round trip. The price seemed to jump around a bit as I tracked it for a few weeks. I never saw it go below this price for a while and locked it in last time it reached this price. I noticed prices seemed to be higher when I was checking on the weekend. Hope this helps : ) Good luck and have a great trip!

[Pumbaa_]

Air has been hard to judge this year. What we do is check regularly and when we find a rate we are comfortable with, we buy. The best I have done is $75 round trip (CT to Orlando) and the highest we have paid is $158. I have 2 airlines that I like to fly and those are the ones that I check.

Go directly to your airlines website. Find out what day they post their specials and check back often. If you find a fare, buy it THEN. Do not wait, they may disappear within hours.

Good Luck!

[CarolA]

Generally if your really need a ticket I would NOT wait until 2 weeks before you travel. There have been some good last minute sales lately, but it is hard to book hotels etc around them. Plus the airlines are reducing their flight loads. I am going to Panama City Fl in a few weeks and the 21 day airfare was 250 while the 14 day airfare was $700.

You are a little far out for the sales to ba announced however. Are you going aover a holiday weekend? That makes a difference!

[Steffi]

My niece flew to Indianapolis from Tampa last weekend for under $130 total. She bought her tickets two weeks in advance.

I have to agree with Carol, though...waiting that long to buy your tickets seems like it would be pretty stressful! :)

[jennymouse]

I don't know if it's LEX or just Delta or what, but I bought our air back in the spring for $238pp. I thought it was high too, but it never dropped more than $2 and now it's $389pp. Needless to say, I'm glad I bought when I did.

What I did back in the spring when I was trying to figure it all out was pretend I was leaving in two weeks, four weeks, 3 months and so on to track what the rates did. I picked the same flight days/times as when I wanted to go in October, just different dates. They always stayed the same for a long time then skyrocketed overnight.

Like I said, it might just be where we fly from I don't know.

Correction: I just checked my flights again, now they're $437.

[disneefamily]

Disnee Dad Says.................................I start looking a year out, and I have a certain price I will pay. As soon as I can get my price I book it. It's not the cheapest way to go, but I have never paid more than $275 to go cross country, including the fees. This year my tickets were $202 + $53 in fees! Pretty soon the fees will be more than the ticket!

[Beast2Prince]

We fly back on the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend. Will this cause the prices to stay high, or does that weekend have any effect on flight prices?