Advice for finding best airfare, please....

[MARCIAKAZ]

Hi everyone! I'm trying to convince DH to make a post-Christmas trip (12/27-1/6). Airfare is the issue at the moment. I've been checking the bestfares website, which is pretty helpful, but I've never shopped for airfare before, so I need all the advice I can get! In general, when is the best time to shop for airfare, especially considering the season we want to travel in? Feel free to offer any related advice...please!!!

 

[Darcy03231]

I use www.kayak.com and am signed up on www.airfarewatchdog.com. Since you'll be traveling during peak holiday season I would book your airfare as soon as you see something you can live with. When DS was going to school in Florida we flew him home for Christmas. I bought his airfare in July when the fares were released and then watched it climb steadily higher the closer it got to December. It never dropped.

 

[MARCIAKAZ]

Thanks for that advice...I had hoped there was some "magic" formula to timing a ticket purchase. Wishful thinking, I'm sure!

 

[CapeCod53]

I agree, we used Kayak.com for our trip last Thanksgiving & Kayak had the Jetblue flights before they appeared on Jetblue's website. We booked that day & the prices never went down, in fact almost doubled within a short time. If I remember JetBlue releases about 6 months out but last May they released thru the end of the calendar year. SouthWest only releases about 4mo, legacy airlines have already released for the year. The nice thing about Jetblue is that you can get a credit if the prices do go down & use it on a future flight.

 

[tiki23]

Most airlines will give you a credit if the price goes down, as long as you book directly with the airline, not with Expedia, Orbitz, etc. though you'd need to check each airline's policy.

Most of the legacy airlines (Delta, AA, NW, etc.) will usually run some specials once the SW fares get announced. We leave on our trip Dec 7th and even though I check flight prices daily I don't expect to book until somewhere between June and August.

Good Luck!