Air ?'s, when to buy

[Tricialiv]

We are going land/sea in Dec. Our area does not have access to super discounted airlines such as Jet Blue. Should I book flight now? Times are good and price is livable. $10 more than yesterday though. I know I have 9 months but with gas on the rise I'm worried. Plus the flight is with Delta who had bad financial news released today. Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks. Tricia

 

[Dis]

I start watching flight prices around 11-months before. They change on almost a daily basis. When they hit a price I can live with, I buy. I do not always get the lowest price, but it is always way lower than what DCL offers. Does Southwest fly from your city? When their schedule opens, the other airlines drop fares.

 

[allears]

We always try to book our flights as soon as we can pay for them, the earlier the better. I would also encourage you to purchase insurance on the flights, since you'll be booking them seperately from the cruise. This adds a level of comfort when you buy tickets really far ahead, you don't have to worry about things coming up. And you just never know what could happen during the trip. We have booked our own air on our last 4 cruises and only this last time did I get insurance on the flights. Good thing too, we were "stranded" in Florida and extra day due to a major snow storm in our region. The insurance covered the expenses of an extra night at a hotel, meals and transportation.

 

[mousebrat]

When we last went to WDW (from Amarillo, TX) in August of last year, I booked with Delta 7 months out, paying $652.80 for the two of us. I went ahead and booked amidst all this terrible news that airlines were raising rates and fuel costs were escalating and general woe to the airlines stuff. Then, about two months before the trip, we wondered if it would be possible to change our itinerary to arrive a little earlier. We had upgraded to the gold plan and knew time was money. Anyways, I was able to change our flights for a fare that was then $100 cheaper per passenger. After the $100 per passenger change fee, it was a wash. We did arrive earlier, though (in plenty of time for Hurricane Francis).

If I had waited until two months before, I could have gotten us both down there for around $450. I don't know that this sort of price decrease will happen again, but I'll be waiting to book until a little closer to time.

 

[webray]

Anytime we are booking air I put the price alert on, it comes to my email. As someone else said air prices change daily, so figure out what you are willing to pay, set up an alert and keep your eye on things. We use travelocity, we seem to always get the best prices there.

 

[HappyLawyer]

i would say check rates on a daily basis and when you get a good one go for it, lase december for family of 3 was $465.00 with all the taxes i got that rate in september go with what is reasonable, good luck

 

[LAMPSKIES]

June or July ALWAYS for our end of Nov. sailings the last 4 years.