Airfare jump overnight

[jjj444]

I haven't booked yet, but I plan to fly Delta with the pay with miles feature and they went up $100 overnight!!! We are going at the end of October so my question is when is the best time to book?? 3 months out?? Now?? I am kicking myself for not booking last week when they were $100 cheaper

 

[Skywise]

I haven't booked yet, but I plan to fly Delta with the pay with miles feature and they went up $100 overnight!!! We are going at the end of October so my question is when is the best time to book?? 3 months out?? Now?? I am kicking myself for not booking last week when they were $100 cheaper

An increase that high, this far out indicates anticipated fuel cost or current demand. It might drop again if fuel prices drop or demand isn't as much as they expected. 2-3 months out is my rule of thumb for flight prices though. 1 month out is OK but after that the prices just take off.

 

[monorailsilver]

I don't know. Airfare make me nervous!

I just booked for next April, one way so far. I prefer jet blue but I don't knowing when their flights will be out and I saw $139 on delta and that was at 331 days out. I checked a few hours later and it was near $200, now that same flight is $169. I did book it for. $139 and now I hs pave a week to see what the return is going to be.

 

[sam_gordon]

There is no "magic" time to book airfare (as measured from departure date). If you believe there is, I have a bridge to sell you in Brooklyn.

There are WAY too many variables (where you're flying from, where you're flying to, when you're flying--day, month, & time of day, anticipated fuel charge, how many seats are taken, among others) to factor in.

Personally, I have had good experience booking Delta not when the flights are first released but within a week or two of the release. You should book when you're comfortable with the cost. If you do book on a legacy airline, and it will bother you if the price goes down after you've already paid, DON'T LOOK AGAIN!

 

[dis_guy]

Check out hopper.com for some good information about your route based on real data.

 

[Horace Horsecollar]

I haven't booked yet, but I plan to fly Delta with the pay with miles feature and they went up $100 overnight!!! We are going at the end of October so my question is when is the best time to book?? 3 months out?? Now?? I am kicking myself for not booking last week when they were $100 cheaper

Each flight has numerous categories of fare inventory. Within the economy cabin, the airline uses sophisticated modeling to determine how many seats it can sell at full price and and at various discount levels.

When a flight jumps $100 per ticket, it tends to mean that a cheap category no longer has as much inventory as you need, and you're now seeing the next category up.

It could also mean that an airfare sale has ended or that there has been a major price increase, but such adjustments tend to be less than $100 for domestic flights.

There are two things to try:

Let's suppose you need 4 tickets. Look for 3, 2, or 1 tickets. You may still see the lower cost if there are 3, 2, or 1 tickets left in cheaper fare inventory. Then you only have to buy the remaining tickets at the higher price.

Try looking after midnight (or after 1 a.m.) to see if any cheap inventory has been replenished because tickets were cancelled. Unfortunately for you, this works much better with American than with Delta because American allows customer to put tickets on a free "24-hour hold" (actually until 11:59 p.m.Central); when they're not purchased by the deadline, they go back into their original inventory.

As others have noted, there's no magic answer on when to buy tickets.

 

[mikehn]

Thursdays are not the best days to check airfare. Try checking on Tuesdays and Wednesdays

 

[Jrsy Boy]

I just read this on Sunday:

http://www.denverpost.com/Business/ci_25688097/The-best-time-to-book-the

Not sure I buy that as a hard rule but it does have a basis, at least. I've typically purchased tickets anywhere from 1 to 3 months before, though I track the fares for much longer than that so I know when the best deal comes up. The only time I've been burned is trying to fly from Denver to Vancouver when the best fare ended up being 9 months before the trip.

 

[sam_gordon]

I just read this on Sunday:

http://www.denverpost.com/Business/ci_25688097/The-best-time-to-book-the

Not sure I buy that as a hard rule but it does have a basis, at least. I've typically purchased tickets anywhere from 1 to 3 months before, though I track the fares for much longer than that so I know when the best deal comes up. The only time I've been burned is trying to fly from Denver to Vancouver when the best fare ended up being 9 months before the trip.

I've read that in the past. My problem is the article even states that the AVERAGE day to get the cheapest airfare is 57 days out. Doesn't that mean there are times it's more expensive at that point?

I'd be upset if I waited until 57 days out and then found out the flight I wanted was booked or more expensive than what I had seen earlier.