airlines for January-wait or book?

[hsmamato2]

WWYD?last week Airtran had flights at great times,great price- this week,one leg of the trip has risen by $20- I am wondering if I should hold steady for a few weeks,and watch and wait,or buy now? We can fly JB,also have Southwest as an option,but they're much higher right now-since it's January,would you think we have some time to watch?
dh's work didn't give an answer on faxed vacation time sheet yet,don't want to book something I'd need to change later....

 

[Morgand]

I would say wait. We were watching Airtran for a flight out of Detroit for a few months. When the dates for Jan that we needed were released the rates were sky high. I wondered if we should wait it out and we decided to. After about a month they dropped to half price $ 59. Then after about a week they went up to $ 64 and have stayed there. I don't think there is too much risk of them booking up, I have also looked at the seats on each flight we are going on and we have the only booked seats so far. It's a waiting game but it pays off.

 

[rosiep]

Use Farecast.com

It's a site that suggests whether you should buy or wait.

I just bought my January airfare from Portland Oregon to MCO for only $254 tax included. That's a fantastic price. Of course Delta may decide to change those flights a bit..but I can live with that.

 

[hsmamato2]

how do you know how many seats are still available?

 

[taliategan]

I booked my return flight from Orlando in January, because we are flying out on a Sunday and are limited to an afternoon flight (because of a cruise). I find it more difficult to get good fares on Sunday flights out of Orlando. I am waiting on our departing flight because we have more flixibility on the dates, time and even city. Also waiting for Southwest to release its fares.

 

[Missytara]

If you fill out the info asked on the reservation, i.e., name, address, phone number, etc, it will ask you to choose your seats right before you go to the next box to load a credit card number.

We were booking for three people, but it was so tedious each time, I just put for one passenger in the box; then went through the first two screens, and all the way at the bottom of the screen, it said - choose your seats. You just go in and look at what is available; there will be a legend on the page as well.

 

[Morgand]

You can see how many seats are available by clicking the little seat icon that is right beside where it shows if it is non-stop or if it has 1 stop. Looks just like a picture of a little seat. This will show you what seats are available, usually shows 6 rows and the middle seat in the left rows is always filled but is really empty. If you look at other flights you can see the same pattern of taken and available seats on all the flights so this way you can see what has actually been sold. This is provided that the people who have bought seats have chosen their seats ahead of time but I think a lot of people do. This will give you a good idea of how many seats are left. Hope this helps.

 

[Bernini98]

Try selecting fewer people, there may be the lower rate for 2 but not 3. I always start with 1 and work my way up...it may seem like a pain, but $20X5 each way is $200 or a night at dinner with Cinderella