Best Time to Buy a Plane Ticket?

[lotus14]

Our trip is 10 months away, so it's still too early to buy a plane ticket. Still, I'm wondering when the best time to buy is to get the best deal. I read someplace that you should book a flight on a Tuesday or Wednesday because the flight prices rise on the weekends and go down during the week. I also just heard someplace that you should book your flight as soon as possible because the fares are cheapest then.

Any ideas? I've never flown with this much advance notice before. We're buying 4 tickets this time so saving a couple pennies would be nice.

 

[NancyIL]

I bought my April 2012 plane ticket on Delta in early August. I just happened to check Kayak, and when I saw the low fare, I thought I must've accidentally checked one-way prices! I'm paying $134 roundtrip (including taxes) from Bloomington, IL.

 

[Brer Chump]

For non-holiday time travel I get the best prices between 60-90 days prior to departure.

I prefer http://matrix.itasoftware.com/ for pricing flights as you can check fares 30 days at a time, with varying lengths of trips along with entering several airports to fly into and out of.

 

[sam_gordon]

I tend to book at ~ 10 1/2 months.

We fly Delta and they release their rates 330 days out. About a week or so after they're released, they are low, we book and I watch them go up, up, up.

NOTE: I don't fly very much so take that for what it's worth.

 

[OKW Lover]

There really isn't a set best day or number of months ahead to book your best airfare. Airlines have gotten so "sophisticated" in their pricing models that seat prices will change nearly hourly.

How do you cope with this? Go to a place like kayak (www.kayak.com) and enter a price alert for flights between your home airport(s) and MCO for the dates you want to travel. Watch those alerts to get a feel for what a good price is. When you see a low price - book it!

 

[Bobo912]

I tend to book at ~ 10 1/2 months.

We fly Delta and they release their rates 330 days out. About a week or so after they're released, they are low, we book and I watch them go up, up, up.

NOTE: I don't fly very much so take that for what it's worth.

That's been my experience with Delta too. Their prices are lowest after schedule opens up and then just go up from there.

Southwest, you can just watch it and just use you judgement on what looks like an acceptable price to you. And if it does happen to go down, just rebook it (if you fly often enough to use the credit). Their prices are often lower Tues-Thurs.

Besides those two, I've only flown on American and USAir once each in recent years. I don't remember about USAir flight, but when I was watching the price on American for my flight it went up on the weekends. I don't know if that is typical though.

 

[NancyIL]

AirTran regularly has sales that are usually announced on a Monday and last through Thursday.

 

[cheerful chickadee]

In my experience the flights are cheapest a few days after they're released then they steadily go up from there. I find that about 30-60 days before the travel date they start offering some sales or deals to fill up any open seats. Those sale go fast and sometimes they're only for 2 seats or have other stipulations to them. So you can take a chance and wait til it's closer to your travel date BUT it's risky.

 

[LdnCpl]

For this upcoming trip we booked a flight from DTW-MCO on Tue then a flight from MCO-DTW the following Monday for $201.40 pp on Delta. It wasn't the lowest price as AirTran was $187.00 pp but we like the flight times. Delta has the best flexibility out of DTW as far as flight times go. As for booking, we just bought our tix last week for our Jan 31st departure. Delta seems to be low-ish at the very start of the schedule reveal and about 3months out esp online sales. I noticed this time around the sales were popping up online Tues,Wed then going back up slightly Thursday, up a little more Friday etc. Of course in Jan 2011 I got flights from Mon-Mon for $165 pp 6 months out and in 2010 we went Sat - Sat for $170.00 pp 3 months out. It also depends on your comfort threshold. For the 3 of us it's the $200.00 range. Confused- it sure is You have to check ,check and check again to get the deals. The sales aren't also date related (eg Tues - Fri at price $XXX.XX) They sell the number of seats they want, price goes up. Total airfare went up $60.00 1 1/2 hrs after I bought. Just my 2 cents.

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

Also Tue and Wed are the best days to fly because generally the fares are cheaper on those days

 

[robin19871]

Tuesday at 3:00 p.m. is the best time to buy them. All the airlines start new low fares at that time and then they get higher throughout the week. Airline tickets will be reduced in price starting at 3 months prior to a flight date. Tuesdays, Wednesday and Saturday are the cheapest dates to fly. ( This info will be on every website when you do a search for cheap airline tickets.)

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

Our trip is 10 months away, so it's still too early to buy a plane ticket.

This is not true for legacy airlines. Their schedules for 10 months from now are out.

 

[AllesonWonderland]

In my experience the flights are cheapest a few days after they're released then they steadily go up from there. I find that about 30-60 days before the travel date they start offering some sales or deals to fill up any open seats. Those sale go fast and sometimes they're only for 2 seats or have other stipulations to them. So you can take a chance and wait til it's closer to your travel date BUT it's risky.

My brother is gambling with this time frame right now. There was a bit of a drop right before the 90 day mark, but he held out to see if there'd be something better once it was under 90 days. Prices have held steady for a month, then jumped a bit this week. So, now he's kind of waiting to see what happens at the under 60 day mark. I guess it all depends on what your tolerance is for risk.

 

[usrtyz]

I bought my tickets at the end of July for my June 2012 trip. The first day flights were released. I booked at $150 a ticket. As of right now, the same ticket is up to $410. I'm happy I booked when I did.