Book flight now or wait until Tues/Wed?

[NYEmomma]

Just saw Airtran released their flights for our travel dates (Oct 9-14)!!!

I was terrified, given everything I've seen about rate hikes due to gas prices. But tickets are only $122 each way. Last week, flights on the same day of the week (but different dates) were $112... so it's a $10 pp per-way increase.

That's not as bad as I thought it would be. I was all set to book right this minute, but then I thought... well, it's the weekend. Maybe prices will go down once we get into the week. I know they're typically the lowest on Tuesday or Wednesday. But I'm sooo nervous about them jumping up in price since that's all I hear about on the news.

WWYD?

 

[MarthaJr.]

I always say never to buy on the weekend....but things being as they are, I would book it if you can live with the price. I believe Airtran will credit you the difference if the price goes down. Check with Airtran or ask over on the transportation board. I guarantee somebody knows the answer over there!

 

[csharpwv]

We booked Airtran back in January for $49.00 each way. For our entire party of 7 (6 adults, one child) we were able to go round trip for just over $800 with taxes and every thing - FOR 7 PEOPLE!!!!!

NO that doesn't include baggage fees, but STILL, that's a great price!

Southwest just announced some great deals into and out of Orlando - you might want to check there as well!

Typically, the closer you get to your departure date, the more expensive your flights will be.

Last minute sales are not at all common.

 

[NYEmomma]

Wow, $49 is a great rate!!!

I'd prefer to do Southwest because I like the airline in general & there's no baggage fees, but they don't have any direct flights to MCO. This will be the first time we've flown with DD and she'll be 2.5 so I'm kind of terrified of how it's all going to go over. So I want to avoid layovers if at all possible!

 

[LeslieG]

I'm watching Airtran too for June. It looks like you're watching CAK. Their sales only go out about 3 months, so right now the sale is only through May 24. I'm waiting to see if my dates are included in their next sale. I have watched my dates go up from 112 to 122, but I've never paid that much and will go to PIT for something cheaper if I have to. I personally wouldn't pay that much for a flight that far out, but it just depends if you're comfortable with that. But their sale fares now are only at 94, so depending how many tickets you need, it might not make too much difference.

 

[LeslieG]

We booked Airtran back in January for $49.00 each way. For our entire party of 7 (6 adults, one child) we were able to go round trip for just over $800 with taxes and every thing - FOR 7 PEOPLE!!!!!

NO that doesn't include baggage fees, but STILL, that's a great price!

Southwest just announced some great deals into and out of Orlando - you might want to check there as well!

Typically, the closer you get to your departure date, the more expensive your flights will be.

Last minute sales are not at all common.

Where are you flying from?

 

[clh2]

It looks like you are buying a total of 3 rt tickets? In which case today, you would be spending 6*112=672 or 6*122=$732.

Personally - I would be sleeping better knowing my flights were just booked and done with. Right now, there seems to be a wild card with fuel costs - so a reduced cost on Tues or Wed may or may not happen.

Plus - the other thing to consider -airline tickets are always law of supply and demand. If another family or two book seats at the $122, they simply may not be available to you at a later date. The increase of $60 would be peace of mind for me. What happens if the tickets go up by $50 pp from today's price?

 

[Whistle]

If it is a price you can do, I would go ahead and book them. There is also a chance the price will go UP (due to fuel costs)--- the piece of mind is worth something too.

 

[klacey1]

After our ideal tickets jumped up $50 EACH, I hurried and booked Airtran yesterday. $77 each way from LaGuardia to MCO. There's a stopover in Ohio, but we don't have to change planes, thankfully. That I can handle. We leave NY at 7:55 and get to MCO at 11:55. Not too bad.
I thought about waiting until Tuesday, but honestly, with prices the way they are, once I found something we could live with, we booked it!

 

[Jaylin]

Do it now for piece of mind!!! AND REMEMBER THAT THEY WILL CREDIT YOU IF THE PRICE GOES DOWN!

I never knew this until I was reading the travel board. I had booked our 5 outbound tix at a great price of $68ish (including all fees) but I kept watching the return flight because the price was much higher. Well after about 3 weekds of driving myself crazy, I finally just booked them at $97 each. Well wouldn't you know, 2 days later they went down to $62ish!!!!! All I had to do was call and in 30 seconds that had credited my account for the difference. I ended up with at $135 credit, that I plan on using for my baggage fees!

I had no idea that you could even do this. I was so thankful for this board!!! So book the tix, but keep watching them.

 

[Nik's Mom]

Normally I would book mid-week, but not in times like this. I have seen airfare climb for our trip to California in July. We couldn't commit to a date before. Well, we finally picked our dates and went ahead and booked. Prices have definitely gone up in the past week, by $18 each way per ticket.

Just book now. I don't think you will see the price going down at this point.

 

[AnninIowa]

You guys are so lucky to have access to reasonable airfare! I am looking at flights for our October trip and can't find anything under $500 per person!! We only have regional airports here, so no competition to bring prices down. :-(

 

[mickeynminnie08]

Airlines release their deal prices Tuesdays and Wednesdays, I'd wait till then.

 

[Shleedogg]

I didn't read the responses, so I apologize if this was covered. Did you check bing? Someone here suggested it to me when I asked a similar question about our Feb flights in Jan. It was completely accurate. It predicted a price drop the following Tuesday and said to book then. Sure enough, price drop. I booked it and that was the lowest prices went.

 

[rstamm]

I booked mine this morning from PA with AirTran for $89 each way.

I am happy with that price so I jumped on it.

I don't like the waiting game and would be mad at myself if it kept going up especially since there is only one flight a day from that location.

 

[turtlebean]

I was wondering the same thing as to what to do. I ended up just buying my tickets yesterday. With all the talk of gas being $5/gal by Memorial Day, I was really afraid they would sky rocket. I got them for $94 each way, which I still think is a good deal. I checked the sales that are currently going on now w/dates close to ours (we will be down there 6/11-6/18) and the sale prices were the same if not worse than what I paid. So I just bought them. Flights had already increased by $5 from Wednesday to Saturday last week. If you are ok paying that price, I would just buy now. I can't imagine it getting any cheaper.

 

[Brer Shay]

I ended up with at $135 credit, that I plan on using for my baggage fees!

Can this be done? I thought that their credit could only be used toward another flight. If I can apply it to baggage fees, I'm much more likely to consider it.

 

[bjscheel]

You guys are so lucky to have access to reasonable airfare! I am looking at flights for our October trip and can't find anything under $500 per person!! We only have regional airports here, so no competition to bring prices down. :-(

I don't know what part of IA you're in, but sometimes we drive down to Kansas City and fly Airtran or SW nonstop. For this June, we also considered Airtran out of Moline, but the dates weren't good. For a while though they had nonstops to Orlando for $100 each way. We totally missed out on the nonstops out of Des Moines- they started just after our last trip and quit before this next trip.

I am pleased that I was able to snag our June flights on United out of Des Moines for $198 RT. (This was on a Saturday night a few weeks ago.) Unfortunately it has a layover in Chicago, but driving to DM instead of KC will be nice! They had been $208 that week, then dropped to $198 that Saturday night. I have been watching them climb ever since purchase- now our flights of choice would be $532, with the lowest United flight on those dates being over $400. Anyway, good luck and keep watching!

 

[turtlebean]

I just checked the flights I booked yesterday and I am so glad I did it yesterday. One of our flights already went up 18.00/pp. I was really hoping I wasn't making the wrong decision. Guess I didn't.

 

[Halle]

So happy for you Debbi. Have a great trip.