How do you know when to book airfare?

[BeccaGrace]

I am a relative novice at booking airfare and planning a trip that involves flying far in advance. I've been watching rates for our Nov/Dec trip for several weeks now and from Newark to MCO they have been in the $250 round trip range for round trip/non-refundable...Thanks to these boards I've seen that much lower rates are possible even for Newark so I figured I'd wait to see how the rates fluctuated. Well, they fluctuated all right--those same $250 Delta Song seats are now $500 each! Did I royally screw up here? Will the rates stay this high or (gulp) go higher? Or is it possible for them to drop again? Is it a total gamble to know when to book and risk missing out on cheaper seats later or is there some kind of strategy I could be using? I'd hate to use up so much of my trip budget on airfare if I don't have to! Thanks for any help!!!

 

[scoutsmom99]

If you are flying around the busy Thanksgiving travel dates you might want to book fairly soon.

Last year I started tracking airfare rates from Minneapolis/St. Paul to Orlando in February for our Sept/Oct trip...I found that the prices did not dip down until end of July/beginning of August so we booked then. I find booking air a couple of months ahead of time has gotten me the best rate on NWA. You might post a thread asking what people are/were getting for this time last year out of Newark or maybe you already have a price in mind for your trip and watch for it. Airlines are so tricky with airfare when I booked for my last trip my arifare went from $216.50 to over $300 for a day then the next day it went to $206 I took that and called Disney the same day for a resort ressie.

There are also some programs that will check airfare for you as well (ok Ijust found one in another post try using Fare Watcher from Travelocity)...I'm sure someone will come along and post them. I just kept a spreadsheet and used that for reference.

 

[katallo]

I agree. If you are going over a holiday book as soon as possible. The same applies if you need to rent a car. Here's a site that compares prices "Side Step". Hope it helps.