How far in advance do you book flights?

[shosh1530]

Just wanted to update this thread as we took the plunge and booked our Vancouver flights for our Alaska cruise! We started looking at different date combinations on Air Canada and found a good price ($279) on PHX>YVR in June so we grabbed it. I'm not sure if it was part of their Black Friday sale or not, but worth taking a look for those cruising to Alaska this summer.

Of course we'll still have to pay extra for our checked bags and seat assignments... But even with that it is much less than I was fearing.

Now I just need to book the cruise itself! (talking to the travel agent tomorrow to finalize our stateroom and lock it down)

 

[auntlynne]

Nice fare snag. Another item checked off the Cruise Plan checklist.

 

[kmedina]

Unless they need to be filled, flights do not get cheaper with time. On the contrary, airlines use dynamic pricing and you’ll see prices rise as the seats fill up. Vancouver for the cruising season is a very popular destination and the odds of your target flight being sold out at some point are very good. Google Flights will allow you to know if the current price is low, average or high. It also has a matrix view, allowing you to see the prices for multiple combinations of arrival/departure dates.

Personally, for Vancouver, I would buy ASAP if the current price is marked as low or average. For other destinations, like PP said, I usually set an alert as soon as I start thinking about a destination and often finalize my plans when I get a significant price drop alert.

Flight prices fluctuate up and down all the time. My husband travels via plane for work almost every week. When he has a trip far enough out, he waits for the price to drop before buying his ticket. There is a sweet spot he talks about. He's asleep, so I do not know what it is. I just know it exists.

They can also fall when gas prices or demand in general dip, outside of any sweet spot.

That said, booking really close to your flight will almost always lead to more expensive tickets. Whenever he has to take a last-minute flight, the prices are seriously gouged for the same route he could get a decent price on if he booked a few weeks earlier. An exception could exist there, too. If the plane is practically empty, the price could go down to move the seats. That does not happen to him often though.

 

[kmedina]

Just wanted to update this thread as we took the plunge and booked our Vancouver flights for our Alaska cruise! We started looking at different date combinations on Air Canada and found a good price ($279) on PHX>YVR in June so we grabbed it. I'm not sure if it was part of their Black Friday sale or not, but worth taking a look for those cruising to Alaska this summer.

Of course we'll still have to pay extra for our checked bags and seat assignments... But even with that it is much less than I was fearing.

Now I just need to book the cruise itself! (talking to the travel agent tomorrow to finalize our stateroom and lock it down)

Nice, I wish Delta would have a Black Friday/Cyber Monday sale. I've been monitoring a flight for spring break 2023, and it went up this week. Of course, I will keep an eye on it. Google Flight alerts always help.