How far in advance do you book flights?

[shosh1530]

We are starting to plan our first cruise (hopefully Alaska on the Disney Wonder in late May/early June). I'm curious if people usually book their flights at the same time as booking the cruise? Or wait closer to the dates to get better pricing?

Right now the flights I'm looking at for Vancouver are $800 per person, which is a bit too painful on top of the cruise cost and excursions. Hoping they may get lower with time, but I haven't flown since before the pandemic so I don't really know how pricing goes these days.

 

[Girl of the South]

You can set up an alert on Google flights which will tell you if the price goes up or down. A site like Kayak will give you averages although with the Pandemic, I think those are out the window as flights were very cheap during and spiked afterwards. Where are you flying from and to?

 

[shosh1530]

You can set up an alert on Google flights which will tell you if the price goes up or down. A site like Kayak will give you averages although with the Pandemic, I think those are out the window as flights were very cheap during and spiked afterwards. Where are you flying from and to?

We are in Arizona, so flying out of either Phoenix or Tucson. Flights are much more reasonable into Seattle, but I'm not really wanting to have that long of a travel day to do a shuttle or train up to Vancouver.

 

[Marc D]

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.

 

[KGmomoftwins]

800 is not bad per person. I booked the beginning of March for our August cruise paid 1k per person….. if you are coming from the east coast like us it is expensive

 

[SandyinMonterey]

I don't fly as much as I did years ago. I used to fly West coast to East coast a lot. I started looking at airfare as soon as I was contemplating flying for vacations. In my experience, if I waited too long, the prices went up.

 

[ladyofthetramp]

We flew from east coast for our Alaska cruise. Our cruise was the beginning of August and I bought the around this time-in November. We flew into Seattle as I had points and then took the train, which we enjoyed. It was relaxing, a bunch of cruisers on the train-our next door cabin mates! For us, it beat the crazy flights schedules to get to Vancouver from Boston. The out bound flight was non stop to Boston and pre-pandemic I snagged a really good airfare. I would put a tracker on flights as others have mentioned, look at the historical data and make a plan from there as to purchase tickets.

 

[shosh1530]

Thanks everyone!

I'm not used to planning travel this far in advance so I've never booked flights so early. Flights to Seattle are under $300 so maybe I should take a harder look as that as an option.

We flew into Seattle as I had points and then took the train, which we enjoyed. It was relaxing, a bunch of cruisers on the train-our next door cabin mates! For us, it beat the crazy flights schedules to get to Vancouver from Boston.

How long did the train take? Did you do it the same day as your inbound flight? And what on the way back, disembarking day?

 

[Girl of the South]

OK, I took a look at Google Flights - Phoenix to Vancouver. Because it's going to be cheaper than Tuscon. As of today - that route is the same price in May AND in June. I suspect it will go up after the middle of June at some point. Have you even booked your Disney cruise yet?

Southwest - as you know you can catch a non-stop in each direction Phoenix - Seattle. For example leaving on the 21st May and returning on the 29th is $400. If you fly on the Saturday (20th) it drops to 354. Saturday is a cheap day to fly. Southwest lets you bring 2 bags for free which is really great.

Flying into Vancouver - it depends on if you want cheap or easy. Can't have both. Air Canada has non-stops from Phoenix to Vancouver but it's about $625 PLUS $60 for checking a suitcase so your $800 estimate is pretty close. Google flights thinks that prices on that route go from $680 to $1550 and says $625 is LOW for that trip.

Do you need to buy a ticket today? I wouldn't think so. But in the next 2 or 3 weeks might be a good idea . . .

For the train from Seattle to Vancouver, there seems to be only ONE train a day in each direction. Otherwise Amtrak is currently showing a bus from Seattle's King Street Station (which is lovely) to the Pacific Central Station in Vancouver. There are 4 buses a day, trip takes 3.5 hours and costs $45 each way.

 

[tvguy]

We always book everything at once, cruise, flights, and hotel. Not sure if it helps us or hurts us on the cost of the flights though.

 

[NothingClever]

Very rarely do we buy airfare more than two months out. It has been my experience that the prices will fluctuate greatly and if you are diligent about checking the prices regularly, you will get a better price than if you book several months out. My threshold is usually three weeks - anything less than that and the prices have historically only gone up. I would also recommend using an app called Hopper - it will provide an estimation of how much the prices will fluctuate over time and when is the best time to buy, along with updates when the price has changed. Enjoy your trip!

 

[Sykes]

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.

Flights absolutely do get cheaper over time in a lot of situations, at least up to a point. According to an analysis of almost a billion fares, the optimal time to buy for domestic flights is 21 to 127 days in advance:

https://www.cheapair.com/blog/the-best-time-to-buy-flights/

Before that on average you're over-paying. Having said that, if you have fairly inflexible travel (e.g. a cruise), it may be worth the extra money to book during the "peace of mind" window that they call out as far as 202 days in advance.

Airlines set prices based on a demand forecast, so the it's not so much that a flight is filling up that matters as it is how much it is filling compared to the forecast for that period of time. If it's ahead of pace then they'll raise the price, and if it's behind pace they'll lower it. But they also know that a lot of travelers are stuck on the myth that buying early is always best, so they know that they can extract additional revenue during the early booking periods.

Having said all that, if you fly with reasonable frequency there isn't much downside to buying early (especially if you usually fly a single airline). Now that change fees are gone for most fares (in the US at least), if the price goes down then in most cases you can have the ticket re-fared and get the difference back as credit to be used towards a future ticket on that airline.

 

[CamColt]

I have already booked my flights for next August because the pricing was reasonable compared to some I have seen lately. I will continue to watch and if the price drops I will cancel and rebook to get a credit.

 

[RedHead0186]

I usually fly Southwest, so I try to book flights as soon as they open up that window. In my experience, prices are cheapest on SW right when they flight opens (and availability is best). I will then periodically check prices, if the price has gone down it's really easy to get the cheaper price and get the difference as a credit.

 

[onesam319]

The last time we flew anywhere was a long time ago. It was from Columbus, OH to San Antonio, TX. We had a connection in Houston. We scheduled it pretty far ahead of time and our layover time in Houston was somewhere between 1 and 2 hours. Several times between our original booking and travel day the airline rescheduled our times. We ended up with such a short layover time that we missed our connecting flight! Keep this in mind if you book early.

 

[shosh1530]

OK, I took a look at Google Flights - Phoenix to Vancouver. Because it's going to be cheaper than Tuscon. As of today - that route is the same price in May AND in June. I suspect it will go up after the middle of June at some point. Have you even booked your Disney cruise yet?

Southwest - as you know you can catch a non-stop in each direction Phoenix - Seattle. For example leaving on the 21st May and returning on the 29th is $400. If you fly on the Saturday (20th) it drops to 354. Saturday is a cheap day to fly. Southwest lets you bring 2 bags for free which is really great.

We haven't booked the cruise yet. I'm trying to figure out budget and if we can actually afford it this summer. Everything is costing more than I expected! And I'm definitely feeling the conflict between wanting affordable and convenient. In the end, I'm guessing convenient might win out (or we might decide it just too pricey a trip to make).

I'm already having to talk DH into all of this and we do not deal well with long travel days as a family. I'm eyeing those non-stop PHX-YVR flights as that would certainly be easiest time-wise.

Thanks everyone for all the suggestions. I have a few different new tools to check out. I hadn't even tried Google Flights before this.

 

[auntlynne]

Cruising Alaska on Disney IS expensive. More than other cruise lines. Flying to Vancouver and hotels there seem to just keep raising the price, too.

Alaska is my favorite cruise (I have sailed AK 5 times, so far), but I do what I can to reduce the strain on the wallet. And I want to do expensive excursions - especially on those first few visits. Don’t forget to calculate those into the budget. It’s easy for excursions to run hundreds of dollars per person.

We have flown into Seattle and taken Amtrak to Vancouver. Definitely cheaper, overall. We flew in the day before the cruise. Stayed near/ in Renton (south end of Seattle), then took a town car (this was before the invention of rideshares) to the Amtrak Station for a ~ 7 am train (arrive 1 hour before train). Peaceful rides along the coast. Vancouver train station is about a 5-minute taxi to the port.

We just checked air prices for next May. From AL, tickets were about $800 pp - to Seattle. Based on recent experience, airfare was high further out and dropped closer to travel dates (probably the last 3 months).

Southwest prices are great when they first release sales, but then escalate fairly quickly - or sell out.

Best wishes on your trip plans.

 

[ladyofthetramp]

Thanks everyone!

I'm not used to planning travel this far in advance so I've never booked flights so early. Flights to Seattle are under $300 so maybe I should take a harder look as that as an option.


How long did the train take? Did you do it the same day as your inbound flight? And what on the way back, disembarking day?

Hi- no we did not do the train the same day as we flew in. Being from the east coast we spent a couple of days in Seattle. The train is a 3 hour ride. Very scenic and for me, completely relaxing. We took the train up the day before we embarked and spent the night in Vancouver exploring before we got on the ship the next day. The day we disembarked, once again, being from the east, the flight were mainly red eye, which I did not want to do. We once again, spent another day exploring Vancouver and spent the night at the hotel at the airport. Flew out the next morning back to Boston. Our trip was a bit of planes, trains and automobiles, but we were able to be unrushed, see what we wanted and avoid the dreaded red eye flights.

 

[tj48103]

We are starting to plan our first cruise (hopefully Alaska on the Disney Wonder in late May/early June). I'm curious if people usually book their flights at the same time as booking the cruise? Or wait closer to the dates to get better pricing?

Right now the flights I'm looking at for Vancouver are $800 per person, which is a bit too painful on top of the cruise cost and excursions. Hoping they may get lower with time, but I haven't flown since before the pandemic so I don't really know how pricing goes these days.

With my experience booking flights to Vancouver last May, you probably won't see cheaper. You may find better prices flying into Seattle and then renting a car or booking a shuttle to get to Vancouver.

 

[bakerworld]

We're currently booked for March '23 (although I'm hoping DCL will release the Treasure date in January) and I'll start looking for flights in January.