How Far In Advance Do You Book Your Airlines?

[XxDisneyFan00xX]

I was just curious to see when you all book your airlines.

Thanks.

 

[phabric]

I booked our flights (Toronto-Orlando) for our Aug trip on Jan 31 on WestJet. The price has gone up over $1,000 for the 3 of us.

 

[shoppgirl]

We are travelling beginning of August and I found Jet Blue tickets out of Buffalo at the beginning of Jan for a great price and I jumped on those tickets right away. The price for these tickets continue to rise every time I look (out of curiousity!). I purchased my airfare before I even booked my resort.

 

[declansdad]

We have booked our last two trip around the 330 day mark with Delta. We have received great deals this way, even better than some of the discount airlines.

 

[MikeyNS]

Depends on how I'm going. With Aeroplan I book at the maximum time (350ish days out) to guarantee cheap point flights. If I'm usion Avion points I book a few months out. If (and when) I actually pay for my flights it will be a few months before hand as well. I'll take the chance of a little bit of flucuation rather than giving the airline my money many many months before hand!

 

[mom_rules]

Beginning of March for next January. Great fare so far.

 

[trivial]

For our last trip, we waited to book until about one month in advance (for mid January). We had two roundtrip tickets from Buffalo to Orlando for a total of $350 (taxes and fees included). We used Ding for Southwest on the way down, and I'm not really sure how we managed to get such low prices with JetBlue, but we paid the same rate on the way back.

Next time around, we'll have a larger group, so we'll be booking much earlier.

 

[esdras]

We're hoping to fly out of Detroit, but still haven't booked for our proposed last week of August trip. Mainly, we don't want to purchase non-refundable (therefore cheapest) tickets until we know the vacation is a go - and until a better discount comes out for our week, it won't be. The Free Dining news is hopeful though.

I have been keeping track of all the airlines though, but there hasn't been a truly amazing deal yet. I know that I've seen past fares as low as $59 USD (before taxes and fees) each way on Southwest. So far, the best offer I've seen is $74 each way - I think AirTran offered that one.

Mousesavers suggests that prices at six months out and two months out are often the lowest. If we can get the Free Dining (or something roughly as good), we'll hope that some good prices come out in June for August flights.

 

[bdtracey]

On our last trip we booked in September for a May trip ($600/person) and a couple weeks later it dropped to $500/person. IMHO the pricing is airline specific. With Westjet you have to watch the seat sales like a hawk (checking multiple times per day!), Air Canada (our LAST resort) seems to bounce around quite a bit and United seems to pick and choose when to raise their prices. I haven't quite figured out their system to that yet.

I have also been instructed by DW that the next time we're going we will be flying direct with Westjet, no matter how much it costs. I beg to differ but it sure would be nice to get there in less than 5 hours as opposed to close to 9.

Sorry to go off topic but my official answer is to watch throughout the year and get a feel for the type of price you'd be willing to pay and watch for it.

 

[maggieb9975]

I booked 8 months ahead. I thought the prices looked pretty good. I got an Airtran flight out of detroit $199.00 with taxes return and that includes seat selection.

I am going on a cruise after my Disney trip and needed to make sure I got the dates I needed.

 

[lisalonglash]

I was just curious to see when you all book your airlines.

Thanks.

We book flights when we find an awesome deal that we feel isn't going to get any better kwim?

The last time we went to France, we booked our flights 11 months ahead - because the deal on BA was fantastic!

For this trip to WDW, we booked our flights a couple of months ago - so, about 8 months ahead - because, at $335 all in for direct return flights SEA/MCO at the times we wanted, we figured there's no way we'd find a better deal later

I hope you are able to find a wonderful airfare for your trip!

 

[drag n' fly]

We booked December flights in February. We got 5 tickets Calgary to Tampa return including taxes for 2360.00 cad We booked our upcoming trip in April last August using travel points.

 

[XxDisneyFan00xX]

In two days both west jet and Air Canada have gone up by 63.00 FOR DECEMBER?!

 

[dhluvsDisney]

For us it varies. Sometimes I wait it out in a "down season" for a seat sale that I like, and other times, like today, we booked Our New Year's Eve flight because the price was right for that time of year, and I know it will only double in price.

 

[XxDisneyFan00xX]

Thank you all for your input and answers. I'm getting nervous because my mother wants to book our flight for December in October. Im just hoping that not all the seats are taken.

 

[mickeymorse]

Does anyone know which airlines have prices for end of Jan flight?