How far in advance do you book your flight?

[mikeandkarla]

Just curious. Last year I booked our flight for a December trip in February. By the first week in Dec., our booked flight was $400 less! Is that normal for most airlines? I decided to wait this year and the rates I was looking at in late Feb. have gone up. I know SWA doesn't book until about 6 mo. in advance, but I don't know what to do. I can't help but think gas prices will cause the airfare to increase. Anyone have any advice on how they handle their flight situations?

 

[dianeschlicht]

We usually start looking at airfares about 4 months ahead of the trip.

 

[wildernessDad]

We use Air Tran. We were told that if the fares go down, we'd be given a credit for a future flight. If we see the fare drop and make the request. We'll see if that is true.

 

[ClarabelleCow]

waiting for the jet blue flights to come out for february, as soon as they come out, we will book. And if they come down, will take a voucher.

 

[Tigger & Eeyore]

waiting for the jet blue flights to come out for february, as soon as they come out, we will book. And if they come down, will take a voucher.

Jet Blue- do they give credit vouchers if their air fare drops? I was looking at going in Nov or January and neither is available for pricing. It looks like they only book 6 months out too.

 

[appleorchard]

SWA gives you a credit if your flight cost drops AND you're quick enough to a. notice it b. cancel your flight and rebook at the lower price. It's not automatic, but we just saved $65 one way last night on a Vegas flight by keeping a daily eye on the fares, cancelling our previous flight and imediately rebooking(it helps to have two windows open so you can do this quickly--I was petrified of getting shut out of the lower fare). The one way cost from Philly was ridiculously high or I wouldn't have been watching it so closely.

 

[MBELSANTI]

I booked my August airfare last November and my December airfare last month. I know it is really early, but I checked seating charts and the flights are filling up, especially for my NYE week trip.

 

[Chickkypoo]

I just booked my airfare for November on Saturday. There are so few flights coming from Saskatoon, that if I don't book early, the prices will just continue to climb instead of go down.

 

[brandylouwho]

I usually book 4 months out or so, but this year I booked our flights in mid Feb. The airfare was decent (maybe not a super great deal, but I always watch fares to MCO from our area and this price was acceptable to me). There are only like 4 direct fights each day from here and I figured since we are travelling around the holidays I did not want to chance the flights I wanted to be booked solid.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

I fly monthly (or more) for business as well as vacations. It is all really a shot in the dark unfortunately. I have sometimes paid less for a ticket when I've booked 3 days in advance compared to 2 weeks or more - and it hasn't been been an empty flight either. Our last Disney trip in December was the first trip in a long time that I booked approx 2 months out and then saw the airfare drop tremendously. Most airlines will refund the difference but some will reduce that by their standard ticketing "change fee". I was charged $200 for the change to our 2 tickets and still got a nice amount back.

One thing that is pretty common is spring and fall airfare sales. Hard to say if that will continue in these days of rising fuel costs.

I consider airfare pricing to be one of the great mysteries of the world.

 

[JVL1018]

I booked our airfare for October 2008, last October, the same day Continental opened the fares. It was $715 total for all 4 of us and we leave from Newark, which we much prefer over JFK(sometimes we leave out of there because the fares from Newark are often higher).
Anytime I can get less than $180 I book it immediatly.

 

[tigergrad]

Booked flights for June trip to DLR in Feb. AirTran. The cost has went down twice. Received a credit to be used in the next 12 months. Have enough to take a quick mother-daughters trip to WDW in Nov. The price has since jumped up greatly. I'm glad I booked when I did. I'm getting ready to use my credit to book flights for Nov. If the price goes down I will ask for another credit.

 

[MaryAnnDVC]

We don't book vacations too far in advance anymore, now that our kids are older and we have to work around their schedules. But as soon as we start working on a vacation, we look at flights. We know the general rates we've been able to get with SW, so if flights look pretty good, we'll book. If it comes down, we'll get the credit. We're going to WDW soon with SW credits from a previous trip (plus $13 ). At this point, we know we'll use up any credits one way or another.

That's one of the things I love about DVC...not having to also play the "discount codes" game with non-DVC resorts.

 

[dgaston]

Unfortunately our last two trips to WDW on SWA have been during peak periods -- DH is a HS teacher and we traveled for Christmas and again President's week. I booked the flight as soon as it opened and paid very high rates. Although I really looked, there never were Dings for our time periods.

I still try to book as the schedule opens, and maybe we'll get some Dings or good fares for our October trip. I like to have SWA credit; it never lasts too long for me!

 

[alldiz]

I book with SW as soon as they release their dates....Still waiting for them to release OCT dates.
The fares usually go down and I get a credit.....if you travel at peak times they will go up.....Learned that the hard way for my April trip....when the kids are out of school.
Kerri

 

[MaryAnnDVC]

I book with SW as soon as they release their dates....Still waiting for them to release OCT dates.
The fares usually go down and I get a credit.....if you travel at peak times they will go up.....Learned that the hard way for my April trip....when the kids are out of school.
Kerri

We learned the hard way too last April, waiting to book. Not only were the rates super high, but many flights weren't available at all. We ended up driving there and back. (Never again!) The funny thing was we left RI at 9:30 AM on a Saturday, arrived 7 AM on Sunday, got right into our OKW studio, showered, and went straight to Epcot, arriving before opening. But by 5 PM, we were back in our OKW studio, sound asleep till the next morning.

 

[thepops]

I booked the flights for our Halloween trip in mid Feb. I started on Kayak.com at the beginning of Feb. and saw round trip prices for 204. Not too bad, but since I had time I waited and put myself on their fare watcher e-mail list to notify me if it got below 175. Well, not more than 2 weeks later, I get an e-mail saying they found lower, go on to the site and find .... 129 R/T !
Booked them immediately. I must have stepped in some great pixie dust that morning.

 

[AdamJ]

We first look for miles seats. We have a miles credit card which we charge everything to (and pay off in full each month). All those miles add up pretty quick.

So our October trip is on miles.

If we didn't have enough for miles, then we basically look to see what the fares are running. The best fares are pretty much always Frontier or Southwest out of Denver to Orlando. And when we see a fare that is good (basically anything at $200 or less R/T) then we book it.

I haven't tried many of the meta sites like Kayak but might in the future.

 

[OurDogCisco]

Since we travel during high season we book as soon as we can. We travel from California and fares tend to be cheaper for us early on. I like having more choices of departure and arrival times. The longer I wait the less choices I have. Now, I think if I was traveling off season I could be more flexible and fares would probably be cheaper closer to the travel date.

 

[ktbugsmom]

We like to fly Midwest Airlines and their prices tend to go up the closer you get - so I just booked yesterday for our January 09 trip. Most think I am crazy to book that early, but it gives me peace of mind and allows me to have the trip paid for very early.