How far in advance do you buy your plane tickets?

[mefordis]

How far in advance do you buy your plane tickets? I am going 9/26. Should I have my plane tickets now?

Also, does anyone know of a good airfare alert Website?

Thanks!!

 

[Robo]

How far in advance do you buy your plane tickets? I am going 9/26. Should I have my plane tickets now?

Also, does anyone know of a good airfare alert Website?

Thanks!!

When they announce the "DEALS."

Southwest just had some UNBELIEVABLY LOW fares for the Fall of 2009.
One or two other airlines followed suit.

I think the deadline on those deals just ended yesterday.

Keep checking.

 

[polineedyan]

I got SOOO burned on this same thing. Im an Airtran guy, so Im always quoting on Airtran. For our trip in june, i booked in january. The theory that the sooner you buy, the lower the price is not always true. One week from my trip, I requoted the airfare, and it was about 30 dollars less per ticket than when I bought in january. So, my advice is buy your tickets soon enough to get the seats you want..But, dont assume that the sooner you buy, the lower the fare. Not so.

 

[mefordis]

Oh, I remember the Website for airfare watch! yapta.com !!

 

[AdamsPrincess]

We are going in January and we booked our flights last month. Last year when we went in January we had our flights booked in February.

I am crazy about needing our tickets and we fly Midwest so went they annouce the first direct flights, we know we are getting the cheapest and the earliest flights.

 

[MaryKLady]

ASAP, about 9 months out, and Wednesday, always Wednesday...for some reason it is cheaper

 

[eacatwork]

My family is going in October. DH and I are flying out of State College, which is a little podunk airport. I priced flights back in January and when I saw them the cheapest I've EVER seen them , I booked our two tickets right away. The other four members of my family are flying out of Baltimore, so I waited until SWA announced their schedule and booked them at $69 each way, about which I was ecstatic ! Several weeks later, the fares went down to $49 each way, so SWA issued me a credit of $160, which I'll use to take DH on a business trip with me next January. Win-win all around!

My advice is to know ahead of time what fares to expect and when you see something reasonable, go for it. When you see something so tremendously cheap that you have to blink, rub your eyes, and ask someone else to come read the screen to make sure you aren't imagining things, JUMP ON IT!

 

[teddygurlkeekee]

priceline.com just sent me an email with a whole bunch of deals on tickets starting at $45. check them out!

 

[redhead09]

We arrive the day before you and we have had our airfare for about 2 months now. We found a great deal on United so, we are paying about 198 pp from Chicago.

However all of the airlines have matched Southwest's fall sale, so if you hurry, I am sure one of them still may have some reduced seats.


I received email alerts from http://www.airfarewatchdog.com/

 

[nanceliz]

I got mine for November as soon as southwest posted available. I'm glad I did! The same flights are now over $100 more each way

 

[SOnotLayuh]

We bought our tickets on March 1st for our trip on 7/24

 

[disneygirlinnj]

yapta is the site for alerts... i've been looking too for the same dates as you. continental was down to $219 from newark but it has since jumped up to $260 for the same flights ugh!!! I'm so hesitant to buy!

 

[JasonDVC]

I believe Southwest fall sale prices end today, so hurry.

I believe they are in the range of 50% off for some flights

 

[pilferk]

We booked our Sept 16 - 25 trip's airfare back in March. And I haven't seen anything in the way of cheaper fares than the one we booked via Delta, yet. At least not out of BDL......not even SW has come close to matching those prices.

 

[wild4dis]

I think if your flying during a "regular" time you could wait a little to see if a deal comes along, as long as you have some flexible flight plans.
However, we have gone during April vac the past few years and we have booked as soon as possible, those weeks there are no discounts and flight prices are outrageous.
I have always wondered how an airline can charge $500 for a flight, that is only $195 2 weeks before or after for the same exact flight !!....if thats not price gouging, I dont know what is, how come the govt cant regulate that somehow? I guess its the same with gas prices during summer travel, heating fuel in the winter, etc....but it pi**es me off !!

I miss those WDW trips in Oct when we used to get $149 RT lights from CT.....of course the kids are older and I cant pull them out of school like we used too !!

 

[junebugs]

I got SOOO burned on this same thing. Im an Airtran guy, so Im always quoting on Airtran. For our trip in june, i booked in january. The theory that the sooner you buy, the lower the price is not always true. One week from my trip, I requoted the airfare, and it was about 30 dollars less per ticket than when I bought in january. So, my advice is buy your tickets soon enough to get the seats you want..But, dont assume that the sooner you buy, the lower the fare. Not so.

I have to agree with this!

This was my first time purchasing tickets with Airtran. I bought our tickets in February for our August, 2009 trip. The ticket price was $69/one way, which I thought was a good deal. BUT the NEXT DAY the ticket price dropped to $54/one way.

I've seen the prices go up and down every week. I guess the best thing to do is buy when you like the price and then don't keep checking it every week!

 

[MartDM]

I book mine as soon as our travel dates are confirmed. It gives me the best choice of seats and I can always get the difference refunded to my Frequent Flyer account if the airfare goes down.

 

[Resseda]

I have purchased pretty much as soon as dates were set and the airline opened up for booking those dates. I booked great fares on Jet Blue and on a whim, checked and saw that they have gone down about $30 a seat one way, so I called and got the credit. If Jet Blue wasn't so good about the credits, I'd have to rethink that plan.

Ress

 

[ransom]

I've bought anywhere from 3 to 10 months out. I have a pretty decent idea of what a good price is, and I'll buy in at any point if pricing gets into the "really good" range for my route.

 

[stephie1012]

yapta is the site for alerts... i've been looking too for the same dates as you. continental was down to $219 from newark but it has since jumped up to $260 for the same flights ugh!!! I'm so hesitant to buy!

we were going to fly out of newark but decided it would be cheaper to fly out of atlantic city..we got $49 one way i stil have to buy our coming home tickets but just found $49 coming home to! i think we have the same date 9/26-10/3 right?