How far in advance should you buy airline tickets to get the best deal?

[berlyfly2]

We are going to WDW in December.. I have read online that buying tickets on Tuesday's are the cheapest.. but it doesn't say how far out to buy them that give you the best deal? so far the best I can find is $320 per ticket from Boston.. seems high to me.. do you think waiting til we get closer would get me a better price or should I grab em now?

 

[NotUrsula]

It varies somewhat by route and circumstances, but except for flights on high-demand travel days, such as around holidays or major sporting events/festivals, the usual rule of thumb is from about 7-16 weeks out.

For high-demand days, your best bet is as soon as they go on sale.

 

[mtblujeans]

I saw a recommendation on one of the morning shows, Today I think, to start watching prices 0 to 3 months before your trip. They said watching beyond the 3 months is a waste of your time.

 

[DjdBrit]

We are going to WDW in December.. I have read online that buying tickets on Tuesday's are the cheapest.. but it doesn't say how far out to buy them that give you the best deal? so far the best I can find is $320 per ticket from Boston.. seems high to me.. do you think waiting til we get closer would get me a better price or should I grab em now?

I love near Boston, and I usually buy my tickets as soon as I find I price I am willing to pay. Sooner rather than later. I leave in 44 days and I booked my airfare in January time. I have done it over a year in advance.

I have payed between $200 and up to $400 per person. You can get it for less and more depending on when you travel, who you travel with and whether you want direct or not.

My next trip is on Jetblue and just last week I checked my flight and the price came down. One quick call and they credited me $101 back on each ticket for a later date, which was pretty great as we are a family of 5.

Good luck and happy planning

 

[DisneyAndRedSox]

I took 4 trips to Disney last year, I have found Boston to Orlando runs more expensive than other markets (ie Philly.). I always book at least 4 months out, like a pp said, if you book on Jet Blue and the price goes down you can get a credit in a JetBlue travel bank. In 4 trips last year, the only one that went down in price was my flight out of Hartford, all the Boston ones never went down.

 

[njmom47]

You can sign up with Booking Buddy(there are other sites as well). Enter your information, they will track flight prices for you, and you will get emails about the fares you're interested in. I do this even though who knows when I'll be going on vacation again. Also, there is a website that shows, historically, when fares go up and down. One is "Trend Tracker."

 

[ndfi78]

The current advice is around 3 weeks out, you can also search for flights on www.bing.com and they have a predictor function built in that tells you if they think it is a good time to buy.

 

[Happy vacationer]

I always start looking way, way in advance. We are taking a trip in April and we booked our airline tickets two weeks ago because it was the lowest price I've ever found for flying from our area to our destination. We've flown to the same destination 2 x's before. I found that the best price to book was on Wednesday.

 

[squirrel]

I like booking as soon as the flights become available. I've found they seem to be the cheapest, unless you are willing to look daily until your date.

 

[bpesch]

I'm amazed at how many people wait until a few months before to book. I've never had any luck doing that. We're going in January and I bought our tickets back in March. The prices are a little higher now but the real issue for us is the timing of the flights. The longer you wait to buy, the less chance you'll get something that fits into your schedule. We like to get into DW fairly early so we have a 1/2 day to do things and those flights are long gone. If you don't care about flight times waiting is fine. If the timing is important, I would book as soon as you find something you like.

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

If I were traveling to Orlando over the Christmas holiday season, I would have already purchased tickets. I suggest you buy as soon as you see a good price.

 

[amylynne01]

I just bought tickets for Boston to Orlando 12/1 - 12/4 for $217 pp on AirTran. My goal is anything less than $250 a person for that route. I won't pay for anything higher unless I can find literally no deals.

 

[PatriciaH]

We booked for November a few weeks ago when Southwest had their sale. It was $80 each way. Manchester-Orlando.

 

[sharonmickey]

I booked for our December trip in early June. I paid under $200 per person. Since then the rate on the trip has almost tripled, the price for one ticket is within $3 of what I paid for three tickets (round trip).

Since we are flying close to the holidays I was afraid to wait because I thought the prices would go up.

Good luck.

 

[dwonderz]

Tickets for our December Trip were around $375 in April, and we booked them last night and they were $450 - so they went up and I think ours will just keep going up since we're flying during the holidays, and gas is so whacky!

 

[Dizneydaz]

I booked our flights to WDW for late Sept. about a month ago when Southwest offered a deal too good to be true. Only $240 RT (plus a few fees) from California to WDW. I haven't paid that low of a price in a few years. Plus with not having to pay any luggage fees, it's an even better deal. RT tickets for 3 of us ran about $813. Luckily I saw the email from SW in time. The deal was only available for a few days. I think it ended on a Thursday, 6/2,. So, for me it was just about 3-3/4 months from our departure date. I did check flights for about a month before booking and I was shocked at the high prices, even on SW.

 

[sam_gordon]

Delta opens flights up 330 days out. For our last trip, I booked ~ 323 out from my return flight. $144 RT/person. I checked back ~once a week and NEVER saw the price go lower than that. About 3 months out from our trip, the price was doubled. Even other flights the same day were more expensive, and they were leaving MCO @ 7am!

Bottom line, watch the prices. When you get one you can afford, buy it. DON'T look again (at prices).

 

[ancestry]

It really depends on when you are going, where you are flying fro, and what day(s) of the week you are flying. Bottom line is that it is a gamble.

When we are trying at a low travel time (not holidays, not summers, basically when school is in session) and on a low travel day (i.e. not weekends) we usually get the best fare if we wait. When there are a lot of seats left at 60-90 days out airlines will offer some really good sale prices.

However, waiting is a gamble. If there aren't seats left like you were expecting the prices could end up going sky high. Ultimately as you get closer to the travel date the price is dependent on availability.

What I usually do is determine what is a fair price to pay and when the airfare hits that price I buy (we usually travel on JetBlue). I then monitor my purchased flights through yapta and if the price drops we get a credit.

 

[Judyat]

Take a look at southwest's low fare calendar. It will show you the lowest prices for each day of the month. You can find it by putting in your dates and when they come up look next to the dates. If you can be a little flexible some dates are lower than others. Of course the closer you get to Christmas we do go up some. Right now the lowest in December is $97. Best day to check is Tuesday when their sales start. They usually run through Thursday. We like Southwest because if we need to change or cancel we are not penalized and our bags fly free. And if the price goes down you can change for free and get a voucher good for one year for the difference. There are so many great reasons to fly Southwest. They always have great deals to Orlando. Having said that if you are flying around Christmas time I would look now because they will only go higher as we get closer to December.