How far in advance to buy airline tickets?

[CerysG]

At what point in planning do people buy their airline tickets? Seems like it is usually one of the last things to get done. I was reading somewhere to do this about 6 months out. Do prices drop the closer you get to flying? Of course with 5 of us we can't chance there won't be seats for all of us.

 

[webworm]

At what point in planning do people buy their airline tickets? Seems like it is usually one of the last things to get done. I was reading somewhere to do this about 6 months out. Do prices drop the closer you get to flying? Of course with 5 of us we can't chance there won't be seats for all of us.

Normally the sooner you buy the better and the closer you get they increase. When are you looking to travel?

 

[KeroKero]

My motto on this is to keep checking prices and when you see one you like you book.

We booked our trip with the WDW website 2 weeks ago for this coming September - but only booked air yesterday, cause we were lucky enough to find on sunwing a flight that was $19 (roundtrip before taxes) from YYZ!!

 

[CerysG]

We aren't going till next August so lots of time and DH and both need to renew our passports before then. We live in Saskatchewan so don't have access to a lot of the flights and prices that someone in Toronto or Vancouver do, which is to bad as it can be crazy expensive. Though it seems some of the US airlines that do fly out of here have much cheaper flights then WestJet or Air Canada so it's gotten a bit better.

 

[dis_guy]

We aren't going till next August so lots of time and DH and both need to renew our passports before then. We live in Saskatchewan so don't have access to a lot of the flights and prices that someone in Toronto or Vancouver do, which is to bad as it can be crazy expensive. Though it seems some of the US airlines that do fly out of here have much cheaper flights then WestJet or Air Canada so it's gotten a bit better.

It's about the same flying out of Edmonton. We usually end up booking United a few weeks after the flights become available. Occasionally they'll dip a bit (maybe 20 bucks per seat) but generally they do nothing but go up after they appear on the schedule. They always seem to be cheaper than our other choices.

 

[Alderbrook]

Prices get more expensive the closer you get usually. We book our tickets the day the flight schedule is released. We booked out of BUF in March for September. We paid $290 pp return & the next week the flights jumped to $310 one way pp with Jetblue. We have not flown out of Canada in years so I'm not sure if it works the same way here. Westjet does do seat sales I've seen after their schedules are released but it was always cheaper to fly from BUF even with their sale because of the taxes to fly out of YYZ. We always book right away because even if there's a seat sale later on, will you get the flight you want, will there be enough seats for everyone in your party? There is 6 of us travelling in September so booking early for us has usually = best prices & availability.

 

[PensFan]

We always fly Air Canada and the best I can ever get per person is about 400ish going from YYZ to MCO assuming there is not some crazy sale on but that's never the case so once I find flights that come in around that price I just book it.

 

[CerysG]

Yes United often has the best prices from Regina but Delta seems to be matching them right now and I'd rather fly through Minneapolis then Denver or Chicago. Air Canada and West Jet are always around $800 per person so if I can find something cheaper I'm happy. So how far in advance do they put up their flights? I was thinking I would start looking in Jan. or Feb for our August flights.

 

[RCMommy]

I stalk the airline websites, literally. I watch them and see the trend (so to speak) are the going up, going down, on what days etc. We keep hearing that it will cost more to fly anywhere this year compared to the last so when I see numbers I like then I will book and our WDW trip is in December. Right now, it is looking to cost us about $200 more for the four of us flying from Detroit to MCO. We are in London Ontario. That is not bad, but I have time to wait and watch a bit longer.

I watched a special that said Saturday's are the best day to fly, and Tuesdays and Wednesdays are when the flight deals come out. I will see if I can post the link on here.

A long time ago I signed up with Southwest, Delta, Air Canada, Jet Blue and so on to get their fare specials via email and they almost always come on a Tuesday.

 

[RCMommy]

I have never posted a link before so I am not sure if this will work but it is a great video clip about "how to find the best flight deal"

http://video.ca.msn.com/watch/video...the-best-airfares/17ys4kukv?from=en-ca_fblike