How far in advance will an airline let you buy airline tickets???

[RebYork]

This may be a dumb question but my wife and I was wondering if you could buy airline tickets a year out from your departure date? We want to fly out of Jackson, MS to Orlando on Southwest Airlines. We are planning a trip next May 2012. Is it true that air tickets are cheaper the further in advance you buy them? We usually drive but this time we want to fly with our kids to Orlando and are trying to get the best deal possible. Thanks so much...

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

No you can't book a year out on Southwest. They are only accepting reservation up till Nov 2011 right now.
When flights come out they are not necessarally the cheapest you can get. Flight prices can go up and down several times a day.
A month ago I looked at flights for May on Southwest and they were running $180 each way. I decided to wait and sure enough the flights went down to $99. so I bought them. Then a week later they went back up to $154 and today they are $104 each way.

 

[francie57]

As pp stated, SW releases timeframes. Some of the other major airlines let you book at 330 days out. We are going in Aug. and have had our Delta flights since we were allowed to book. Glad we did, got non-stop roundtrips for $179 all taxes/fees and the same flight now is over $250.