How many months in advance do you - on average - book flights?

[georgina]

It's all over the place. I booked my December flights on SW Thursday when the flights were released. A few days before I booked April flights on SW, glad I did because those flights went up on Thursday. (Decided to go back to Tampa on April 22 to see my niece's baby, flights were $90 there and $173 back, but I have a LOT of SW credit because when DH got a SW card a while ago I cancelled everything and rebooked them with his card for the required spend)

Usually I book 4-6 months out for other airlines. For my recent March trip to Florida, I had AA booked on points, but a few weeks before switched to Tampa from MCO and saved a bunch of points and saved on my rental car.

 

[RuntheMouse]

I book when I think prices are decent. We only fly Delta so I’m always checking even after I book and will take the ecredit if it goes cheaper or even upgrade for a similar price. I currently have December flights booked as well as October and am sitting on a credit when I rebooked our tickets 2 weeks out for our trip last week. Never thought spring break tickets would drop so close to our trip.

 

[japanese maple]

I typically book asap because I find it very rare for award fares to go down, whether JetBlue or Delta (my usuals). Most often I am on points/miles and during holiday weekend trips especially I find they only go up. Especially over Thanksgiving/Xmas.

I don’t mind canceling and rebooking to pocket a credit on cash bookings though. I travel often enough that I’m never in danger of them expiring. I also have AwardWallet reminding me about any credits/travel bank funds. But most often I am watching Delta for cheap FC upgrades, and sometimes it’s cheaper to just change the ticket to FC rather than buying the seat upgrade. I just did that for my July 4th weekend Island Tower trip.

So funny! I literally just finished upgrading United. Upgrade from regular economy to first class for $150! Pretty good considering we check two bags each, priority boarding, just us two in the row, a meal and free wine!

 

[kylenne]

So funny! I literally just finished upgrading United. Upgrade from regular economy to first class for $150! Pretty good considering we check two bags each, priority boarding, just us two in the row, a meal and free wine!

That's a nice deal! I have seen a number of people say they value domestic FC at $50/hr. For me that would be a no brainer upgrade as our flight is around 3 hours. I managed to score my upgrade in July for $130 by changing my flight outright from Main to First vs the $235 they wanted for the upgrade. Delta's algorithm is weird! I am still monitoring our May flights.

I get why people don't think it's worth it for a relatively shorter flight, but 3 hours is enough for me for feel uncomfortable in a standard seat with how tall I am. It also helps Delta uses Do&Co catering out of JFK so the breakfasts on board are actually pretty good. And I definitely utilize the extra free bag coming back.

It's a shame United pulled out of JFK and only has very limited service out of LGA. EWR is just way too inconvenient to get to from where I'm at in the city. I would like to try their product at some point.

 

[japanese maple]

That's a nice deal! I have seen a number of people say they value domestic FC at $50/hr. For me that would be a no brainer upgrade as our flight is around 3 hours. I managed to score my upgrade in July for $130 by changing my flight outright from Main to First vs the $235 they wanted for the upgrade. Delta's algorithm is weird! I am still monitoring our May flights.

I get why people don't think it's worth it for a relatively shorter flight, but 3 hours is enough for me for feel uncomfortable in a standard seat with how tall I am. It also helps Delta uses Do&Co catering out of JFK so the breakfasts on board are actually pretty good. And I definitely utilize the extra free bag coming back.

It's a shame United pulled out of JFK and only has very limited service out of LGA. EWR is just way too inconvenient to get to from where I'm at in the city. I would like to try their product at some point.

Ours is just under 3 hours. Plenty of time for me to drink two glasses of wine. l And I appreciate the 70lb instead of 50lb weight for bags. With souvenirs, I can pass 50 pretty easily (we go for 10 days, lots of clothes and shoes!)

 

[EACarlson]

It's a shame United pulled out of JFK and only has very limited service out of LGA. EWR is just way too inconvenient to get to from where I'm at in the city. I would like to try their product at some point.

You're not missing anything. The ORD based crew I had ORD-MCO offered better service than the LGA based Delta crew I had MCO-DTW, but both were blown away by the DTW based crew I had MSP-MCO.

 

[wvjules]

Going to WDW June 15. I've been checking Cap1 travel portal and google flights, both say to wait until Mid-April.

I'm flying to Miami next week and am considering stopping by the Frontier desk to purchase since it will save on the CiC fees. Right now the R/T is like $375 total for 2 people. Not a huge fan of Frontier (might ben unfair since I've never flown them.) but they have good times for a direct flight from BWI to MCO.

 

[EACarlson]

Going to WDW June 15. I've been checking Cap1 travel portal and google flights, both say to wait until Mid-April.

I'm flying to Miami next week and am considering stopping by the Frontier desk to purchase since it will save on the CiC fees. Right now the R/T is like $375 total for 2 people. Not a huge fan of Frontier (might ben unfair since I've never flown them.) but they have good times for a direct flight from BWI to MCO.

Word of caution with Frontier, one of the companies I work with tried to save some money and sent a co worker this weekend via Frontier. Price was about $200 less, but half of that was immediately eaten up by the cost for a carryon. He was scheduled to fly out last night at 1130, at 11pm they cancelled his flight with no warning and no help. No other flights home that he could make with the late notice. So now the company has to pay for a hotel, transportation, food and buy another ticket on another airline as the rebooking offered was Tuesday night. If it had been a personal trip, he'd have been on the hook for all of it. Total, the company's attempt to save $100 is going to end up costing them about $600. At least if this had happened on a non-ULCC, he would have had a good chance of getting his hotel paid for and would have flown out one way or another first thing this morning.

 

[kylenne]

I'm flying to Miami next week and am considering stopping by the Frontier desk to purchase since it will save on the CiC fees. Right now the R/T is like $375 total for 2 people. Not a huge fan of Frontier (might ben unfair since I've never flown them.) but they have good times for a direct flight from BWI to MCO.

Southwest has BWI on lock. tbh I would still fly with them before Frontier, and I don't even like Southwest. If things go wrong you are so hosed. (See below)

Word of caution with Frontier, one of the companies I work with tried to save some money and sent a co worker this weekend via Frontier. Price was about $200 less, but half of that was immediately eaten up by the cost for a carryon. He was scheduled to fly out last night at 1130, at 11pm they cancelled his flight with no warning and no help. No other flights home that he could make with the late notice. So now the company has to pay for a hotel, transportation, food and buy another ticket on another airline as the rebooking offered was Tuesday night. If it had been a personal trip, he'd have been on the hook for all of it. Total, the company's attempt to save $100 is going to end up costing them about $600. At least if this had happened on a non-ULCC, he would have had a good chance of getting his hotel paid for and would have flown out one way or another first thing this morning.

Almost this exact scenario happened to my sister not long ago flying LAS-BWI for work. Company put her on Frontier because it worked out cheaper than Southwest. Out to Vegas was fine but coming home her flight got canceled out of nowhere and they didn't have anything until the next day. She ended up making her own way home on American that night on her own dime and getting reimbursed but it was really stressful and ended up costing more money than if they had just put her on another airline. My cousin had a similar issue with Spirit when she was living in FL and had to fly back to NY when we had a death in the family and she ended up missing the funeral.

This sort of thing put me off ULCCs forever tbh. They're fine getting from A to B if you understand how to avoid the fee traps and don't care about niceties. But god help you in the case of irops. I see them as the textbook definition of pennywise and pound foolish. I wouldn't tempt fate with them given how much we pay for Disney vacations specifically.

 

[JBRB828]

We fly United and we are going again end of July/August. The week that United opened up their flights I booked. Five of us for $235 a person with all taxes included. We like non-stop and seats together.

 

[EACarlson]

This sort of thing put me off ULCCs forever tbh. They're fine getting from A to B if you understand how to avoid the fee traps and don't care about niceties. But god help you in the case of irops. I see them as the textbook definition of pennywise and pound foolish. I wouldn't tempt fate with them given how much we pay for Disney vacations specifically.

Exactly this, my advice with ULCCs is that I wouldn't do it if it was something that you're going to be really upset if you miss. And have a backup plan in place. My wife joined me for a business trip last year, I flew United into Denver and she flew Frontier. If her outbound flight was cancelled, not a big deal, she just wouldn't be joining me. If her return had been cancelled, we had booked a back up flight on Delta with points for a few hours after her Frontier flight was scheduled. Once the Frontier flight took off I cancelled the Delta and got my points back.

 

[sam_gordon]

Going to WDW June 15. I've been checking Cap1 travel portal and google flights, both say to wait until Mid-April.

We fly in June 14 and check into WDW on the 15.

Bought our tickets on Dec. 27 for $350. Was hoping to get under $300. As almost expected, Delta cancelled originally scheduled flights, then moved the flights they rebooked us to, so we were able to change to better flight times. We were originally leaving home at ~6p and getting into MCO at 10:40p. We're now leaving at 1p and getting in at 5:40p. No added cost. The current price for the 1p-5:40p flight? $557 (for one ticket, more than one bumps up to $638.

One potential benefit of booking a long way out (at least for legacy airlines) is when they invariably make a significant change, you can select any other flight that day. So if you book the cheap flight with out great hours, and they do make a change, you move to flight with better hours at no additional charge. Granted it's a gamble, but we've used it multiple times in the past.

 

[andcarro]

Nothing new here, but booking 11 months out is likely overpaying.

 

[japanese maple]

You're not missing anything. The ORD based crew I had ORD-MCO offered better service than the LGA based Delta crew I had MCO-DTW, but both were blown away by the DTW based crew I had MSP-MCO.

Can I ask what do you mean by better service?

 

[EACarlson]

Can I ask what do you mean by better service?

The LGA based Delta crew, there was no PDB, the only time I saw them was during meal service, no offers to get another beverage, much more time I could see them sitting playing on their phone in the forward galley.
The ORD based United crew, PDB, very attentive during the early portion of the flights, as soon as the meal was served, they disappeared.
The DTW based Delta Crew, asked for my PDB order as soon as I took my jacket off, asked if I wanted another as soon as we got above 10k, meal service was good and they were around but not overbearing for the rest of the flight. All I had to do was make eye contact and they were asking what I would like.

 

[japanese maple]

The LGA based Delta crew, there was no PDB, the only time I saw them was during meal service, no offers to get another beverage, much more time I could see them sitting playing on their phone in the forward galley.
The ORD based United crew, PDB, very attentive during the early portion of the flights, as soon as the meal was served, they disappeared.
The DTW based Delta Crew, asked for my PDB order as soon as I took my jacket off, asked if I wanted another as soon as we got above 10k, meal service was good and they were around but not overbearing for the rest of the flight. All I had to do was make eye contact and they were asking what I would like.

Ah! Okay thanks. I will see if we get PDB. Once we did, once we didn't.

 

[Miffy]

I usually use Google Flights and wait to see how the fare's going--that's if there's enough time before the trip to do this. I've definitely purchased tickets, seen the cost go down significantly, then canceled and rebooked. At @kylenne said, I'll certainly be using the travel credits on a later trip.

I rarely book a flight the first time I look at it unless I see that somehow I've lucked into the lowest fare in months and/or the front of the plane is quite full and the odds of getting a seat I'd prefer are diminishing.

Also, I've learned to book 2 one-way flights. I learned this the hard way when my outbound flight to MCO was canceled and I had to get credit for just that part of the ticket. Never again.

 

[sam_gordon]

Also, I've learned to book 2 one-way flights. I learned this the hard way when my outbound flight to MCO was canceled and I had to get credit for just that part of the ticket. Never again.

I do that for work because I'm more likely to need changes. The last two family trips I've booked, the RT was actually cheaper than two one ways. When booking for 7-8 people, that's a significant difference.

 

[kylenne]

I do that for work because I'm more likely to need changes. The last two family trips I've booked, the RT was actually cheaper than two one ways. When booking for 7-8 people, that's a significant difference.

Yeah I find that sometimes there’s a “tax” on one ways. I usually book them for award flights though.

 

[Miffy]

Yeah I find that sometimes there’s a “tax” on one ways. I usually book them for award flights though.

I usually check that but so far I haven't found that to be the case. The only extra is that if I purchase insurance, I'm buying it for 2 trips instead of just one. I fly JetBlue, btw.