The waiting game

[hsmamato2]

What's the longest any of you have waited before booking airfare on a trip? How close to your date do you feel comfortable waiting for? And if you book early,or late, was it a good/bad thing?

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

I have booked flights the day of travel. This can work out well for special sale fares, not so well if the plane is almost full.

 

[goofy4tink]

I usually book way early. But, I'm hoping for some good fares in January from Boston to Tampa. Nothing great yet. It's a trip that will most likely be very last minute...including hotel. If it happens, terrific, if not...well, I guess I can visit ds later in the year. Here's hoping somebody offers a really good fare.

 

[beccasmom]

The problem with booking late, IMHO, is the very real possibility of getting a crummy flight schedule. For example, leaving PHL at 6:00 am is not a deal breaker for us; we are only 20 minutes away from the airport. But leaving WDW at that time (hello! ) entails a VERY early ME pickup. It is not too much fun. If you have a car, that is obviously not as much of an issue. And some airlines don't have frequent service to MCO; you might be shut out entirely for the dates you need.

 

[bgirl29]

Five years ago we had our trip all planned and just a couple weeks before the trip we thought "what are we doing driving in a car for 23 hours with a 3 month old? So we ended up finding tickets for a steal. The only problem was we could not get seat assignments for one flight segment. Not even the day before travel, or when checking in at the first airport or upon arrival at the airport where we had no seat assingments. We had to wait until everyone boarded ( I was very nervous about this, having 3 kids along) but they finally called our name and bummer they only had room in first class would that be ok? YEAH!!

Also we are traveling in 3 weeks and I just purchased different tickets for our travel because prices became so low, the new flights are at much better times and from a closer airport, so I couldn't resist. At first I could not get all seats together, but in the 2 weeks since we bought them I have been watching the seat availability on the flights and called to rebook our seats so now we are together.

Good luck with whatever you decide.