Wait to buy plane tickets or buy now?

[IRLdisneyprincess]

My friend and I are going on DCL in September. We live in Texas ( him near Dallas, me in Houston) and we will be flying out from Houston to San Diego. Including the cruise, we plan on staying gone for eight days total. Right now we are budgeting and trying to figure out the best time to buy tickets, since there seems to be a lot of conflicting information out there.

I assumed buying early meant getting the tickets cheaper but so far the lowest price I have found is for $400. Is this a realistic price no matter when we book, or do you think we would be able to find cheaper? Should we just wait? Is there something that I am doing wrong? I have been on flights before but in the past my parents and family have taken care of purchasing the tickets and this is my very first vacation that involves a flight, so I have no idea what I'm doing lol.

Any help would be appreciated!

 

[Albort]

would suggest the app Hopper. It will tell you if its time to buy the ticket or not.

 

[Jimsig]

With airline tickets you can really never be sure. Some say there is a "magic" time which is something like 48 days out, though I could be off on that number. What boils down to IMO is buy at a fare you are comfortable with and don't look back. Starting tomorrow at Noon eastern you can book on JetBlue up until Oct 28th so you might find some low fares then.

 

[gottalovepluto]

When I bought CA-FL tickets a couple years ago I started watching 6-7 months out on Kayak. Prices fluctuated & I jumped around the 5 month mark when they looked to be as low as I thought I'd seen. Sure enough it was the low (I kept checking out of curiosity). I'm not saying 5 months is the mark, I'm saying start getting familiar with the prices so you can recognize good vs bad for your route. (JetBlue & Southwest aren't options for us so I don't know how they work.)

 

[CalDisneyMomof2]

Check every single day as prices can fluctuate daily. I've seen some change 4 times in a week.

What other plans do you have? Will you be renting a car? There are other options to fly into if your plans involve the other destinations. SNA, LGB, Palm Springs (sorry dont know the airport code) are all about 2 hours away. ONT is just over an hour and a half. If the fares are significantly less you may want to try them especially if you'll be visiting attractions in the Orange County, Palm Springs or LA area.

 

[Shughart]

We fly to Orlando in September of last year and what I liked is google flights. You can save flights that you build and it tracks the price. In the beginning February-March our flight was coming in around $1540 and I tracked it on google flights for several weeks. It would dip down and then come back up, dip down shoot up higher. 3 times it hit the lowest, around 1150, and the third time (it was May) I pulled the trigger. I was worried it would climb more as it got closer. If you're far enough out for travel time, might be worth watching the price.