Waiting to buy air worked for me!

[VanessasMom]

I usually buy our airfare 6-8 weeks out on a Tuesday. In the past this strategy always worked, but the rules are changing. When I looked at eight weeks out, fares from Chicago were $250 round trip. Then they dropped to $211 about six weeks out. I had many things happening and couldn't book. When I looked at five weeks out, the air soared to $300. I thought I missed the boat on the cheap air. So I decided to stalk the prices, checking everyday in my spare time one to five times a day. I kept checking it out and saw the averages around $258. I decided that if there were less than ten seats left I would buy otherwise i would wait it out for some sort of price drop.

I am leaving on May 29th. On Friday, May 4th, the airfare dropped to $166 round trip. The airline is American and our flights are the perfect times for us. We depart at 7:00 am and our return flight departs at 7:35 pm from Orlando. The flights are both non-stop. I cannot express how happy I was to book this flight at this price! I just wanted to post this because I see a lot of threads about booking as far in advance as possible to get the best price, but sometimes it pays to wait as well. It's all a gamble. Good luck to all you bargain airfare shoppers!!!

 

[dudspizza]

Congrats.

You are right that it is a gamble. As long as anyone who tries this knows the risks involved, go for it. One has to be willing to pay higher than they want or be willing to cancel a trip if the fares don't come down low enough.....

Duds

 

[carol-lamb]

Wow - great price. I fly out of Detroit Metro to Orlando on Delta about four times a year and I have never experienced lower fares the closer I get to my trips. Always the opposite!

 

[cindy17]

Good for you! I'm jealous! The fare I'm looking for is quite a bit away, but I'm nervous because it's Columbus Day weekend. We have a family wedding, my husband, myself and one son are using FF miles to fly out of Newark, but my college-aged son needs to fly out of Philly (not FF miles) preferably nonstop (his first solo flight) and fares have been thru the roof and not moving at all! If it doesn't go below $300 he's not going (I'm sure he won't be super disappointed!

 

[Echo queen]

You gambled and WON!!

 

[mdsd8700]

Congrats that is a great price! Enjoy your trip.

 

[jodifla]

Wow - great price. I fly out of Detroit Metro to Orlando on Delta about four times a year and I have never experienced lower fares the closer I get to my trips. Always the opposite!

I fly out of DTW as well, and often find the trips cheaper at about two months out.

My DH recently booked a trip at 5 weeks out from DTW to NYC and it was $150 cheaper than when he first started looking.

 

[carol-lamb]

I fly out of DTW as well, and often find the trips cheaper at about two months out.

My DH recently booked a trip at 5 weeks out from DTW to NYC and it was $150 cheaper than when he first started looking.

I usually book around 2-3 months out. I booked a couple of weeks ago for my next trip (June 21-28) so that was 2 months out and I paid $287. I've checked a couple of times since then and the price went up just a little ($302). It has been my experience that the fares start going up once you pass the two month mark.