When do you book your flight?

[Sweettears]

I book a room when there is a discount offered and then airfare assuming it’s available. I always use Southwest. I then watch fares and rebook when the price goes down. For example I have a trip booked end of April. Initially airfare was around $300. I now have it at $230. You don’t get a refund but you do get a credit. By doing this on a regular basis I build up enough credits to pay for future flights.

 

[DougEMG]

i always book our trip at 11 months. Then once the flights become available I remove any days from the start and/end of our trip based on the flights. I always end up dropping days from the start and end of our trip because I never get flights to match up exactly. The only good thing about this is I have more than enough points to book an extra week and I am very flexible on what dates I travel.

 

[Sondra Sunflowers]

We have to get PTO approved through work pretty far in advance. Depending on the time of the year, it could be well over a year in advance. For example, for the trip we just took in March '24, my husband had to request those days off in October/November '22. So, we have to have the dates set. Then, we can book either at 11 months or 7 months if we want to stay somewhere other than our home resort. We used to try to book flights around 3-4 months out, but there has been a shift in airlines and it seems you really need to book in as far advance as you can to get the best rates. We booked our December '24 flights a couple weeks ago. Because of the PTO situation, our dates are not flexible.

 

[SpaceMountain77]

I typically book our flights 35- to 45-days before our date of arrival, with a few days buffer before the 31-day mark. When booking our DVC reservation, 7- or 11-months out, I do add a day before and a day after, so that we have some flexibility with airfare and flight times. Instead of waitlisting or planning a split stay, we find it is easier to remove a Friday night and arrive Saturday or keep a Monday departure, instead of Sunday, if fares are high or less convenient.