When do you buy you airline tickets?

[therapistalexandra]

I apologize if this has been asked and answered. I did do a quick search but wanted more information from you all. So....when do you buy your flight tickets? This seems to be of great debate! Also, do any of you splurge and upgrade your tickets? DH and I flew first class to WDW for our honeymoon. It was only a four hour flight but I have never been so comfortable on a plane!

 

[Bete]

If you go during a holiday time book as early as you can.

If you can fly without using a weekend day it will be cheaper. Like leave on a Monday and come back on a Monday.

If a sale is going on get your tickets.

I rather splurge on extras at WDW then go first class.

 

[therapistalexandra]

If you go during a holiday time book as early as you can.

If you can fly without using a weekend day it will be cheaper. Like leave on a Monday and come back on a Monday.

If a sale is going on get your tickets.

I rather splurge on extras at WDW then go first class.

Im with you all the way! The one time splurging was nice, but I wouldn't do it regularly so that we can have more fun at WDW

 

[msmayor]

I get a price point in mind and start checking. When tickets hit my point, I make the purchase.

For non-holiday period purchases I have had luck with pricing being the best at 8-10 weeks out. The one time I bought VERY early was for our vacation two years ago that had us traveling home the day after Easter. Because it was prime spring break time, when I discovered I could get round trip tickets to FLL that included one checked bag each on American Airlines for $260 each, I bought...and it was a good 10-11 months out. The price NEVER went that low again.

 

[mel&me]

Usually buy as soon as I have my travel dates,

 

[mjkacmom]

I use the hopper app.

 

[laughinplace199]

I've never heard of the hopper app. Does it predict when to buy? Will have to check that out as we are currently planning a trip to the Caribbean for the spring, which will be peak season.

 

[maxiesmom]

I book as soon as I am comfortable with the price. Or, as for my trip this October, I booked when the prices started going up and certain groups started to sell out (Southwest). We have a few different arrival/departure dates for that trip, so I actually ended up booking on Allegiant thru Sanford International for one person. they were $162 all in vs the $320 Southwest would have been from Orlando. And the Allegiant flight is non stop, so that is another bonus.

 

[Goofy mailman]

I checked a couple times a week for about a month. (Jet blue & southwest)Prices always went up and down. Our flights are both on monday at the end of September. We bought our tickets at the end of May for arrival flight $115 per person and departure for $99 per person. Both thru southwest. You just have to keep checking the prices and maybe buy your tickets at different times.

 

[beccasmom]

I keep checking prices relative to when we normally visit. When I see a fare I can live with, I jump. We have been using Southwest 80% of the time. In our area, the SWA pricing has increased quite a bit and the non-stops (we sometimes travel with toddlers and/or our senior parents and non-stops are a God-send IMHO) are not as plentiful either. And Sunday is our preferred day of departure, but for our next trip we are visiting from Thursday-Thursday. The November trip was trickier....no way were we departing on the Sunday after Thanksgiving! Did that before - no thanks! So we opted for Tuesday through Saturday for that one (running out of vacation days by the end of the year!). At some point we will start to test driving down, but I don't see that realistically happening until one of us retires.

 

[MillauFr]

I just book as soon as possible. Alaska gives you a credit if the price drops.

 

[Traveling on cc points]

I primarily fly southwest using points. I book as soon as I know my travel dates. Sw will refund you the difference in price if the flight goes down. (Not automatically) once I book, I check my flight periodically to see if either my outbound or returning flight has dropped.

 

[Smittolis]

skip lagged is an interesting app to help look and find open 1 way tickets that can be combined into a return package. I've used it a few times to get some good deals. However, when flying with family the cost is the cost, sometimes the benefit of saving a little money is offset / negated by the convenience and sanity of your family during travel! lol... We love Alaska and always fly, however, we just couldn't get the flights we wanted at the right price so we shopped around and just managed to stumble on a release day at United and so booked it for less than half of what Alaska wanted. Granted its not direct and we run the risk of being dragged out by our hair kicking and screaming, but its going to be a fun and interesting social experiment! haha....

It would be great to book as far in advance, but there are issues with having to come up with the money that far in advance which can often be problematic. I also think that there is an element of flexibility with dates at hotels due to the fluctuating deals and discounts. Saving $500 on your overall flight costs can easily be wiped out by the difference in discount at 2 nights of a hotel. So the problem we have is more based around the hotel costs as they will be the ones that make or break the budget. We then work hard to get the flights we want at the price we can afford. It's kind of putting the horse before the cart but financially it works for us.