When is the best time to book a flight? And what airlines to look at?

[penguinande]

I'm planning a trip to WDW in early September. I'm wondering when I should book the flight in order to get the best deal. It will be 2 adults and 2 children (5and 2). I'm also wondering which airlines I should be looking at. I am concerned with value and safety, but not creature comforts. Thanks!

 

[sam_gordon]

I'm planning a trip to WDW in early September. I'm wondering when I should book the flight in order to get the best deal. It will be 2 adults and 2 children (5and 2). I'm also wondering which airlines I should be looking at. I am concerned with value and safety, but not creature comforts. Thanks!

I'll tell you EXACTLY when to buy your tickets to get the cheapest price if you'll tell me what the next winning power ball numbers are. Deal?

The latest thought is ON AVERAGE, the best prices are ~7 weeks out from your trip. However, there are enough exceptions, you can't use that as a rule. Personally, I've had the best luck buying tickets about 2-3 weeks after they're released.

As far as which airline, I suggest finding one that you can get to easily from your home and that flies to Central Florida.

I personally like Delta, but I don't have Southwest or JetBlue as an option from my home airport.

 

[goofy4tink]

I'm looking at fares from LAX to MCO in Dec.....naturally, Jetblue and SW don't have flights listed yet. But, others do. I don't know where exactly you're flying from, but I've already found fares of around $200-225 on Virgin America, American, and a few others.
I haven't had any luck with waiting until the 7 week prior method. I now book as soon as I see a fare I can live with. If I can snag a non-stop flight, from LAX to MCO, for under $250, I'm jumping on it!!!

 

[penguinande]

I'm looking at fares from LAX to MCO in Dec.....naturally, Jetblue and SW don't have flights listed yet. But, others do. I don't know where exactly you're flying from, but I've already found fares of around $200-225 on Virgin America, American, and a few others.
I haven't had any luck with waiting until the 7 week prior method. I now book as soon as I see a fare I can live with. If I can snag a non-stop flight, from LAX to MCO, for under $250, I'm jumping on it!!!

Thanks! We will also be flying from LAX. I've only looked at Southwest so far and I haven't seen round trips for less than $400. If I could find cheaper it would be awesome. Do you look for flights directly on the airlines' websites or through a travel website, e.g. Orbitz?

 

[rwdavis2]

Thanks! We will also be flying from LAX. I've only looked at Southwest so far and I haven't seen round trips for less than $400. If I could find cheaper it would be awesome. Do you look for flights directly on the airlines' websites or through a travel website, e.g. Orbitz?

I research flights at places like Obitz, Hipmunk but I would never book a flight through a 3rd party. If something goes wrong the airline and the booking site will point fingers at each other.

I've rarely seen coast-to-coast flights for less than $400. I was flying from DC to LAX monthly for about 2 years in 2011 to 2013.

 

[Bullseye]

I'm looking at fares from LAX to MCO in Dec.....naturally, Jetblue and SW don't have flights listed yet. But, others do. I don't know where exactly you're flying from, but I've already found fares of around $200-225 on Virgin America, American, and a few others.
I haven't had any luck with waiting until the 7 week prior method. I now book as soon as I see a fare I can live with. If I can snag a non-stop flight, from LAX to MCO, for under $250, I'm jumping on it!!!

I agree with this. Knowing that there are only a limited number of flights per airline on a given day to MCO I tend to book as early as I can if the price is even close to reasonable. I paid way more this year ($389 round trip) than I have in past years, but at least I have some piece of mind that obstacle is out of the way. I'm always afraid if I wait too long for fares to come down I won't be able to get a flight on the days I need. Someone mentioned in another thread that airfares may not decrease much this year due to the number of airline mergers "leveling the playing field."

 

[goofy4tink]

Thanks! We will also be flying from LAX. I've only looked at Southwest so far and I haven't seen round trips for less than $400. If I could find cheaper it would be awesome. Do you look for flights directly on the airlines' websites or through a travel website, e.g. Orbitz?

My fares are one way....so a r/t for $400+ is a decent fare.
I flew from Boston to San Diego in Dec. Flew JB, non-stop. Paid $350 one way!
Just booked Boston to LAX, the Sat of Thanksgiving weekend for $250. But.....that fare was $210. My friend and I each paid an addtl $39 for row 16, seats A and C. Nobody in the middle because rows 16 and 17 on this particular AA plane have the 4 middle seats blocked off. Nice.
Now to book the flight from lax to MCO the following Wed!

 

[KPeterso]

I fly from SoCal to MCO 1-2 times per year. I tend to choose LAX for the direct flights, but I check the fares for John Wayne and Long Beach as well looking for the best option. Long Beach has a Jet Blue flight that stops in Austen TX that you do not have to change planes on which is a nice flight. Otherwise, the ones that fly direct from LAX to MCO are United, American, Delta, Virgin America, and maybe one other that I am flaking on. I have done the United and American flights, and will be flying Virgin America for the first time in March. My criteria for the flight costs ---- under $350 round trip, book now, do NOT hesitate! Under $400 should be booked pretty much right away. I am happy under $450 base at this point. I usually pay to upgrade to the extra leg room seats to help with my anxiety being too far back in the plane.But that is just my personal choice.

I use Kayak and Airfare Watch Dog apps on my phone to get flight price alerts, and then regularly check via Hipmunk or one of the other flight search engines to see what the prices are like and then book direct with the airline when I find something I am ok paying. I just booked the March airfare today (for 3/7-12) and it had actually dropped a little since last week so I am happy. I will continue looking for my September airfare weekly for now, and will watch for sales. I will get more serious around May about finding my airfare for my September trip. Oh and if you are flexible a day or 2, it might save a little on the airfare.

 

[JAG107]

Late to this post, but I've always booked ASAP for the best fares. Last today got $250 rt from San Diego, which is almost always $100+ cheaper than LAX and SNA. Ontario is the worst price wise. Right now I'm looking at $315 non stop for late January, and I'm afraid if I take the traditional advise of waiting til 7 weeks out I'll be screwed. Any thoughts?

 

[barbliny]

My lowest prices on my summer flight came at about 3 months out on Southwest - they have gone up and stayed up ever since, even during the sale events where others have found their prices going down. I'm in the NY market, so there is a lot of competition and Southwest is almost always the lowest to just about any market they serve.

Southwest only books directly and will never show up on any other sites.

Delta, just recently pulled their flights from third-party sites.

Many airlines are starting to charge fees to book through sites other than their own.

 

[jec6613]

Southwest only books directly and will never show up on any other sites.

Delta, just recently pulled their flights from third-party sites.

Many airlines are starting to charge fees to book through sites other than their own.

AA, DL and WN don't show up on most travel sites at their actual prices, they show up higher. Also, you should visit their sites to price check in private mode, as some sites check for other people's browser fingerprint and will show you higher prices if you've shopped elsewhere (WN is notorious for doing this).

When to get the cheapest flight depends on how flexible you are. If there are two flights per day, or one, that you can take, then you should book about 5-6 months out. If there are dozens, then about 7-9 weeks.

 

[sam_gordon]

If there are two flights per day, or one, that you can take, then you should book about 5-6 months out. If there are dozens, then about 7-9 weeks.

Do you have anything to back up that claim? I think I mentioned upthread CheapTickets.com did an exhaustive study on the best time to buy tickets and while on AVERAGE prices were lower 7-9 weeks out, there were enough exceptions that you shouldn't use that as a rule.

 

[jec6613]

A few hundred flights booked myself.

While the price may drop on a flight that has fewer choices, more frequently they rise, and keep going. Last year booking non-flexible flights in advance saved me $3200 over booking 7-9 weeks out. For me, this has also worked out where there are many flights, but due to scheduling I can only pick one or two - those invariably are the flights that go up in price.

 

[sam_gordon]

A few hundred flights booked myself.

While the price may drop on a flight that has fewer choices, more frequently they rise, and keep going. Last year booking non-flexible flights in advance saved me $3200 over booking 7-9 weeks out. For me, this has also worked out where there are many flights, but due to scheduling I can only pick one or two - those invariably are the flights that go up in price.

When did you start checking prices? Did you check them consistently? Unless you started checking when the flights were released, AND checked daily, you don't know whether what you booked at 8 weeks out (for example) was the lowest price or just the lowest price from when you started checking.

The airports you use could be enough to change when's a good time to buy, as could when you go.

There are NO rules when it comes to finding the cheapest flight. There are guidelines, but they don't always pan out.

 

[jec6613]

Bing used to track the info and I used that. I'm in the NYC O&D market, the largest in the world, and fly from five of the area airports.

There are no rules, but on average I've found my guidelines to be correct. I also fly enough that I can win on larger numbers of flights than most people, so there is that ...