When should I start looking for airfare for next August?

[helenk]

There will be 9 of us going next year, probably the end of July beginning of August. I am hoping to find airfare from PHL to MCO for around 200.00 or less. When should I start looking, would January be too soon?

 

[beattyfamily]

I always start looking ASAP about 330 days out when flights open up and I usually have a good idea what I'm willing to pay.

I bought our Nov/Dec tickets in January. I was willing to pay around $200 from Boston non-stop. Well, the weekend the flights opened up, it jumped around from $229 to $219 and then briefly went to $181 that Monday and I booked it. It's now been $380 and up ever since!!

I'm happy to have it over with. Only down side is the flights can and probably will change but I've never had any major problems with that. Usually it's only by less than 1/2 hour.

Flights for August may start appearing as early as this Octoboer!

Good luck!

 

[helenk]

I did not realize that they would be available that early. I will start to keep a look out this fall then. Since there are 9 of us going and we all live in the same area we would all leave from the same airport and would like to leave at the same time. I am paying 164.50 for my flight this September and the prices do fluctuate alot.
Thank you for the advice

 

[Pugrpooh]

I booked our WDW vacation on June 12 and started looking at Delta flights online right away. We're leaving Aug. 4 for a week and it seemed like almost every day the rates would change. Sometimes it would be $224.00 and the next day it would be over $260! A few weeks ago it went down to $218 and I called and reserved our seats. It only stayed at $218 for about 24 hours. It then went up around $240 and then down to $224 and now it's $299. I could also keep an eye on seat availability online so if the seats were getting limited I was going to reserve them even if the price was a little high.

I don't know what it's like with other airlines.

 

[Dopey Sharon]

If your plans are definite, I would book when the fares were around what you wanted to pay. I just booked for a trip in June, on USAirways. Within, I'd say an hour, the flights I was looking at started at $201.50. I talked to my husband about it, that fast, when I put in the information, it went up to $572.50!!! I thought something was wrong, so I called, and was told that that does happen. I held off a few minutes, checked again, and it was back down to $201.50. I booked it! Since then, it has gone back up to $572.50! Just for the heck of it, I also checked our upcoming trip's flights. When I originally booked, I got the 8:30pm flight home. About two months later, they did away with that flight and put us on the 6:30 flight. For, at least three months now, everything stayed the same. When I checked, today, they added an 8:45 flight! I called and was able to change to the later flight. It pays to keep checking! Good luck!

 

[njdizneygal]

We booked last Nov. for our trip this August. The rate with taxes from Atlantic City to MCO was $203. If your dates are flexible then you can wait and see if they have any specials. I have a friend flying wed. to wed. this Oct. and her rate with taxes was $140.