When To Book Air?

[wendyww]

Hi everyone just wanted your advice about when to book. We are going June 1st to June 9th of 2002. Thanks!!

 

[apagano]

Under normal circumstances, airfares go on sale 2-3 months in advance of your flight. With recent events drastically changing the airline industry, all bets are off. For all we know, at least one major airline might go out of business by next June. I would check the fares often and pounce on anything that looks too good to pass up.

 

[wendyww]

So if I purchase now and the airfare goes on sale then what? Can I get a refund? How does this work. I priced Midwest Express and they are quoting 312.00 per ticket is this to high? I either want to fly them or Suncountry but Suncountry does not have fares out that far yet. If I wait to purchase 2-3 months in advance what are the chances of getting the flight times and airline I want?

 

[Uncle Mikey]

Something you might consider doing is putting in a fare watcher request with someone like travelocity or expedia. They will send you an e-mail when the price drops below your requested amount. Hopefully Beverly Lynn will respond to this thread but I believe she posted that at about six months prior to your travel dates the airlines usually drop the prices. I hope I got that right.

 

[aide4]

312.00 is high, I purchased our tickets from Milwaukee to Orlando the end of May for the four of us from Feb 9 through 16, 2002 and got them for 198 on Delta.Just keep checking, they probably will come down. As much as I love to fly Midwest Express I would not pay 312.Good luck and I hope you find something good!!!inkbounc

 

[apagano]

I would say $312 is ridiculously high, especially under the current circumstances. You shouldn't have any problem booking your flights 2-3 months ahead unless you are traveling during a major holiday period like Thanksgiving or Christmas.

The airlines are concentrating on filling their planes for the next few weeks and are not really concerned with selling tickets for next June. That's why you won't find many cheap fares this far in advance. The best thing to do is monitor the fares at least a few times a week for the next few months. Signing up for Travelocity's Fare Watcher is a good idea as Uncle Mikey suggested. You should also visit other travel sites like Expedia and Orbitz fairly regularly to see what kind of fares they are offering. Doing this will give you a pretty good idea of what the "normal" fare for your route is and how low the fare usually goes during sales. I've never flown your particular route, but I would guess that the fare should drop below $200 before you consider booking.

 

[wendyww]

Thanks everyone for the advice. My next question is if I book on line will the send me my tickets or will it be these e-tickets i've heard about. I have never booked on line how will this work? I guess I would rather have the paper ticket in hand that way I have proof that I purchased the tickets if anything goes wrong. What do you guys think.

 

[dtauer]

We've already booked for 6/1/02 - 6/8/02, it's not too early to start looking. The past 2 years I settled for anything $160/rt or less from MSP.
This year I happened to be checking rates on a whim and booked for $66/rt ($97.50 with taxes) through Delta.
There are some great deals out there but your timing needs to be perfect, often the deals only last a couple of hours.
I would think anything under $200 is reasonable, if you spend a lot of time checking (like I do) you may be able to do better.
The Delta tickets are e-tickets.

 

[poopie]

Last week LAX to MCO was 330 today it was down to 190 so I booked for Jan. (American Airlines)
It doesn't get any better than that.

Rachael
inkbounc

 

[apagano]

Most websites give you a choice between paper tickets and e-tickets, although there will probably be shipping & handling charges involved for paper tickets. I have used e-tickets on many occasions with no problems whatsoever. Actually, e-tickets saved me a ton of time on my last flight because I was able to bypass the long lines at the check-in counter and use a computer kiosk to check in. I always make a printout of my e-ticket confirmation just to be safe, but I have never had to use it.

 

[villainwdw]