When to purchase airline tickets?

[LoveThatDarnMouse]

Geez MEP, I checked all the airlines before I booked with SW out of Philly and they were all high still. Don't know what I was looking at. Maybe they were lower for your dates and not mine, I'm going in May.

Anyway, I got excellent times, leaving early in the morning (7 a.m.) to go out which will give us the whole day there and then coming home at 8 p.m. giving us that whole day too.

As far as the assigned seats~I was told we'd get to board first since we have small children so I'm not sweating the seats.

 

[mep319]

No with SW you have to stand in line prior to boarding to get your seating assignment...which is completely different than boarding. You have to be there at least 2 hrs and some suggest 3...Check the transporation board there are some horror stories. I'm going in August and I'm amazed at the price difference than what I was quoted 2 mos ago. I had no problem with the outgoing flights on SW it was the return..I think it was either 2:45 which put us in at 5:30..rush hour or not leaving till 7:00pm too late for us. Now I have a 4:45 flight that puts us in at 7:30...perfect and no stressing over seats and I spent maybe $20.00 more

 

[kgilchri]

I agree with ATA, I'm going March 16-22 and got my tickets for $142! You should also check out travelocity and yahooTravel. If you're dates are flexible, use the option of flexible dates or find the cheapest travel. I was able to find $150 rd. trip from Ind-MCO on American Airlines on Travelocity. You can also choose to do the fare watcher thing on Travelocity, which they will send you emails when it gets below a certain price.

Also, if you don't mind leaving on a week day you will get much better deals. Good luck!