When to purchase airline tickets?

[iloveeeyore]

DH used to do a LOT of business travel, so I haven't actually needed to PURCHASE airline tickets in about 15 years!!! No more Frequent Flyer Miles

When is the best time to do this and how can I get the best rate...should I call airlines directly, an internet service, do it now or wait until closer (we are travelling late Aug./early Sept).

TIA!

 

[4greatboys]

We usually only fly SWA 1--they normally have the lowest rates from Houston and 2-they always have direct flights from here. I buy my tickets as soons as I see a decent price Im willing to pay. This time we bought as soon as they opened up our dates. The next week the tickets were $10 cheaper so I rebooked the flight and have a $70 credit with them.

I would start checking the rates now and usually online has the best rates.

 

[westjones]

I am not sure where you are coming from, but I have been watching the prices for September flights from Indianapolis and just in the past few days ATA came out with some good rates and we booked it.

We are flying round trip from Indianapolis to Orlando in September for $149 each (this includes everything--it is actually listed as $60 something each way, and then there are taxes and fees). So for just under $600 the 4 of us are flying to Orlando and back.

If you live in a market that have ATA you can check their website for prices:

http://www.ata.com

DJ

 

[iluvtink]

It kind of depends on where you live... if you are near a Southwest city, that would be my first try. You can go to www.southwest.com and check fares. Also, you can sign up for e-mail notifications on that website, so that every Tuesday you will get an e-mail showing the specials for the week. For example, SWA just announced fares from Indy to Orlando for $146.10 round trip, and 7 of our party jumped all over it! We're driving in from Cincinnati, but the price made the 115 miles worth it.

You can also try a site like orbitz.com or expedia.com to see generally what airfares are running. (It doesn't have Southwest and some of the others.) If I look there, then I go to the actual website of the airline that has the best fare and see if there are better times for that fare.

Good luck and have a fun trip!

Kim

 

[westjones]

Southwest does sometimes beat ATA on price (but not by a lot usually), but ATA lets you pick your seats, and on SW you have to grab a seat when you get on. I don't want to have to worry about my kids not sitting with us, so that is why we fly ATA instead.

But I agree, you can get some great deals on Southwest! Isn't there a Southwest airline in Columbus? I would just have assumed there was one there (but since we live in Indiana, I only check the Indianapolis airlines).

Then again, my sister (who lives in Columbus) said that there were no direct flight from Columbus to Orlando and she had to fly to Chicago and switch planes and then on to Orlando.

Southwest won't show up on the Travelocity site, but ATA will, so do a search there and see what you come up with price wise (we found the price cheaper on the ATA site than through Travelocity).

DJ

 

[iluvtink]

The SWA flight from Columbus to MCO is great -- but the return stinks!!! It leaves MCO at 7:45 a.m.!!! I just can't understand why it couldn't be later ... seems like families traveling with children would be a big customer base, especially in the summer, for SWA. But who wants to try to get their kids up and to the airport by 6:15 a.m.? Plus, we are cruising at the end, and the ship won't be back in time if we were insane enough to try to get our kids moving that early!

FYI, Southwest has a new boarding pass policy ... if you book your tickets on line, and make each ticket a separate reservation number instead of doing them as one reservation, you can go on line any time after midnight on the day you are flying and go ahead and print out a boarding pass. So you can get an "A" pass and have a good choice of seats. Unfortunately, I didn't know this and booked all 7 of us together, so we can't take advantage of it this time. Maybe next time, though!

Oh, and what is ATA? I've never heard of it, but I'd like to check it out! Thanks for the hint!

Kim

 

[westjones]

Here is the link to ATA:

http://www.ata.com

Looks like they do not fly out of Cincinnati or Columbus, but they do fly out of Dayton. I am not sure of the schedule.

We have used them for all of our flights to Florida in the past few years. They have two direct flights a day to Florida and two direct flights coming back.

As I mentioned before, I got round trip in September for $149. This is out of Indianapolis. You actually pick your seat online. They show you a diagram of the plane and you click on the seat you want to reserve.

DJ

 

[winterman]

Use internet search engines such as Orbitz, Expedia or Travelocity. Also use the individual airline websites for the carriers that service your airport.

Step 2 is critical, when you find a flight whose costs are reasonable and flight times are good, you IMMEDIATELY purchase the tickets. You may not get the cheapest seats on the plane but you will not be crying in your beer saying I should have bought the tickets yesterday.

 

[iloveeeyore]

winterman, that's the last thing I'd need...already have ENOUGH to cry in my beer about

Oh, yeah, I'm from downstate New York...near the city. Use Newark, Westchester, LaGuardia, Westchester or JFK in that order. Don't think SW is an option. What's ATA?

 

[bballmom56]

We're flying non-stop out of Newark in June on Song, an airline run by Delta. They offered perfect flight times for us, and the fare was reasonable. As a matter of fact, it just went down today, so they issued me vouchers for the difference. There's another thread about Song and everyone seems to have had a good experience with them.

 

[jgates]

I was sure airfare would go lower. Consequently it is now $50 higher than it started at per ticket. The actual flight I had wanted to go on is $120 now higher.

How do you go about asking for vouchers if the price drops? Someone told me just ask - another told me no- it is treated as a change and they charge you $50 (or whatever) per ticket. How does this actually work?

 

[ceecee]

I checked ATA for our flights from Dayton (none are non stops) and they are more than USAir.

 

[bballmom56]

jgates - I had read on another thread about someone getting a credit voucher when the fare dropped, so I called the Delta 800 number. I figured it couldn't hurt. I asked if they couldn't just put a credit for the amount back on my credit card, but she said because they were non-refundable tix, she couldn't do that, but could give a credit voucher. I may not get the benefit if the 4 of us don't fly on Delta for another year, but it's better than nothing!

 

[mickeycw]

from NY try Song or Jet Blue!

 

[Jana49]

For those who live close to it - we also always fly ATA out of Indianapolis, non-stop to MCO. One thing I really like about this airline is that all the seats are the same value - no 1st class, coach, etc. It's all referred to as "vacation flight seats" and everyone on board gets the same perks.

But finding the best time to buy a ticket? I wish I knew!! There are going to be 11 of us going next time, so I have to get them early enough so we can sit reasonably close to each other. But at least we can decide on which seats we want. When we went last May, the cost with taxes and everything was $128.00 round trip! I only hope I can get something close to that for next year!

Have fun!

Jana

 

[westjones]

Yes, we got that low fare last year too, but since they just came out with the $149 round trip for September this past week, we decided not to wait. We could live with that price.

Just keep watching the website and checking. We found it cheaper to book directly with ATA than it was to go through Travelocity or Expedia.

I remember last time they sold headphones for just $2 to watch TV on the trip. That wasn't bad at all, and you can reuse them on the next flight. I didn't buy them because we had an early flight and I just wanted to relax, but this time we are going on an afternoon flight, so I might do it this time.

I like that there are 2 direct flights out of Indy and back to Indy each day also. So ATA works well for us.

DJ

 

[LoveThatDarnMouse]

I just booked through SWA for our May trip and got a great Internet Special. It's $64.19 each way which is awesome compared to the other airlines out of Philly right now which are like $220 rountrip! Yesterday I had reserved my dates but never put the credit card on it for some reason. I thought I'd check the website one more time before I called with my cc number and I ended up saving myself another $80 overall just by booking on-line. I feel like I hit the lotterly for $80.

 

[Jana49]

DJ - I would have jumped on that price too, because you never know when the price will go up! And yes, they work well for us, too. Don't they have just the nicest people working for them??

I called ATA to find out how far in advance they sell tickets (331 days, btw) and when I mentioned how many tix I need, she said I ought to check with Group Sales when I am ready to buy, and that they can offer a discount of at least 10%! YAY!!! With DH and I paying the way for all our kids and grandkids, any discount will help. Although I said in an earlier post that there will be 11 of us, the actual count is 12 plus 1 lap baby. So I want to save as much as possible, lol.

Jana

 

[westjones]

Gee, I never even thought of getting a 'group' discount. There are going to be 11 in our party flying! Oh well, 8 of us have already bought our tickets.

At least I know for next time! Thanks!
DJ

 

[mep319]

The flights out of Philly have come down dramtically since SW came into town! I'm going in August & flight were $205. SW came and the flight dropped to $160 (thats w/ tax) for USAIR and to be honest I'll pay the extra $20.00 for assigned seats & for the better flight times...don't need to be worried about that! If they drop more I'll get a credit voucher...I'm thrilled...

To the question...it depends on your market...being Philly use to have no options other than USair the earlier the better...if it did drop as I said you can always request a credit voucher otherwise you might be stuck w/ bad times or high cost! If you have a lot of choices such as NY or BWI...wait sometimes you can catch a great last minute deal!