When do you book your airfare?

Hey all - looking for opinions on when to book air - we cruise next Sept. and right now the airfare to MIA is high - anyone have experience on waiting and seeing if it goes down or does that ever happen - thanks in advance.

Peggy

We usually only fly jetBlue so I book as soon as the fares become available. We are flying into Orlando and driving to Miami to make it more of an adventure :)

Hey all - looking for opinions on when to book air - we cruise next Sept. and right now the airfare to MIA is high - anyone have experience on waiting and seeing if it goes down or does that ever happen - thanks in advance.

Peggy

Have you checked FLL too? We fly from BOS to FLL when we sail out of Miami. We then use SAS to transport us to the hotel and we take a taxi to the port the next morning.

Airfare is ridiculously high. Part is the fuel prices and part is because they can. We got "lucky" a couple of weeks ago-I checked online and Jet Blue was "only" $204 pp person each way. As soon as I booked, the prices went up and have gone up more since.

So, if you find a decent price, book it right away. At least with SWA and JetBlue, if the prices go down, we can get the difference in a travel bank to be used within a year.

Wish I had a better answer.

But, it's FRIDAY!! No more early wake ups for three days.

We book when Southwest has their sale. A few days ago the sale was under $100 for any one way flight. Really good for California to Florida.

I think it's way too early to look for next September. I'd start looking in April or May and watch the prices.

We got unbelievably lucky this year. We are cruising out of Miami in January and found TWO roundtrip tickets from Philadelphia for a total of $256 - that's $128 apiece! They are on American, and we booked them when American was having all those problems. We figured if things didn't get better, we'd forfeit the tickets and book others. But we couldn't pass up a deal like that.

As someone else suggested, look at flights to Fort Lauderdale as well as Miami. Don't know where you're flying from, but don't start stressing out yet. You have plenty of time!

I meant to say flying into FLL, because MIA is higher and not a direct flight - Jet Blue isn't an option because it doesn't fly out anywhere near Cincinnati - will check into Southwest (also doesn't fly out of Cincy), but perhaps another city within 2 hours. It's just so ridiculous that the air costs 1/2 more than the cruise itself!!

peggy

I would track flights that you are interested in using Kayak or Yapta which will send you an alert when the price drops.

I also agree to check out Fort Lauderdale- FLL but factor is the cost of transportation to your savings-- for us it will cost 15.00pp one way using SAS

I agree, way too early. I generally have an acceptable price point in my mind and when I see a fare drop to that then I buy. After that, I don't look anymore, just in case there is another price reduction - no need to to regret my decision.

We are cruising out of Seattle at the beginning of June and I just booked our flights today from Chicago. The price has been the same for the last 3 months and there was one flight time that worked really well for us so I just booked it so I knew i'd get it. Normally I would have waited till 4-5 months before.

Best prices for airfare are Tuesday thru Thursday on the internet. I book no more than 3 months out because airlines change their schedules often and you will be re-booked on flights that don't meet your timetable. Also it is considerably cheaper to fly Tuesday thru Thursday and early morning, late night. Also, my experience shows that Saturday evening is a great time to fly, especially SouthWest.

Good luck.

My experience is that airfare seldom goes down.

Airfare can change on a minute to minute basis so keep checking and jump on a sale when you see one. I have always managed to land a sale fare for Southwest.

airfare is usually not an issue because I use my delta miles! But I live in Brooklyn so I have the options of two airports and Newark if need be. I would suggest maybe getting a credit card like Amex skymiles (delta) or other CC that you can get miles towards flights. I would wait a few months and then start looking. Good luck! And like others have said FLL is always an option.

airfare is usually not an issue because I use my delta miles! But I live in Brooklyn so I have the options of two airports and Newark if need be. I would suggest maybe getting a credit card like Amex skymiles (delta) or other CC that you can get miles towards flights. I would wait a few months and then start looking. Good luck! And like others have said FLL is always an option.

This is a good idea. I think if you get a Southwest CC, you get a free flight.

If you think flights within the USA are ridiculous try flights from Canada anywhere other than Toronto.... Average flight to Miami runs around 600 - 700 $ pp including taxes.

We managed to get 450 $ this time but it was a killer deal.

If you think flights within the USA are ridiculous try flights from Canada anywhere other than Toronto.... Average flight to Miami runs around 600 - 700 $ pp including taxes.

We managed to get 450 $ this time but it was a killer deal.

Even from Toronto it can be ridiculous! I almost always fly from Buffalo...significantly cheaper.

We booked our flight from Detroit to FLL shortly after they opened up the dates we wanted.

We booked our January cruises on 2/13/12 and booked the airfare a couple of weeks later. Prices have just continued to go up & up.

If you think flights within the USA are ridiculous try flights from Canada anywhere other than Toronto.... Average flight to Miami runs around 600 - 700 $ pp including taxes.

We managed to get 450 $ this time but it was a killer deal.

800-1000 from Newfoundland to Florida.

fml.

It drives some people crazy to wait this long but I do it reliably all the time.

Start watching as early as you want, if you find a deal on the flights that make you happy then go for it.

BUT,

You will likely get very close to the lowest rates if you start watching at 9 weeks out to scope out the fare landscape. My sweet spot seems to be 7-8 weeks out. We are cruising in mid-December and rates prior to this were consistently $400-500 from Oregon, even up in the $600-700 range at 6 months out. At 7 weeks out I got a rate of $323 including all fees. This is very typical for me when booking airfare. I've never paid over $400 for round trip airfare anywhere in the US. And I do this when only considering flights with no more than 1 stop/transfer.

Mid-week rates are often best but I noticed this last time that isn't foolproof. I purchased on Saturday morning this time.

An exception is Southwest, which I love flying, You almost always do better booking 2-5 months out when they have a promotion. And if rates drop you can change without penalty although you only get credit towards future flights for the savings.

A couple of tips.

Even if you don't use Travelocity for your final purchase use it to watch rates. Chose your ideal dates and then use the option to see fares based on +/- 1-3 days. It creates a nifty chart with the lowest fare for each date combination. Sometimes it is worth it to fly a day early or return a day late because of fare differences. We are flying back Thur for a Sat cruise departure because it saved us $100 a ticket (X4 = $400!)

Secondly don't look just at the lowest cost. Focus on the cost of the flights that work for you based on time of departure, number of plane changes, total time of flight, etc. You will soon learn which combinations to keep an eye on.

Then note the rates on the options that work. Later on other flights may not drop a lot but one of your ideal options may. That is the time to jump on it.

Like I said, I've found some travel partners of mine get nervous waiting that long. lol But I have always done well with this method. That seems to be the time when the airlines look at their vacancy for flights and determine what they need to do to get up to 85-90-% capacity. Not 100% because they want to be able to have expensive seats for short notice travelers.

EXTRA BONUS

Use Travelocity to check car rental rates. Find the rate that works for you. Then go directly to the car rental site and get the same rate with no prepay. You won't even need to give them a credit card number to reserve at the same rate.

In Florida they are not allowed to charge your more for dropping your rental car off at a different location then you picked it up. The last time we cruised we flew into Ft. Lauderdale, picked up our rental car then drove down to our hotel in Miami. The morning of the cruise we dropped off our car at a rental location near the port then rode their free shuttle to the ship. We reversed this procedure on the way back. Transportation for 4 was $32 plus a little gas. That got us from FLL to hotel to free shuttle to the ship.

I usually make sure my flight is lined up before I book my cruise. I will book at the same time - usually 330 day to 8 months out. It has worked in my favour, especially for spring break (early March here). I save a bundle on our last Liberty cruise. For our next one, I've paid a little more, but I am still happy with the rate - besides, it's paid for anyway, and I can't price match with Air Canada. All and all, I'm happy :)

Just keep an eye on airfare and when you see a cheap price book it. I fly to Orlando on Sunday for our back to back cruises. We are flying with AirTran and when I booked in August our rate was $176.00 per person round trip. I continued to check the rates and I saw it drop to $77.00 per person round trip so I called Air Tran and received a credit of $182.00 to use within the year

Hey everyone, thanks for all of the advice! I will continue to watch, like I have been doing, and see what happens - it is frustrating that I live less than 10 miles from Cinti. airport and Delta charges such outrageous rates from here and most times we need to go 2 hours away to get the best deal!! Southwest just may be an option from Indy, will check that when those dates come up.

thanks again

Peggy

I don't think there's any magic date formula, just look for sales and set up some pricing alerts. A lot of people will say don't buy too early but looking at prices for next November for Europe they were the lowest I've seen in a long time, I'd have jumped if our dates were open.