When to buy airline tickets?

We are cruising the med at the end of September 2007. Checking flight prcing, my travel agent is quoting me 980 round trip which is lower than all the web sites except one. That web site is quoting me 907 round trip.

Should I buy now?

Should I wait?

Opinions, no matter how poorly informed, are welcome!

Frecklesb

To help answer this question, one usually needs to know your origin and destination airports and whether any "nearby" airports are a possibility. Also, if Southwest Airlines is a possibility, then their booking schedule is only 3-4 months away and it makes sense to wait. For the legacy carriers, it is usually 330 days away and if you know what a "good" fare is, there may not be a good reason to wait.

In my experiences, i have found book earily, as the seats fill up, the airlines tend to charge more, My DB, who goes on Vacation with us every year has not figured this out yet. he waits until 2 months before and books so he pays a few hundred more dollars than us, we book about 6 to 10 months out.

We went on a cruise to Alaska that left from Vancouver in September. I first looked at fares in March and then I thought I should wait in case they went down. In the interim, the price on barrels of oil went through the roof and we ended up paying a small fortune when we booked in June and that was through cheap tickets.com. My advice would be to book now. You don't know what will happen to the price of oil and relatively speaking, it's cheap now.

We are flying from O'hare to Venice Italy. We are flying back from London England to O'hare. O'hare has no alternates. In the search engines, we allow alternate airports for London and Venice. We are going in late September and Returning in mid October.

I have not checked Southwest Airlines and will do that directly. Thanks for the tip.

Frecklesb

Southwest only flies within the U.S.

NOT International.

Yes, I found that out. A pity because I like Southwest. I think we are going to book on Sunday. Thats when I am going to get on the phone to the rest of my group and tell them what the best deal I can find is.

Frecklesb

I am not cruising the Med but I was told by my TA that the earlier you book, the better as prices often increase. As well, with the cost of oil rising the earlier the better.

I am flying to San Juan next November and plan to book my flight in February.

It has seemed to me that the quicker you book international flights, the better. On the other hand, for domestic flights, there sometimes seem to be a window 1-3 months ahead of the flight where ticket prices can sometimes be cheapest (as long as flights are not during spring break, major holidays, etc). It seems that the airlines have a plan to try to get as much money out of people ... they make the worriers who want to book very early pay more, as well as the last-minute bookers.

I have not booked yet. My wife wants to talk to our travel agent to see if we will get any extra services by booking through her. I would want a lot of extra services for the $160 or so for two tickets.

I think I have time still. Prices are down a big 14 cents a ticket.

Frecklesb

I've gone to Europe in September several times and I have found that the best prices occur in February and March. I usually track ticket prices beginning in December and when they drop by at least $50 I buy them. I have yet to see a price drop after April for a September flight.

I firmly believe that there is no longer a "perfect time" to buy tickets as prices constantly go up & down (predicitng the weather is easier I feel).

What I do suggest is to start looking at fares on your route now to get an idea of what the normal range is. Once you see a rate that you feel is good, grab it as you may or may not see it again.

Hi,

We are flying to Barcelona for our med. cruise which is June 07, we booked our flights from Florida to Barcelona with USAIRWAYS in August 06, since then the price has gone up, up and up, today it is almost $ 700 over what we paid.

You might want to check Kayak.com, there you will find the history of flight cost, schedules and the best prices for your flights. They do not sell tickets, it is just an information site which list all the flight schedules and airlines.

Hope this helps, good luck.

Kayak.com... an information site which list all the flight schedules and airlines.

While Kayak deserves much applause for forthrightly listing the 334 airlines that they do search (unlike most popular airfare search engines), it is useful to note that they do not search ALL airlines. While certainly not complete, they do not include (among US carriers) Southwest Airlines, along with Allegent Air, USA 3000, go!, and Maxjet. For strictly informational purposes, there are other sites that do list all air carriers flying between 2 cities.

Kayak.com... an information site which list all the flight schedules and airlines.

While Kayak deserves much applause for forthrightly listing the airlines that they do search (unlike most popular airfare search engines), it is useful to note that they do not search ALL airlines. While certainly not complete, they do not include (among US carriers) Southwest Airlines, along with Allegent Air, USA 3000, and Maxjet. For strictly informational purposes, there are other sites that do list all air carriers flying between 2 cities.

We just booked our airfare for September 15,2007 going from Orlando to JFK then to Rome. The price we paid for business was good and about the same as we have paid for the past 3 years.

Tom