When should I book airline tickets?

We'll be flying into NOLA for our cruise next January. I read somewhere on CC that people were having difficulty finding rooms so I went ahead and booked a room for the night before the cruise.

When should I book airline tickets? For our cruise last January I booked everything in August and had no difficulty other than a change to the flight time from NOLA making it at least an hour earlier than I originally booked. I was a little nervous about making it to the airport on time. :mad: I'm fine with doing it now but is there any advantage to waiting? Lower prices or a better variety of times? I definitely want to get tickets at least a few months in advance.

Thanks!

You might also want to try the Cruise Air forum: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=128

look for the prices and route that suit your budget

there is no magic time to book

My rule of thumb is when I see a price I'm willing to pay, then I book it. You might be able to get in on a seat sale, but there's no predicting when they will happen. At least you know you'll have a seat on an airplane to get you to your port.

Smooth Sailing! :) :) :)

We'll be flying into NOLA for our cruise next January. I read somewhere on CC that people were having difficulty finding rooms so I went ahead and booked a room for the night before the cruise.

 

When should I book airline tickets? For our cruise last January I booked everything in August and had no difficulty other than a change to the flight time from NOLA making it at least an hour earlier than I originally booked. I was a little nervous about making it to the airport on time. :mad: I'm fine with doing it now but is there any advantage to waiting? Lower prices or a better variety of times? I definitely want to get tickets at least a few months in advance.

 

Thanks!

Book as soon as you see a price that falls within your budget, and flight times that work best for you. Although there may be some variation, prices tend to drop a bit between Tuesdays and Thursdays, then go back up on Fridays. You might find some cheaper prices 30 - 60 days out, but choice of seats might be limited, such as only finding a single seat here and there, but not two together. To allow for changes in flight times, as well as the possibility of a flight delay, it's always best to fly a day ahead of your cruise.

CheapAir.com analyzed over 917 million airfares in more than 8,000 markets in its 2018 Annual Airfare Study. Some results:

For flights within the continental U.S., the average for the year was 70 days in advance

Winter: 62 days in advance

Spring: 90 days in advance

Summer: 47 days in advance

Fall: 69 days in advance

More detailed information is available at:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackfriedman/2018/04/03/airfare-best-time-buy/#162108fc6de7

I find I get the lowest prices anywhere from 45-60 days out...I keep an eye on the prices long before that, tho...so just keep looking, and if you see a flight that suits you, at a price you can swallow, book it.

Booking too far out usually results in MANY changes, or cancellations of the flight...that's totally annoying!

My rule of thumb is when I see a price I'm willing to pay, then I book it. You might be able to get in on a seat sale, but there's no predicting when they will happen. At least you know you'll have a seat on an airplane to get you to your port.

 

Smooth Sailing! :) :) :)

Good advice- if you have plenty of lead time, you might want to check prices daily for a week or so; but generally seat selection goes down and cost goes up as you near flight date.

DW and I primarily fly SWA out of St Louis MO. We normally have enough points to book a R/T and do so when fares are published 6-8 months out. I watch to see if there are any price/point drops then change at no cost to get the better deal This way I can lock in my times going to and from. We also like bags fly free.

I usually buy 2-3 months out. Kayak and Google Flight have simple buy/wait recommendations that I use

The best time to book air, according to all of the "experts" is 60 - 75 days out. That seems to work for us for domestic travel. If traveling international or on points we book much earlier.

Although there may be some variation, prices tend to drop a bit between Tuesdays and Thursdays, then go back up on Fridays.

This has nothing do with the price. If you travel on these days, then yes. But the airlines don't magically lower prices on Tue and Thur only to bump them back up on Fri. This has been discussed over and over on the cruise air section.

I book the flight when I find the route and fare I want, sometimes as much as 9 months ahead. If the airline changes the flight or times, if it does not work for me I call and get rebooked, generally for no change in fees. If you tell them you are trying to connect with a cruise generally the work with you fairly well.

If I'm booking flights with points, I book the day the flights are posted. When paying cash, I will book when I find flights at a price I am prepared to pay. Once booked, it is 1 less outstanding task that could get forgotten. Personally I have no desire to monitor prices for an extended period, or use the software options available.

Something else to consider is to wait long enough that the risk of the cruiseline cancelling the cruise (such as if they booked it as a charter) and not covering 100% of your nonrefundable airfare is reduced. I'm not sure when this point has passed though, so you'd have to ask someone else. Somewhere between 6 and 12 months out?

There are articles out there showing how far out to book for the best prices. Selection in both flights and seats goes down over time though.

See https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2612630 .

My booking precedence is as follows:

1. Cruise line (and Travel Insurance)
   
2. Airline tickets
   
3. Hotel
   

You may want to check Kayak right away for next January if you want to have a good price flight at decent times. For my example, I booked my first Caribbean cruise last March, and when I checked for flights, I found a $324 round trip flight from Sacramento, CA (SMF) to Fort Lauderdale, FL (FLL) that left SMF at 8 AM (good departure time) to my cruise, and left FLL at 1:30 PM (six hours after the ship docked, which is beyond my five hour rule). Yes, I quickly booked that flight.

It's now two months later. In checking Kayak again, if I want a flight within those same parameters (8-11 AM from Sacramento, noon-4 PM from FLL), the ticket price is going to be $510-$620. The $343 price is still there, but only if I want to depart SMF at 11 PM-12:30 AM or at 6 AM, and my return flight from FLL is after 5 PM.

Needless to say, there is no way I will be flying in on the day of the cruise. I'm actually flying in on a Monday for a Friday cruise because I haven't been to Miami before. The only time I will risk a same-day flight is if the cruise is departing from Los Angeles or San Diego.

There won't be a larger selection of flight times if you wait. If anything, there will be less choice, as the nonstop flights seem to sell out faster.

No one can tell you the best time to book for the lowest fare, despite lots of travel "statistics." If there was, that's when everyone would book. Book when you think the price is good.

Since we only fly Southwest, we book our flights as soon as they open up for the date(s) we're traveling. For our May cruises it's usually in January.