Best Time to Buy Airline Tickets

[StoneCutter589]

I'm planning a trip in August '13 and I'd like to know the best time to buy my airline tickets. I depart from NYC-JFK. The cheapest I've seen has been $288. Does it get any cheaper, or is now the time to buy? Thanks for the help.

 

[TheMonrailRider]

That seems to be an average price. It really does matter what days you travel. We fly out of nyc to orlando at least once per year and usually pay between 200 and 275. With the flights out of ewr being the most expensive. Just booked our flights for our trip in april wed-wed and we paid 207.00 on jet blue out of jfk. 109 going (9am flt) and 99 return (345pm flt). I have not seen Orlando flights out of jfk for less than 99.00 each way latley unless there has been a sale (it was then 89.00). For comparison the sat to sat were in the 119 to 169 range one way with all convenient flt times on the higher part of the scale. I would say to wait, as the airfare changes constantly...unless you can not take the stress of the unknkown....good luck

 

[ShookieJones]

$288 doesn't seem too bad at all.

I'm flying out of Bradley at the end of May and on Southwest we found round trip tickets for $250 a person but that is only because we are taking a very earlier flight (leaving at 6am) and a late fight the way back (wont be back home until 11:50pm). If we weren't doing those flights the price for our tickets would be about $50 more.

To me those are the BEST time to fly. We took both those flights on Southwest this past September.
You get the whole day on your first day and the whole day on your last day. Can't be beat as far as I'm concerned.

 

[jenluvswdw]

Love this thread. I am in the same situation for Aug. '13. Now or wait???? That is the question. We are flying on a Sat. and I want to take the first flight out. My DH thinks we should wait to book. Right now it is 314.... I am biting at the bit.

 

[Cmdr_Crimson]

I bought my flight from United from O'hare to MCO in June of last year and originally I was intending on flying economy. Well, for Spits & Giggles I decided to see how much it would be to fly First class...So I put a piece together..And had to a double take on looking at the price for a roundtrip First class flight to Orlando....It was only $396!!! I could not pass that up! So I booked it instantly when I saw it and now for the first time in my life I get to experience First class flying to Orlando to the Vacation Kingdom....I couldn't be any happier !

But, My advice look around and book it as early as possible...Because now I recently saw how much my seat is nearly 10 days from flying down there and it's almost $2,055!!!

 

[NYwdwfan]

I bought my flight from United from O'hare to MCO in June of last year and originally I was intending on flying economy. Well, for Spits & Giggles I decided to see how much it would be to fly First class...So I put a piece together..And had to a double take on looking at the price for a roundtrip First class flight to Orlando....It was only $396!!! I could not pass that up! So I booked it instantly when I saw it and now for the first time in my life I get to experience First class flying to Orlando to the Vacation Kingdom....I couldn't be any happier !

But, My advice look around and book it as early as possible...Because now I recently saw how much my seat is nearly 10 days from flying down there and it's almost $2,055!!!

I have never flown first class and have ALWAYS wanted to. Hope it doesn't ruin you from flying coach in the future!!

 

[mighty quack]

Check out hipmunk.com if you click on price graph, choose an earliest depart date, length of trip you want and it should give you a graph with current airline prices and shows you best prices by day, so if you aren't set on a specific week it might help you find the best time to travel. I just used it when kayak and all the other sites were showing me $250 for flights with 3 stops, Hipmunk showed me one hop flights(stop in Atlanta) for 180 per person, that is with tax and fees included!

 

[StoneCutter589]

Thanks for all of this helpful info. I usually check daily and prices have been pretty consistent. I'm going to wait it out though, since I have until August.

 

[fosse76]

$288 doesn't seem too bad at all.

I fly out of JFK to MCO every few months (either for WDW or UOR) and $288 is on the high-end. $220 RT is about right...though I have paid around $300-$330 for a few "last-minute" trips. But if I were planning, I would not pay $288.

 

[thomas998]

Thanks for the help..but, we live very close to JFK, so LaGuardia would be an inconvenience, especially for an early flight.

Depending on how many people are going to be flying and how large the discount is you might find the inconvenience to be worth it. We unfortunately live about 3.5 hours from the cheapest airport... but when we realized that it was costing us over $200 a ticket more to fly from the airport next door, we realized that with a family of 4 it was well worth the drive to save nearly a thousand dollars... Sometimes we will stay in a hotel near the cheap airport when it is an early flight.

 

[s&k'smom]

What an interesting thread, we like to fly jet blue and for four round trip tix last time it was nearly 1300. I believe October flights come out in February and I plan to book early, I need to get on and off as well let's just say my son can make flying interesting.

 

[siberian57]

Doesn't sound like a bad price, but LGA does tend to be cheaper if that's an option for you. I would just see where the travel industry demand stands for that week if you want (check and online graph or something from a google search) because price fluctuation in most travel related companies hotels, car rentals, flights etc tend to run inline with each other.

I currently manage a car rental branch up here and my pricing is usually set at a certain amount for 6 months out (with the exception of holidays or schools breaks etc) and then as the time gets closer usually within a couple weeks I readjust everyday to stay competitive. I can't say for sure that's how the airlines do it but if I had to make a bet I would say they do something similar with their pricing. If you're going in a high demand season they might have prices set based on what they expect, but they could go up or down based on a few different things. It's always a gamble, I usually just use orbitz for the price assurance because they actually have sent me a check before when someone booked it at a lower price and I didn't even know someone did that, it just showed up in the mail.