Booking airfare question

[Ms. Tinkerbell]

Hi,

Airtran now has our dates available for booking and I was curious how far in advance most book their airfare. Our trip is the end of September and I'm unsure whether to book now or wait and see if those dates come up soon on a special. I know that's not guaranteed, but do you think it's okay to wait until maybe April or so to book? My husband was able to call this morning and when I told him about it, he told me to go ahead and book so that it's taken care of, but I hate to miss the possibility of better rates.

Thanks for any advice you can give me!

 

[RiversideBunny]

I had the same kind of thought last year. Went ahead and booked, though, using Travelocity. On Continental to Orlando.
Booked in June. Trip was in December.
As it turned out the rates did not get any better but stayed about the same or higher.

It's a little bit of luck and a little bit of planning.

BTW- Since you are located at the Transportation Corps center for the US Army, it's sort of ironic to see a 'transportation' question. :animwink:

Good luck.

 

[mickey&me]

Last year, we booked our flights in early Aug. for a trip in Dec. The closer we got to our trip time, the more the airline kept trying to move our flights around--what a nightmare! The price was always "just alittle higher" and the arrival time in Orlando "just a little later."

Eventually we had to pay a lot more, though, 'cause we moved 1000 miles rather unexpectedly and had to change our depart/return airport in mid-Nov. before we went in early Dec.

 

[Pioneer Hall]

I never really have a time frame. I know what a good fair usually costs from my airport so I just see if something is around that price. If it is I take it just in case it goes up. Sometimes it goes down, but what can you do.

 

[ClemsonTigger]

Depends on the time of year.
If you are going at an "off" time, I have no problem booking about a month before.
When I have a time identified for a trip, I'll start looking at flight costs. Get an idea of what regular prices are, then when the price is low, go ahead and book.
If you are travelling around holidays or heavy vacation times, then do it as soon as you are sure of dates.

 

[Ms. Tinkerbell]

I had the same kind of thought last year. Went ahead and booked, though, using Travelocity. On Continental to Orlando.
Booked in June. Trip was in December.
As it turned out the rates did not get any better but stayed about the same or higher.

It's a little bit of luck and a little bit of planning.

BTW- Since you are located at the Transportation Corps center for the US Army, it's sort of ironic to see a 'transportation' question. :animwink:

Good luck.

LOL, I'm no transportation expert though I knew that this was the home of 7th trans. but I never gave it any thought to being the center for the US Army....Next time my husband calls, I can surprise him with my new bit of knowledge

 

[Ms. Tinkerbell]

hmm...I don't know if that's a busy time of year for traveling or not...I'd guess no, since school is back in and it's not around a holiday. We went last year at the same time frame and the rates for half what they are now. I didn't book them until August. Maybe I'll wait a couple of weeks and see what/if anything changes.
Thanks everyone for your responses!

 

[DisneyPirate85]

We waited and got a GREAT deal with SouthWest, $49.00 +tax each way from Indianapolis....Playing the waiting game now for July trip....:fork:

 

[Ms. Tinkerbell]

That's a great price!!!

 

[dizMOM]

My experience has been you can get decent rates (from Pennsylvania at least) on Southwest, Airtran and sometimes USAir by waiting till about 4 - 6 wks. before your trip (holidays excluded). Take the risk but you need to check every day and more than once!!

 

[Tinkrbell]

We booked our airfare for the first weekend in January the first week of December. (The entire trip was planned, booked, & taken in less than a month) We booked through Airtran & got seats for $72 & $99 each way, including the connecting flights in Atlanta both ways.

 

[lscott933]

most major airlines book 331 days in advance. the cheaper airlines have different time frames. if i was you i would look and when you see a great deal get it. with today gas price you never know when they will raise there rates or lower then too. good luck on getting a cheap fare.

 

[Rob562]

One reason I like flying Southwest is their approach to changes and cancellations. If you purchase a ticket and the fare goes down, you can change your flight to the cheaper fare with no change fee, and will get the remaining balance as a credit to use on a future flight. Same thing with cancelling a flight. You can even transfer the credit to someone else by giving them the necessary info.

The only catch is that credits expire one year from original *purchase* date...

-Rob

 

[yazmin182]

I also had this same problem. I say, if it's a reasonable price, just book it and don't look back! Yes sometimes you do get lucky, but sometimes you don't, and then you have to stress yourself about it until you find a good price. And if you book it a little early, it'll be paid off and you're all set to go! Well that's my take on it at least.

 

[Ms. Tinkerbell]

I didn't know this about Southwest...That's great information thanks!

 

[mousefan1972]

One reason I like flying Southwest is their approach to changes and cancellations. If you purchase a ticket and the fare goes down, you can change your flight to the cheaper fare with no change fee, and will get the remaining balance as a credit to use on a future flight. Same thing with cancelling a flight. You can even transfer the credit to someone else by giving them the necessary info.

The only catch is that credits expire one year from original *purchase* date...

-Rob

I can't agree with Rob enough. SW is so flexible with changing flight times, days, etc. For our trip to WDW last December, we made 5 changes to our flight going down to Orlando! We added a day, changed the time we were leaving, added a day again, etc.... all for no fee. And to top it off, when the flight price was lowered, I re-booked it and got $160 back in SW credit! That's why I'm waiting for SW to open their booking for December '08 before I even start looking at any other airline....

 

[Ms. Tinkerbell]

I booked our airfare this morning. I decided to go check on the website to see if there were any changes and they had lowered the tickets $22 each, so while still more than last year, it saved me over $120 from what the prices were last week and I was able to get an early morning flight going down, and a later evening flight coming back so I'm happy

I was going to wait for SW flights to come out as we used them last March, but I decided to be lazy and only have to drive 10 minutes to the airport instead of an hour to Norfolk or 3&1/2 to Raleigh.

Thanks so much for all your advice!!

 

[elizs77]

We took Southwest on our last trip to WDW, and we fell in love. We live about 15 minutes from our airport, but we find it worthwhile to drive about 90 minutes down the road just to use them. We are going in May, and for three of us to fly, it's only going to be a grand total of $501. When we flew in 2006, we were able to find tickets 3 weeks in advance for $99 round trip.

They also have a policy if you cancel your trip, you can apply the money to another time. Also, you can download a program called DING, and it will alert you to special prices live on your desktop. These prices are supposedly only available through the DING alert. Southwest also has an email special system as well.

 

[cymbaldiva]

One reason I like flying Southwest is their approach to changes and cancellations. If you purchase a ticket and the fare goes down, you can change your flight to the cheaper fare with no change fee, and will get the remaining balance as a credit to use on a future flight. Same thing with cancelling a flight. You can even transfer the credit to someone else by giving them the necessary info.

The only catch is that credits expire one year from original *purchase* date...

-Rob

I did not know that! I'm not a big fan of Southwest (they were brutal to my luggage a while back), but I am a fan of my money - if they can save me some of it, they are my new best friend!