when do you buy airline tickets?

[santa's surpriz]

I have a dilemma...I am contemplating buying my tickets now w. Airtran. I have the A+ rewards, so I usually go with them & that they usually have the best prices, although not the best service. We are going Jan 14/15th- 25th. Right now two tickets are $400. That is about $65 less than I paid last year. I am not sure if tickets are going to skyrocket or not. If I do now, I am afraid I risking airline bankruptcy...I know I would be covered by Visa, but if the claim is not settled before I leave I may not be able to afford another set of tickets without being reimbursed for the first. Last year we bought tickets about 3 months in advance. I think the only way I will end getting screwed on tickets, like everyone else is on my luggage. I am pretty certain that if things do not change most all airlines will start charging for luggage. Hmmm...help me decide! thanks!

 

[SnowWhiteMomma]

I always book As soon as they come out, but Ido understand ur cc delema. I guess i am not much help.

 

[Cmdr_Crimson]

I booked 10 months in advance and got a better deal...The furthest away it was a little cheaper for me.

 

[bcuinohio]

I booked my tickets about 11 months in advance. I booked on Continental though, and they are one of the more financially stable airlines. If you are concerned about airline stability, you may be able to look up online their fincail information. If it is a publicly traded company, you will be able to find it.

 

[disneytopdog]

I book my air fare about 5 months out. I check the flight twice a day and have seen it go from $425 to $203. Needless to say I jumped at the $203. I have checked the flight since purchase and they have gone back up to $395 to $345.

 

[chrisdadrocks]

Had same question

I had this same question pretty much. Airfair when i was looking about a month ago was 350 round trip on Southwest. It was a little high for me then I checked one day last week and bam! 250 round trip. I booked it right then. I am going in Sep 20 -27 so it is closer to my trip which is why I was shocked and they were flights I wanted early in late out. I hope this helps but I doubt it. lol:ROFLOL:

 

[disneyfankev]

i already bought my tickets for feb 09 on airtran. i think the prices will only go up .

 

[lscott933]

well if i was you. if your worried about the airline going under and not getting your money i would wait for it to get close and take your chances or find another airlines that will still be there. good luck.

 

[maryszhi]

when we decide we want to go, and plan everything, we book it if possible. that way, we know we have everything.

 

[Tinkerbella16]

I am having the same dilemma. I wanted to try Southwest, but they don't even have the November 2008 flight schedule out yet, and its only 5 months away!?!?! They have up to october and thats it :shrug:. I called to see when it would be up. Every other airline had flights months after november.

A lot of the prices I've gotten so far were outrageous!!! AirTran wanted $489 for ONE roundtrip ticket, and some were even more!! I think Im going to wait for southwest and book a flight on the day the schedule comes out.

 

[Disneykidder]

It's funny. Last year, when we went to book our trip, we waited a couple of extra weeks more than our friends who went the exact same time. Well, we saved about $80 total by waiting the extra 2 weeks. So last summer we paid just over $600 for 3 round trip tics. This year....it would have been around $1200. That to me, is insane!! They only kept going up...and this is Jet Blue and Southwest I am talking about. CRAZY. It is a 2 1/2 hour flight, not 6 hours!

Luckily, we have 2 free round trips from a T-Mobile promotion so we will get 2 of them for $50(taxes) and then just purchase the third. We were going to use them for a CA trip in Dec., but due to prices going up, we prob will not be going so we figured we'd use them now.

Bottom line, book asap!!!! They are only going up!!

 

[Craig & Lisa]

we try to get them as soon as possible, however before you do go to a ticket web page you must clean out your cookies and history, these pages look at those to see if you were there already and give you the same fares. It may not make much difference but you may get a surprise.

 

[Tiggerfanatic]

I bought my airfare the same time I booked my December trip a month ago. When checking prices, it was within a couple dollars of what I paid for the same time frame as last year, and I figured they weren't going aywhere but up. I'm glad I did because I see in the news that US Air just added $50.00 to all their tickets prices.

 

[kimmychad]

I am having the same dilemma. I wanted to try Southwest, but they don't even have the November 2008 flight schedule out yet, and its only 5 months away!?!?! They have up to october and thats it :shrug:. I called to see when it would be up. Every other airline had flights months after november.

A lot of the prices I've gotten so far were outrageous!!! AirTran wanted $489 for ONE roundtrip ticket, and some were even more!! I think Im going to wait for southwest and book a flight on the day the schedule comes out.

yeah southwest is odd like that. its usually the last thing i have paid for when i go, but i love the prices i get from them. and if i want to change its never a problem, so thats cool. plus, they dropped the price from when i forst booked, so i have $135 towards an upcoming trip that i can use later.

 

[santa's surpriz]

I am having the same dilemma. I wanted to try Southwest, but they don't even have the November 2008 flight schedule out yet, and its only 5 months away!?!?! They have up to october and thats it :shrug:. I called to see when it would be up. Every other airline had flights months after november.

A lot of the prices I've gotten so far were outrageous!!! AirTran wanted $489 for ONE roundtrip ticket, and some were even more!! I think Im going to wait for southwest and book a flight on the day the schedule comes out.

OMG! That is an outrageous price! Where do you fly from??? Maybe you take the suggestion to remove cookies like someone else mentioned...that actually may be very true! If I use my home computer I get a different figure than I do at work, every time I look to see if they have changed and they do stay constant! Next year the excuse they will use is that too many people booked their flights too early going to WDW, so they need to make up the lose of revenues! lol!

 

[santa's surpriz]

we try to get them as soon as possible, however before you do go to a ticket web page you must clean out your cookies and history, these pages look at those to see if you were there already and give you the same fares. It may not make much difference but you may get a surprise.

Hopefully that is a good surprise!

 

[Hammymrm]

We are going to WDW in October. I booked the air yesterday. We exchanged into Disney with DVC, so I did know my exact dates until last Friday. However I was watching the flights, the two flights (time wise)I really wanted filled up before I could book. I was checking other flights and most of them (out of Kansas City) will almost full for October!

 

[imamouse]

It's been my experience with US Airways that the fares start high for flights and then drop about 60-90 days out and then go back up again about 20 days out. Based on past experience, I'd pay more for the flight for my Dec trip if I booked now than if I waited until Sept. BUT - with the current news about airlines, fuel and expenses, I'm not sure what to do this year. :shrug:

I've been watching the flights I want, and they haven't changed much in the last 3 weeks (went down $5 today), so I hope they don't go up.

If all else fails, I can fly Air Tran (if they're still around in Dec :lookaroun) for less, but not non-stop, so I'd rather stick with US Airways.

 

[Disneykidder]

I will only fly non-stop. I flew to Hawaii with a stop in CA for a couple of hours and we had lunch with my DH's family so it wasn't that bad. I will not do stops again, especially with a child.

 

[disneytopdog]

CNN is reporting that United is cutting flights and parking aircraft, just like American is doing, so basic supply and demand is going to be the rule.. Air fare is going to shoot up as the number of seats decrease and deals will be few and far between.