Arriving 12/8/17, when should I book airfare?

Vacationlover01

Earning My Ears
Joined
Jan 16, 2017
Does anyone know how far out you tend to find them best deals? We arrive the 8th and leave the 16th.
Thank you!
 
There is no "perfect time" to book airfare. Check early and often, and book when you find a price you can live with. If you're not booking an airline that doesn't charge change fees to rebook, book your flights and never look back.
 
Best time to book? When it's low. :laughing: It's probably a little early for December to be reasonable. I'm watching some December dates now and they are indeed high, even the weekday ones. I think I usually end up booking a couple months out.

Seriously, just make a habit of checking prices every day. You know what they are now. When it drops a decent amount, book it. If you're on Southwest and can get travel credit, keep watching. If you have a non-refundable fare on an airline that doesn't give credit, stop looking once you book.

I like to book Southwest flights separately (coming and going). Once one leg is reasonable, I book it, then watch for reductions. Any credit can then be put toward the other leg.
 
Our trip is for Jan 8, 2018 - Jan 13. I had a budget for our flight ($400 per person is what I planned for this trip) and I had certain times we wanted to depart to go and on the way back. I checked every single day and also have the Hopper App downloaded on my phone. I was notified that the exact flight I wanted (time there and back) had gone down to $294 (and that included all the taxes). It will probably go down more, but I didn't want to chance not getting the flights we wanted so I went ahead and booked the airfare this morning.
 


If you are flying Southwest the best time to book is the day the flights for that date are released. Which that day has already come and gone for Dec 2017 flight release.. After that the prices usually climb.
 
SWA has a sale going on now - purchase by 6/29 for flights 8/22 through 12/16. Otherwise, I stalk the sites (we sometimes fly American) until I see a fare that is reasonable. At some point you just have to make your move and hope for the best. On both of our Disney trips this year we opted for weekday flights since they were less expensive.
 
I booked for our 12/7 trip this past Tuesday. Got a killer deal I couldn't pass with points/cash. Just checked back on our flights today and the price rose from $129 to $350.
 


My disclaimer on this is every airline is different and airfares change day to day and sometimes hour to hour.

I would start trending the airfare now - so you have a baseline in airfare. Then track once a day for a week. What I have found is booking on Mondays and Fridays typically means booking a higher fare. There is no magic number or time period, but I personally have found for my cities 10 weeks out is when I have found the most reasonable rates.

Like I said, this is my personal experience with air from the Chicago airports. I can be different for other cities.

I agree, if you find an airfare that is reasonable in your opinion, then jump on it. If it still seems high then wait. You are going in December so things may fill up quicker so keep an eye on it.
 
Like others have said it changes airline to airline, but typically if you get a sense of what the going rate is then usually based of previous history the best rates are between 60 and 45 days out. depending of the time of year it may go up to 75 days out. For example I just booked flights from Seattle to Orlando for $99 each way. and our trip is August 20-27
 
I am going Dec 7th to Dec 13th and we booked Southwest on the anniversary sale. We paid $267 round trip from SFO to MCO. The price has risen since then. We did just change to a earlier flight which added about $35 per ticket but we get in 5 hours earlier but I am a little scared because we are flying in to Midway and worried about delays in Chicago in December
 
From what I can tell, flights for me in Boston will drop in August for our flight on 11/25. I am tracking flights using fare compare and the hopper app. I will book as soon as they get in the $250 range.
 
Like others have said there is no one time period that guarantees the best rates anymore. Definitely start looking at prices and if they come down to a price you think is worth buying go ahead and buy them. For myself we tend to book with Frontier and find the best rates much closer to the dates. Last year for a 12/12 flight we booked in early November and got $100RT from PA. Other times of the year we've booked as little as 1-2 weeks out and paid half that.
 

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