Flights

[Ilove6dogs]

How far in advance does everyone book their flights? We are going out of Miami at the beginning of December and am wondering if I should book now or wait a few months? I know the airlines raise ticket prices in December. We don't fly often so I am not sure if prices will drop or go up if I wait to book. We will be be flying out of Pittsburgh.

[snc_cam]

So this falls into the same comments about when to book a cruise. If you feel the price of the airfare is good, book it now. It may go down, but it may go up. A nephew of mine works for one of the airlines and told me that about 45 days out are usually your best deals. I have booked as early as 9 months out (trip this spring to SFO) since I felt the prices were good. I have seen them go up and down, but usually up.

 

For me, I usually fly Southwest (SWA) which you can't book usually beyond the 6 month mark. With SWA, if the price drops, you will get a credit for a future flight (usually within a year). I actually bought some SWA tix very early into a vacation planning and at the 45 day period, they were much higher.

 

So bottom line, it really depends on what you feel is a good deal. If you didn't book it and the price goes up, you will be kicking yourself for not booking early.

 

Steve

[Rrronnie]

Southwest doesn't book more than 6 months out...I don't know about any others...

[caribsun]

Flights from Pittsburgh to Miami are around 350.00 for early December. If it was me I would book now for that price.

Booking early gives you more choices for departure times and better choices of seating.

http://www.seatguru.com/

Edited February 11, 2014 by caribsun

[slidergirl]

I've never heard the "prices are raised in December" thing before. Just curious - where did you find this tidbit? Is it like the "prices are always cheaper on Wednesdays" urban myth?

 

Seriously, I book my flights for any trip when the seat I want is available. I don't play the waiting game, trying to get it down to the absolute cheapest. I just prefer to have everything booked and done with. Last example: my vacation last May (the first week), I had decided to do the trip the first week of February. The second week of February, I had the flights and hotels all booked...

[Ilove6dogs]

I will probably book in the next day or two I was just trying to see what the majority of people did. I have already booked the hotel, I am a get it all done ASAP kind of gal myself.

 

In regards to December flights being priced higher, I saw it in an article I came across when google booking flight tips. It said that it was due to the holiday season.

 

Thanks for everyone's input.

[cb at sea]

Prices for FLYING in parts of Dec. are higher...around the holidays! We find that booking airfare about 45-60 days out gets the best prices. Prices are for when you're FLYING...not when you're BOOKING!

Edited February 11, 2014 by cb at sea

[jamesr3939]

We are doing a family cruise for Thanksgiving and I tracked fares for last Thanksgiving just to see how they moved. I started in April 2013 and checked every month. I looked at flying the Thursday before Thanksgiving week and returning the Saturday after. The prices never changed from April on.

 

I booked ours using FF miles as soon as the schedule open up and am tracking for the kids fares. The fares for Thanksgiving do jump a lot around the week of Thanksgiving. I can get $150 OW fare PHL - FLL on the Thursday week before. But Saturday after Thanksgiving is $350 OW. SWA right now is $279 RT, but they don't have the schedule out for November yet.

 

As stated, if you see one that you think is a good deal then book it. There are a couple of www sites that track historical data for flights. But it doesn't seem of much use since fares, routes, and airlines have come and gone so much in the last year.

[agc291]

I watched flights from Dulles to MIA for our cruise last week and they stayed consistenly the same for 3 months, although still more expensive than we were used to paying to fly to FLA. I booked at the end of December and a couple weeks later they went up.

[TruckerDave]

I've never heard the "prices are raised in December" thing before. Just curious - where did you find this tidbit? Is it like the "prices are always cheaper on Wednesdays" urban myth?

 

.

 

I wouldn't say urban myth. It is cheaper to fly into some places on a Wed than on a weekend. Check that price of a ticket to fly into FLL or MIA on a Fri/Sat/Sun vs a Wed in winter and you will see a difference. (I just did it on UA from IAH-FLL on a few random dates in Dec and there was about a $40 dollar difference). I have also saved as much as $400 when going to the Dominican Republic via MIA on a Wed-Wed instead of a Sat/Sun-Sat/Sun. So yes, depending on where you are going flying midweek can be cheaper.

[waterbug123]

I wouldn't say urban myth. It is cheaper to fly into some places on a Wed than on a weekend. Check that price of a ticket to fly into FLL or MIA on a Fri/Sat/Sun vs a Wed in winter and you will see a difference. (I just did it on UA from IAH-FLL on a few random dates in Dec and there was about a $40 dollar difference). I have also saved as much as $400 when going to the Dominican Republic via MIA on a Wed-Wed instead of a Sat/Sun-Sat/Sun. So yes, depending on where you are going flying midweek can be cheaper.

 

You're talking about situations where there is a legitimate difference in demand (and thus a difference in price) on certain days, i.e. a leisure destination on the weekend. Usually when people start in with the whole "Wednesdays are cheaper" routine, it's because of an urban myth that BUYING tickets on a certain day is cheaper, not FLYING on a certain day.

[vwrestler171]

Look for flights in Sept-December and get an idea of what the prices will do. I have found that sometime further out, you get higher prices as they can always lower the prices.

[waterbug123]

Look for flights in Sept-December and get an idea of what the prices will do. I have found that sometime further out, you get higher prices as they can always lower the prices.

 

They can always raise prices as well.

[FawnRiver]

We've found that if we wait, we end up paying more as options dwindle or having to take a flight at a time that isn't our first choice.

If you see a flight you like at a price you're willing to pay, book it, otherwise you're rolling the dice.

[dadroy]

Don't laugh, but December is a long month. 2013 because Thanksgiving was late we did not cruise like we wanted too. To fly early in December the prices were really high because it was right after Thanksgiving and the prices were raised due to supply and demand.

 

Then you get into the Christmas flight dates. So trying to fly 12/21 you would pay a lot more than flying 12/8. So we had really only one week where flights were low. Flying from the West Coast we wanted to do 14 days, but that put us into the holiday time frames.

 

Just to show, Los Angeles to Lauderdale was $130 to go there, flying back the flight was $320 total of $450. If we just did a 7 day it was $260 round trip.

 

So to answer your question, are you talking about flying early December or between xmas and new years. Makes a big difference.