Purchase airfare now or wait?

[tabbycat1]

We will be returning home to NY from Vancouver on 9/2/09 but can't decide if we should purchase airfare tickets now or wait and take the chance the fares will come down. Any suggestions?

[jasl]

Earlier this year I purchased air to London for June, a few days later the fare went down about $500 for the two of us. I checked today and it is up by almost $1,000, so I guess for now I should be happy with the amount I paid.

[parody]

This is a common question. Generally, one should book a flight when the fare being charged is reasonable, all things considered (e.g., the availability of nearby airports being one major factor). But, what's a reasonable fare and is there much variation in fares? Over the last year in this particular market, the lowest one-way fares ranged from $275 to $475 (but with much better deals from Seattle) with a significant amount of variability. If you think the current fares are on the high end of this range, you can use various alert services to track all flights in this market, or yapta.com to track a finite set of definitive flights so that you can book quickly when they reach a level that you are comfortable with.

[paul929207]

This question is asked all the time. The bottom line is that no one knows what the airfares will do. If you see a fare that looks okay to you grab it.

[FlyerTalker]

This question is asked all the time. The bottom line is that no one knows what the airfares will do. If you see a fare that looks okay to you grab it.

Actually, there is one man who does know. However, he is locked in a dark, windowless room filled with legacy mainframe computers and has not seen the light of day for years. Airlines send in food and water on a regular basis. He is the "Gnome of Yield Management".

[Dietemann]

Related to the Upgrade Fairy!

[FlyerTalker]

The Upgrade Fairy does exist. Just put your butt into a seat for 100K+ miles per year and she will visit you often. Last year, there were only 3 segments with an F cabin where the complimentary upgrade didn't come through. Good enough for me.