ellenbw

I am booking an open jaw SFO-BUD-PRG-SFO in mid Oct. maybe I have missed the cheaper fares and should just bite the bullet....

The route I wantedUnited/Luftansa just went up from $1204 to$1224 the next morning as I went to book it. The other fare that I had been eyeing, Luftansa/Swiss is now $1322 up from
$1270 or so. There are cheaper fares but they require 2 stops or are not ideal times.

Do you think if I wait a few days - til mid week- that the airfares may drop or should I just deal with and book it. I know it's only $40 for 2, but I was hoping for lower fares!

I know that no one has a crystal ball but I often hear that airfares are cheaper when booking mid week. I usually do book mid week and don't look back, so really don't know if that is true.

JoanneH

Do a quick check on these two and that will give you idea of which way fares will be going. If the fare is reasonable and you can live with it grab it and don't look back its almost impossible to get it at dead bottom every time.
http://www.skyscanner.net/
http://matrix.itasoftware.com/

sparkchaser

You probably missed the window for cheap fares. Sorry.

simpsonc510

Can't recall where I read it, but I have a note to self that I should wait until August, after the kids are back in school, to check for cheaper fares to ZRH from ORD. I am right now seeing lower fares though, so might not wait that long. My travel dates are in Nov/Dec.

sparkchaser

I don't understand why that would work. It's not like the airlines don't know when summer vacations and holidays are.

simpsonc510

I watch fares very frequently. They DO indeed go up and down, almost on a daily basis. It's all about the fare buckets that are being offered. Right now the cheap fares that do not earn miles are being offered for my specific dates. I prefer to earn miles, so will probably want to pay a slightly higher fare. I am able to select a specific fare bucket on the United site by doing an advanced flight search. "K" fare is what is showing now, but when I looked at fares a couple of weeks ago the lowest fare offered was high enough to earn 100% mileage ("S" fare, maybe?). If "K" was available a couple of weeks ago, why was it not offered? Because the airlines are hoping that someone will not know that other cheaper fares are still out there..?

To the OP, watch fares and when you see something that you are comfortable with, book it.

ellenbw

Thanks for the links joanneH
Simpsonc510 - I did not know about the K fares not earning mileage on code share flights for United. My return flights are K fares - which makes a difference if I'm not flying United back. Well that helped me decide! Thanks.

simpsonc510

Ellenbw, you have to read the fare codes carefully for each of the partner airlines, to see which ones DO and DON'T earn miles. My own reservation would be on a Swiss flight. I know from experience that "K" doesn't earn anything. "K" fares are pretty much the cheapest ones out there, which is fine if your main consideration is saving money, but if you want to also earn miles for your purchase, you'll want to spend a little bit more.

sparkchaser

simpsonc510 is correct. You need to look at your plan and consult their earnings chart for the definitive answer.

ellenbw

Thanks spark chaser. I think I missed out on sign octant mileage earlier this year. In this case it was S code for my outgoing flights Luftansa flights- earning United mileage- and K for the return flights, meaning my intra Europe flight will not earn mileage, but I'm only losing 260 miles. The United tranatlantic leg still earns miles with the K code.

clevelandbrown

In late June, I bought tickets to Paris and back in mid September returning in early October. Business class for $3400 each. I usually hold out for a better price, but for this trip we are attending a festival, so we needed specific dates, and an afternoon flight home, of which only one was offered, so I went ahead and bought. Since then, prices on our flight held steady until about July 1, then started climbing. They are currently at $5200, as travel buckets expire and fewer seats remain.

Often I've bought when they have a sale, but they have been having fewer and fewer sales, as they have reduced capacity and apparently can fill their planes at full prices. It was a buyers' market when the industry had three or four flights a day, but they have now code shared and reduced the number of flights, so now we compete for fewer seats; the buyers' market has ended.

simpsonc510

You are spot on, clevelandbrown. There are indeed fewer seats and the airlines can fill their planes to capacity. I can't even recall the last time I was on a flight that was less than 90% full, and usually higher than that! Planes are definitely full nowadays.

mrwunrfl

>>S code for my outgoing flights Lufthansa flights- earning United mileage<<

That is true if it is a Lufthansa S fare class (e.g. if the ticket was issued by Lufthansa). If the ticket was issued by United then it will have a United fare class and the Lufthansa fare class for the ticket might not be S.

Improviser

If someone could predict which day to buy a given ticket on, for the lowest price, they should forget about buying airline tickets and move their energy over to predicting the stock market.

Nowadays, tickets are sold using a 'Dynamic Pricing' business model just like the price of gas at your local gas station. NO one can predict what the price will be tomorrow and while some market conditions like school holidays, business travel days, etc. will affect the price, so will countless other factors.

kenav

What are "fare buckets"?

sparkchaser

A good explanation of "fare buckets" can be found here: http://puckinflight.wordpress.com/20...-availability/

I would have just C&P the metaphor the author used but it really needs the image to complete it.

Gardyloo

Here's a typical flight availability listing for an American Airlines flight (AA 33) from JFK to LAX for mid-October.

AA 33 JFK 10/16/13 8:00 AM LAX 10/16/13 11:00 PM 762
F7 A6 J7 D7 I7 Y7 B7 H7 K7 M7 L7 W7 V7 G7 S4 N0 Q0 O0

Each of the letters - F, A, J etc. indicates a fare bucket. F and A are first class, J, D and I are business class, and the rest are economy class. The numbers after the letters are the number of seats available for sale <i>today</i> in that fare class. (Note when you see the number 7 it means "at least 7" in AA's nomenclature.)

The numbers are <i>not</i> cumulative. It means that a coach seat can be sold in any coach fare bucket - from Y down to S. When all of the "S" tickets have been sold (with the quantity assigned by AA's computers) then the next cheapest seats (G) will be sold to low-price shoppers, then up the ladder.

Within each cabin (first, business, coach) the price of the ticket goes down as you go from left to right; the conditions and restrictions that apply increase in the same direction.

Here's the listing for tomorrow's flight AA 33 -
F3 A2 J0 D0 I0 Y3 B3 H3 K2 M2 L1 W0 V0 G0 S0 N0 Q0 O0

As you can see, business class is sold out, and all but the more expensive coach buckets have sold out, too, or perhaps their advance-purchase date has passed (more likely). AA's "revenue management" computers have calculated (based on a mountain of good data) that the remaining few open seats (looks like 3) in coach will probably sell out by tomorrow, or last-minute mileage redemptions will soak up the slack.

Within each cabin, there's no distinction visible between a seat occupied by a person holding a ticket sold in "Y" class - costing thousands of dollars because it's an unrestricted and refundable fare, and a person with an "S" class ticket - only a couple hundred dollars and highly inflexible.

kenav

Gardyloo - Wow. How'd you do that?

simpsonc510

kenav, this is the same kind of listing I can see when looking at flights on UA. It's done in what is called "expert mode." If you have a FF account with the airline, you should be able to go into your account "settings" and request expert mode so you too can see availability by fare buckets.

Gardyloo

I use a paid service called "ExpertFlyer" - http://www.expertflyer.com/ - which is <i>very</i> useful for planning flights, looking for mileage redemption seats, creating flight or fare alerts, etc.