smom

Planning a trip to Yellowstone in August and debating when to buy tickets. I don't really have a good idea what a good price is...thinking about buying my tickets now from Austin, TX to Billings, Montana.

buongiorno

Knowing the right time to pull the trigger on your airline tickets is a little like trying to time the stock market, essentially impossible to do. One thing you can do is select different dates and look at pricing to get a sense of possible pricing trends. Pick 1 month from now, 2 months, 8 months etc. and look at the pricing and compare it to your trip.

smom

good idea...I didn't think of that

trippinkpj

Good advice from Buono. FYI, my husband needs to go to Billings in the next couple of months from SJC. It's always a pricey trip for us (east coast is usually cheaper!).

1JAR

I am planning a trip to Billings too..tickets are 100.00 more (I saved my tickets from last year) this year than last year same time (I go to my Dads every year for taxes and his Birthday) on Delta

GoTravel

Whenever the price looks like something I can live with. Can be as far out as a year or as soon as two weeks. It probably averages out to two months.

Ronda

I was pricing tickets from SJC to SLC. At about two weeks out the price started to go up from around $200 to $300.

FainaAgain

If this is Southwest, I buy ASAP. Their lower fares go fast!

smom

No looking at fares with Delta...actually flying into Jackson and leaving from Billings. That is cheaper than roundtrip from Jackson and we don't have to circle back. Plan on buying this week.

mark99

It is impossible to know when to book or buy. Airline seats have become like a camodity, and they can literearlly change every 24 hours. Even if you put your ticket on hold, that price is not guaranteed until you actually pay for it within 24 hours.

However...if you know the average and low price for the route, that can give you a lot of info to work with. If it is higher than average, wait up until 2 weeks prior before booking....it is a gamble, but more often than not it falls within my favor.

Now I do know that if you buy high..at American Airlines, and the price later falls..you can call them and ask for a voucher for the difference. You can then use the voucher against future travel....this is a little known secret!

One final tip....I always use Orbits or Yahoo travel to find the best price and dates for the trip...THEN I go online and book directly with the airline.

Believe it or not....I have come out ahead by a few dollars more often then not.

mrwunrfl

A shortcut to what buongiorno suggested is to go to travelocity.com and use the "Flexible Dates" option. Select Start=Today and Thru=Jan and the search will find the lowest fares available today for travel in the next 11 months. Which is $225+ (plus taxes and fees).

Debden

Yeah I was looking into going to Tampa early next month and had great airfare on Monday night and decided to wait till Tuesday to book.Well low and behold the tickets went from $137 RT to $194 RT.Now I'm just hoping they'll go down again.They'll probably only go up from here.Bummer.
Moral of the storyuy immediately when you find what you think is a good price.
Debbie