Hi Everyone,

My wife and I want to travel to Cancun, Mexico starting on the 7th of January, 2012. When would the best time be to book a flight? Is it better to book early (it's April right now) or wait? I fear prices are going to go up with the price of fuel, etc. But, t have gotten burnt in the past by booking too early. Your opinions would be appreciated!

It's impossible to know. If oil prices continue to rise, then flights will become inevitably more expensive. But if they drop, you might see real drops in airfares. And if the crime situation is Mexico does not stabilize (or even gets worse), then you might see a huge drop in travel by Americans and even lower prices (or, alternatively, cuts in air service).

What I'd recommend is pricing the ticket now and see how it compares with the last time you went to Cancun. If you find a flight for $450 or less, it might be a good enough deal to jump on now. If not, you might want to wait a while. There probably won't be any actual sales on January flights until later this summer or fall.

kayak.com/buzz best site for screening usually prices

fall in the fall might wait till then.

Usually find my best deals on spirit.com

Cheap even free flights with careful research.

Got a free First class flight to Bogota RT by

getting their Free Spirit World MC 15000 FF miles

then cancelled the card after a couple of months,

usually get best prices value that way.

Happy Planning,

Mitch, my feeling is that you are better off to wait until about 3 months before your departure date.

Sure, it's possible that by early October fuel prices and ticket prices will have increased. And it's also possible that they'll have stayed the same (or gone down), or that you want to change the dates (some friends want to join you ... but they can only go if it's 2 weeks later), or that you discover some different place that you'd rather go to, or that your canary has taken ill, or ... whatever.

The main advantages that you gain by buying a ticket now are (1)a hedge against future price increases and (2)assurance of space that is now available for the dates that you want. The main advantage of waiting is to protect you against forfeited payments in the event that you need to change dates or cancel the trip altogether. I find that the advantages of waiting usually outweigh the advantages of buying now <u>except</u> when the flights or accommodations that you want are likely to be in short supply -- for example, frequent flyer award tickets, or accommodations at extremely desirable spots during high-travel periods.

I heard some expert on TV saying that the perfect time to buy is on a Tuesday late afternoon, 3 1/2 months before your departure. I tend to start pricing tixs when I know where I will be going so that I know about what fares run. I then jump on a fare if I see a fare drop. I rarely end up buying 3 1/2 months out, generally earlier than that. The ticket I bought a couple months ago for late June travel for Paris with a return from Germany is now several hundreds higher and it was already really high for this route. Good luck!