I HATE playing the "Do I purchase now or wait" game....
 

What to do, what to do! I saw on the news last night that flight costs are going to rise but, lo and behold, the flights I'm looking at for May went down a little. Seems to me in past years they have still been cheaper than right now, but after the dire warnings from yesterday.

I just have to vent to somebody......

You can go crazy playing this game. I follow a few sites which are mentioned in this forum and then get a ball park idea of fare ranges. I then place alerts and watch them, then when I see a fare I consider within reason I grab it and forget it. Most of the time I can come in on the lower end, but I seldom get the rock bottom fare nor do I get the high end fare.

Yeah, JoanneH, I know you're right. I'm a fairly thrifty person so when this time rolls around it's like playing Russian Roulette for me. I know I should just suck it up, but OMG WHAT IF THE PRICE GOES DOWN?!?!?

LOLOL

I'm such a weenie........

I'm there right now. I'm trying to be patient and go with the alerts, but... then I lose resolve and spend several hours looking at options. If I just got a second job and WORKED all the hours I spend on this, I could buy the first ticket that comes up and not worry about it!

My friends are always amazed at the prices I've been able to come up with in the past, so they ask me for help. None of them realize just how much time it takes to dog all the travel websites day after day and then I end up looking like the bad guy when they do reserve something and the price drops later.

Patient: Doc, it hurts when I do this.

Doctor: Don't do that.

(With thanks to Henny Youngman)

I was watching fares from SJO to EZE - needing to go around Feb 8. Kayak alerts and Fare Compare alerts. The price had originally been about $950 so this is what I was budgeting for. And then ... it kept coming down and down - horrors! At what price would I actually buy! I saw one at $815 and thought, yeah, this is it. I then had to fix a price in my head where I would buy. I decided I would buy at somewhere between $750 and $775, depending on how close I was to the date. Well.... maybe I'll wait until Saturday and see what happens. Well... I got a fare alert from Kayak and went on the website and nothing exciting there. Decided to check the airline website, just for grins and found the fare at $650! Needless to say, I bought it, holding my breath until the confirmation came through. Later, I even went back to the website to make sure I actually had a ticket and they had not canceled the flight. On the other hand, last Spring, I bought a ticket from IAD to FRA for $550 and despite screaming ads for European flights, just couldn't allow myself to check the price after the purchase.

I think this is the key. Fix a price in your head, buy your ticket and then NEVER EVER go back and check it. As EricH wrote, Don't do that.

Hsmithcr's advice above is good, especially the part about don't keep checking prices once you've purchased the ticket. You'll only torment yourself. Any bargain fare will have a hefty change fee associated with it ($150-$200). That new lower fare will probably end up costing you more than the one you bought.

EricH: I never thought of myself as masochistic, but evidently a strand runs through my body! LOLOL

You're all right about this - I need to bite the bullet, pay the price, and delete the bookmarks that I keep hovering over and over and over......

Have a good one, folks!

I have to disagree with those advising not to check fares after purchasing your tickets.

We made an early purchase becaue the fares in 2007 were good for our April 2008 IAD-AMS United flight. I kept checking prices and eventually they dropped $281.65 each. United sent vouchers for the amount which almost paid for our September trip to Albuquerque. That was before a change fee was charged.