When is the cheapest time to fly?
 

I m considering a trip to Germany during spring or autumn 2009, flying out of LAX, I know flights are cheaper during these periods. Does anyone know when is the official high season for flying? Or, when would it be cheaper to fly? I am having trouble getting this information. My travel agent was no help and checking the travel sites was confusing. I posted this on the flight board, but did not get any responses. Thank you.

Cheapest is usually Jan/Feb. But deals can pop up anytime. You need to look at all the search sites - kayak.com etc - achecking avariety of dates- to see what deals there are from your home city.

The reason you are not getting a response is that there is no answer to your question. The cheapest time to fly is when the airline tickets are the lowest. When are they the lowest?? Who knows?? It depends !! The lowest prices generally occur when the demand is the lowest and they have extra seats to sell. Varies by airline, time of year, and specific flights. The best you can do is to set a price, if the ticket is below that price -- grab it. You will never know the lowest price for a ticket until you are past that price.

The fares are mostly market based not by some "official" schedule. The airlines set whatever the prices needed to maximum their profit.

There are sites that try to "guess" what the airlines are up to. For example:

http://farecast.live.com/msn/flexibl...;m=LAXFRA&

The cheapest time is always when you don't have the time or money to take advantage of the great offer!

When I compared flying in August to flying in September, the rates were much cheaper for Sept. and I did this just the other day. I suppose, I am outdated, things have really changed, but there used to be a policy that if one traveled after Sept 15 the rates were much cheaper than in the summer high season. I guess, I was hoping to find some method when I searched since I am trying to coordinate my travel dates with someone else. Thanks, everyone for your thoughts.

I think sometimes the rates aren't lower until October nowadays, even though they used to change right after Labor Day. At least that's what I have noticed. But if you found a lot cheaper rates in September than August, just goes to show that you can't bet on anything any more. As for Spring, I don't pay that much attention, it seems like they are definitely lower in Feb-March, if you call that spring, than April-May. I don't know when they change from the low winter season though.

via sidestep I believe you can get a fare alert. It gives you the fares going in and out of certain cities and what the average is.. it might be Kayak. I wish I could remember - does someoone recall what I am talking about? It comes straight to your email box.

Hi an,

In general, airfares are lowest in mid-Jan to mid-Feb.

They slowly rise until around Memorial Day, when they jump.

They start falling off in mid to late Aug, and drop significantly after Labor Day.

There are peaks for Xmas/New Year's.

Caveats:
In some places, The Season continues through Sept.

There can always be a sale for a day or two, even in July.

mid-May to mid-June and mid-Sept to mid-Oct are my favorite times to visit Europe.

Hope this helps.

((I))

I paid almost $1600 for my daughter's ticket to Spain last month. I'm visiting her next month and only paid 688 (round trip Tampa to Madrid). I found it very inexpensive to fly to Germany in the spring a couple of years ago--$700 round trip to Berlin. But, comparing prices two years is like apples and oranges. Your best bet is to figure out the low season for your destination as it varies. Easter tends to be very expensive and then prices drop again until the summer travel season.

PS-Try farecompare.com. THey chart average prices according to the past trends and the destination.

Thanks, everyone. I think my question was answered. Your answers were very helpful!

And I also find it can make a significant difference if you do not fly on a Monday. Tuesday and Wednesday days are almost always cheaper.

Figure it out: airlines are cutting flights and packing people into the ones which are left.

I'm sorry but I do not agree that across the board there is any "cheaper time" but if you want to SEE, right now, the time of a particular MONTH when fares are the cheapest, then go to

www.itasoftware.com and look at the "month-long" view...

prices subject to change, of course, but probably a lot more reliable than people's recollection of what happened "before."

Nice plan for trip to Germany, I think may be you can get cheap flight fare in January/Feb. There are many company listed online and you can search the easily at Google search engine. If your are interested to travel CO.USA. and want to know about the flight timing of Denver then simply you can go Alldenverlimo.com


Best of Luck
Jsherry

I don't fly to Germany, but to Paris nearly every spring and the general rule was that airfares hiked April 01st. But, these days, there seem to be no set rules anymore and you have to just keep regularly checking the fares. It's so unpredictable now. Happy Travels!

Yes, no one can tell anymore when the airlines have "cheaper seats". When we made our reservations to fly to Rome in October, the tickets were almost double flying in August--which is an in- season month. So good luck on getting a cheap seat.