Reckoning

Im planning on leaving march 2-3 of 06' and returning the 20th.

How soon in advance should i book the tickets? And if the price drops do I get the difference back?

ira

Hi R,

1. Start lookiing now. You should see decreases around Nov-Dec. (There is always the occasional sale, but its like winning the lottery to find an additional $75 off.)

2. When pigs fly (unless you pay full price from the airline and they drop the cost more than they charge for making a change).

kjosker

I booked my tickets in April for October. The reason I did this was to select my seats for the long overnight flight; I wanted two seats together on the outer side of the plane, as on previous flights to Europe, we were in the center section, and were disturbed all night long by people climbing over and around us to use the facilities.

When I booked our tickets, the plane was already over half full.

As far as I know, no you do not get a refund if the price goes down. On the other hand, I don't think you get charged for any fare increase either.

rex

<<When I booked our tickets, the plane was already over half full.>>

That might be true (knowing in April, about seats sold for an October flight) - - and it might be quite a guess. What with financial uncertainties, and world fuel costs, and general insecurity - - I submit that an airline <i>thinks</i> they know what air<i>craft</i> they will be useing on a given route, six months hence... but they can and will change aircraft when conditions dictate.

As for the original question, it's (somewhat) impossible to answer without knowing the city of origination. Does &quot;Reckoning&quot; live in Cardiff? Perth? Saskatoon? Topeka?

Best wishes,

Rex

kcsqueeze

We purchased tickets for our March '05 flights nine months prior, one reason for better seat selection.

Agent on the phone assured me we had bulkhead seats. Thanks to an upgrade on the outbound, we didn't have to worry about it. On boarding for our coach return, the seats we had turned out not to be bulkhead. It was a long nine hours although luckily they were on the two seat side.

That being said, I was satisfied with the price paid and would do it again as only once during the nine months did I find a lower fare for our travel dates, about $75. We like having our dates set so we can make hotel arrangements in advance as well.

One other thing...airlines can do a good job making it appear that a flight is full by only offering certain sections of seats on-line at any one time.

RufusTFirefly

We normally make hotel reservations first--using hotels that don't penalize for cancellations or changes, just in case the air schedule doesn't work out. We've only had to change hotel reservations a few times.

Generally, we've found the best airfare deals 2-3 months before flight date.

Reckoning

Sorry I'm leaving from Orlando Florida.

robbiegirl

We took Northwest from Ft. Lauderdale to Rome and came back through Venice. Of course we went to detroit. I purchased the tickets too far in advance as they went down quite a bit within two months of our trip.
Although I did not get a refund, we did get vouchers. Purchasing now is too early.

Doble_Vergasser

This is like trying to get the 'Best deal' on a new car, or 'timing the stock market'. You can do okay but its hard to be perfect.

Once, I priced some consolidators over the internet so I get e-mails annoucing things like 'United Sale to Europe' etc.

It is my gut feel that the airlines start to get aggressive 120 to 90 days out. For our last trip, the sale was announced, the seat price was announced ($670) we hesitated a few days and ended up at $790.

Some people have secrets, like what day price changes are released and by which airline (and on).

Nowadays, you don't get the difference back (and you have pay for a cocktail to boot).

kcsqueeze

We fly from Orlando as well.

Delta has good connections through Atlanta and JFK to several Italian cities including Rome and Venice.

Don't forget to check out flying into one city and out of another to save time and backtracking.

haveric

The obvious answer to this questions is -- whenever fares are the lowest. Like buying any sort of futures, it's a crapshoot. If lots of people buy tickets far in advance for the spring, there will be no sales and vice versa.

Also, just because the online seat map only showed 1/2 the seats available DOES NOT mean that the plane was already 1/2 full. Rather, most airlines only allow a limited number of seats to be reserved at the time of booking.

haveric

also, several airlines (United and US Airways) will give you a voucher if the price of the fare drops for the difference in fare. No need to pay any fees or re-ticket.