When to book flight within Europe
 

My husband and I are traveling to Europe in October 2013 and I am in the process of putting together our budget and timeline. I was wondering when the best time is to purchase budget airline (easyjet, ryanair, etc) tickets? I know with the bigger airlines it's usually 4-5 months out - is it the same for these types of airlines? It will be our first time using them, and we'll be going from Paris to Rome.
Thanks everyone!

I always recommend booking as early as possible. A quick look at easyjet shows Paris to Rome in the €40 to €50 range, and they won't become cheaper.

If you're not ready to book now, just keep monitoring the prices every two or three weeks and you'll see them begin to rise. Then book when you know your dates.

Trying to second guess these companies is difficult, I've seen some of the algorithms and early is not always good as they also do the famous 99p weekends (big article in a paper, 99p everywhere but plus taxes for the next two days). A piece of work was done in CA that claims that 8 to 9 weeks out is perfect.

Since you know where and when I'd book it IF the Euro 40 is the real all-in price

I don't know about Ryanair, but I've flown Easyjet a couple times and their pricing isn't exactly like major international flights. And I don't see any reason to book 5 months out, but I always book mine as soon as I know that's what I really want to do on which day. So for me, it's probably a couple months out.

Basically, their prices start out pretty low and rise over time, that's about it. So they will be more expensive if you book only a few weeks ahead of time than a couple months in advance. And sometimes they get full, I suppose. YOu can figure this out just by looking at the prices for the routes you want for a date sveral months in advance versus this week. Perhaps there is some seasonality to it, but I still think that would give you an ida. But these flights are cheap anyway, so don't try to play games by waiting around for some great deal, because that won't happen.

For example: I finally locked down our itinerary & an EasyJet flight next May CDG-RAK (Marrakech) had gone up $15 pp over the last month or so.

Ian

You want EasyJet between Paris and Rome, not Ryanair. Ryanair uses an airport over an hour away from Paris. EasyJet uses Paris Orly and CDG with Orly being closest to the city center.

We are doing Barcelona to Paris and then on to Dublin in April. Tracked the fares from April to September. Purchased our tics in September and actually just checked yesterday and prices on all my pre-purchases of flights and hotels have gone up, so I'm ahead of the game. So all of the above advice is worth taking.

Besides Easyjet I have used Vueling, and reccommend both airlines, as kybourbon says avoid Ryanair.

I already HAVE flights booked on Air Dolomiti as well as Vueling and AirBerlin for a trip next July and all of those were finalized in November of this year.

DON'T WAIT to book; the longer you wait the higher the fare.

This is a very difficult question.

I have been using Ryanair and Easyjet several times per year since they arrived in my area 10 years ago.

Most prices start at a reasonable level. If demand is high, prices go up BUT if demand is low prices go down. If the plane is half empty one week ahead prices can be very low. Add in special offers, etc and it is very difficult to give advice.

As a general rule :
Very early/late flights are cheaper
Fly midweek
Avoid school holidays
Go against the traffic (Fly South to North on Friday/Sat, North to South Sunday/Mon)
Be flexible !