Best time to purchase ticket on British Air
 

I am going to a wedding in London on Sept. 29. I was looking at tickets on BA and they were around $725 RT economy. Now the price is almost doubled. I am wondering if it will go down again, as this is still 6 months out. Is there a certain time that is best to buy a ticket. I am traveling from San Jose, Costa Rica to London on Sept. 27. Thanks for any assistance.

>>I am wondering if it will go down again<<

There is absolutely NO way to tell. One should buy tickets when they see a fare they can live with and then stop looking. But if the flights are pretty full there isn't much chance they will go down and they might sell out.

>> Is there a certain time that is best to buy a ticket.<<

No

Thanks, Janisj.I should have bought the tickets when they were only $725 RT from San Jose, Costa Rica to Gatwick on BA. Yesterday, it doubled in cost.

I think I will keep checking as doubling in price does not make sense. Maybe because it was March 1st and a Wed., they went up, but will go down in the next week or 2. :)

For future reference and for others reading this thread, my advice is to start studying fares WELL in advance of a trip--a year, if you know that far ahead of time that you plan to go. That way, you get to know what a good fare is and can jump on it when it appears for your dates.

As for a higher fare not "making sense", airfares never do to us chickens. But you can be sure they make sense to the airlines!

I was tracking tickets from Los Angeles to Hawaii. I found that the prices moved around alot but were lower on Tues and Wed when I checked each week. I finally bought and got the low price I saw on a Wednesday.

Use google flights to check and get email alerts.

Email alerts is a good suggestion - from Airfarewatchdog where you can stipulate a certain route. You'll get lots of emails that don't pertain to your dates (somehow that doesn't work yet with Airfarewatchdog), but it takes a second to delete them, and when a good one comes your way - jump on it.

With quite a few really really cheap flight opportunities from several p[laces i the US to London, would maybe a two-hopper make sense? S.J. to a hub in the US, then (separate company / separate ticket) continue? Norwegian, WOW, Icelandair are just three of the new cheapies. May be worth a look?

Also, I'm looking on http://matrix.itasoftware.com/ and I see Avianca flights (lvg 9/27 return 10/4) for 319,817 colons, and Delta for 588,383 colons.

Good luck.

if we ONLY knew about the pricing game of airlines or that matter cars! One day it is a certain price and the next week something different. I booked a car and 2 weeks later it was up by $173.00! same car, same time frame. go figure. I always keep checking to see if it is any better right now I am glad I have a reservation when I made it. Agree that once you see a price you can live with grab it cause it will quickly change.

All airlines use complex algorithms to drive their dynamic pricing system, supply, demand and competitors fare all taken into account in determining price. The only thing you can predict with any degree of certainty is that fares will fall and rise, how much and when is much more difficult to predict.

A quick look on my BA iPad app and I found fares around your date for around the $750 mark, which is likely to be around the best you will do unless they have a sale on. If you are happy with that fare, I would go for it now. Sales do happen fairly regularly so it is worth signing up on the BA website and joining the executive club so you are notified immediately.

Costa Rica to London is a relatively new route for BA so I would expect fares to rise once it becomes more popular.

Itasoftware is a useful source of information (although not tickets.) It shows many airlines that may serve your needs. A big factor, beyond price, is the routing and the duration. Avianca for instance will fly you through Bogota, not exactly a straight line, taking at least 15 hours. British Airways' own site does not show any non-stops. The airline also does not originate any flights in San Juan, according to its website. American or Iberia, its corporate partners, run the first leg, which may be either trans-Atlantic or connecting to BA in Miami. This is just a heads up, not an argument for or against.

Sometimes you are lucky.
I booked flights to Argentina last month at 840 € apiece with AF.
Transaction was rejected for whatever reason (well my cc didn't allow and when I changed cc, it went through but didn't confirm).
So I waited because I had other things to do and this thursday I had a mail from AirFrance showing tickets at a 'best rate'. I re-booked, went through, for 735 € apiece.
Same flights - well actually better.
So ? Should I tell you to wait for a speical sale ?
At least look on AF ...

However I've been waiting to book flights to Florence with Ryanair, prices are identical since 1 month.