Best Time To Buy Airline Tickets?
 

I will be flying to California in the fall of 2005 for vacation and I was wondering how far ahead of time should I buy the tickets to get the best price. I'm wondering because my husband is flying to SF in Feb. and paid $233 round trip from the East Coast and I would love to get a good price like that. Do you wait until you're almost ready to go or do it well ahead of time? Just asking because if there was a significant increase in prices I would probably change my plans.

Where are you flying from? I've been playing on line and just found an American fare that will let me go from Ft. Myers to Seattle in July, then fly from Reno to Los Angles in August, then fly back from Los Angeles to Ft. Myers in September. The total is $393 with all taxes. I am so surprised by this I may just go ahead and book it. (By the way, the Reno to LAX is on Alaska airways and seems like a great bonus thrown in.

Stalk the travel websites. Figuring out airline pricing strategies is akin to finding the holy grail. As soon as you see a price you can live with, purchase the ticket.

Follow GoTravel's advice, but don't be unduly hasty. When I was helping a friend get a flight from JFK-Madrid he was satisfied with $594 BA flight via London. I would have held out. If he had, a couple days later he could have purchased a non-stop Delta flight for $524.

Check the web on Tuesdays.

Jet Blue from JFK is about $200rt. Try the www.jetblue.com site and of course Delta, American and Continental all have sites as well.

I also love www.cheaptickets.com.

I have found that about 6-8 weeks before departure is pretty good. If you book too early anymore you don't get good fares, and you run the risk of MULTIPLE changes to your planned itinerary as the airlines reshuffle their schedule monthly. If you wait too long, you may get cheaper flights but your choices for departure and arrival get worse. I'd rather pay a few extra bucks to get just the departure and route I want than hold out for the absolute cheapest.

I too have had some good luck with cheaptickets.com

I am liking this new flight search engine: www.kayak.com. I also use www.sidekick.com. They have both pointed me to some lower fares travelocity or orbitz.