Do you think it's too early to book airlines for a trip to Las Vegas for May 2009? I checked the cost of the flight about a week ago and it's about $50 cheaper today. Fuesl has come down, but there are a limited seats left at the lower price.

Our reservation is booked because we are using a timeshare again next year.

In my experience airlines have no incentive to offer low fares to any destination 8-9mo in advance. They have no urgency to fill up the plane, so why give seats away at a discount? If you are others are willing to pay a high fare today, they will be more than happy to sell you a seat.

Las Vegas may be somewhat of a crap shoot however. In the past there has been a lot of capacity to Vegas, and much of it highly discounted. I believe LV has lost 15-20% of airline capacity since many airlines have reduced flights there starting with fall 2008 schedules. The desire from the airlines is to have balance of supply & demand more in their favor (i.e. higher fares). How this shakes out is tbd.

I've often gotten fares 2-3 weeks in advance for the same price as 2-3mo ahead - this does not work of course for capacity limited routes that are always full.

Have you checked the same flight for different dates - 2 weeks out from today, 1mo, 3mo, etc? If the fare offered for next May is on par with the lowest fares you see over the next 6mo, then you may be seeing the floor.

If you like the fare you saw then by all means go ahead and buy the ticket.

J62,
thanks for your thoughts and ideas on what to check. I'll do that. We flew to Vegas last June and paid a bit more than the rates I saw today. We think we're going to wait a bit, the flight is wide open, only a couple of seats booked.

I think it depends on how many carriers/flights you have going from your home airport. As PP mentioned a lot of routes have lost service, starting this month.

I'm kicking myself for not picking up tix to LAX that I saw a couple of months ago for March 2009 - then mid-$200s now it's $460...argghhh! I was holding off as the event I'm attending hadn't finalized its schedule. I was pretty sure I could catch the last event and fly out that evening. I should have followed my hunch, which was based on the scheds in previous years.

Good luck - enjoy-la!

If your dates are flexible, I'd also take into account Las Vegas hotel prices, which can vary widely from weekend to weekend. For instance, we usually stay at the Bellagio which for May 2009 offers prices from $179 for the weekend of May 10 and the next weekend are $599. I'd book the hotel first at the price I want and then wait for a good fare on airlines.

Some sites will email you when the fare goes down for a certain location, I'm not sure which at the moment. Try Orbitz, Expedia, Travelocity. Another I like to get emails from is www.airfarewatchdog.com. You can enter your specifics and they let you know when specials come down the pike for your departure and arrival cities.

Maggie, thanks I didn't know that was available. Our dates are not flexible since I booked a timeshare using one of our weeks, so we have definite dates. I didn't book the flight yesterday and checked the rates today and they were the same. The site said 4 seats are available at this rate. Yet when I look at the seats available hardly any are taken.

I'll check on the sites that will notifiy me when the rates drop. I guess I need my crystal ball! Thanks for the tips.

Hello, Cruzingduo!

Concerning seats that you see not yet sold:

Please note that the seating plan is not always a good indication of how many seats have been sold.

Many passengers purchase their air ticket, but fail to reserve a seat until they arrive at the airport.

Thus, you may see 40 empty seats and presume that 40 seats are still available for sale. In actuality, maybe 20 of those 40 empty seats have already been sold.

And even if there are a ton of empty seats, it could be that only 1 or 2 of them are available at the lowest fare being offered.

Just in case the times you depart or arrive are important to you, please be awear that when booking flights that far out, the odds are that the flights will be changed at least a couple of times between now and then.

Keith

Well I didn't book the flights and they went up. $20 per person. Lot's going on in our family and I am running everywhere (hospital, nursing home & now on Friday moving Mom home). Things should be calmer next week.

Good points about the seats, they only offer a few seats at the lower rates.