Buying Airline Tickets

[jimd]

What is the best time to buy airline tickets. My wife is entered in an ironman triathlon in June. I looked into airline tickets to the race, but the price is pretty high right now. Is there a good rule of thumb as to when to buy? Because this is a big deal for her, I don't want to wait too long and get a bad flight or have the flights sell out.

 

[tweeet]

Go by train...see the countryside !

 

[beachkos]

general rule of thumb is to buy at about 30 days out - DO NOT under any circumstances purchase your tickets more than 60 days in advance as you'll have no re-course with your credit card company if the airline goes belly-up - best pricing will be at 14-21 days out for advance tickets but it really depends on the airline - usually the price will begin to creep up for anything under 14 days and will rise sharply again for 10 days and under if it's a popular flight

 

[Tim Armstrong]

Go by train...see the countryside !

Alas, the cross-country passenger trains in the USA are incredibly poorly run, have serious reliability issues, and cost as much or more than flying. As the grandson of railroad men, I find this quite depressing!

Tim

 

[jaimed]

Have done a lot of air travel for business.

Best bet for fares is a good travel agency.

They can also help with hotels and car rentals.

Check with your employer or friends for suggestions.

Only name I recognized in the Yellow Pages for CLE was AAA.

You may also try searching for a travel agency at your destination city.

jamie

 

[Twangmeister]

Farecast!

This site (purchased by Microsoft) was developed by a professor who traveled a great deal. It's based on trends and algorithms. I have used it numerous times with great success for both myself and my family. No affiliation, just a satisfied consumer. Here's the link: http://farecast.live.com/

 

[bosstone]

If you wait much beyond 21 days, you start to have a harder time to get flights when you want them. If you wait to the last minute the prices are also higher. I usually book at least a month out. I flew from Oakland to Orange County, CA almost every other Monday for nearly 4 years, always on Southwest.

 

[robt57]

We just got tickets 6 weeks out for an early April Portland, OR trip from American. We looked at the Insurance carriers Airline list thinking they would know who will still be in business better than we do so we do not have the carrier we got our tickets from go bust, not as if that could happen, right?


http://www.accessamerica.com List:

Airlines
• Alaska Airlines
• American
• British Airways
• Continental
• Nippon Air
• Qantas Airlines
• Singapore Airlines
• Southwest

We decided to buy the insurance for 33.00 for the 2 RT tickets. We found our best price of $477.00 for the 2 RT fares with one stop going and coming by leaving Thursday and returning the following Wed. So try stuff on diff times and days until you get a good price that covers you window.

We started at http://www.kayak.com/ with a trillion searches [used to only be worth 1,000 searches, inflation and the dollar value etc. ]


Just throwing out what we learned, hope it helps, and hope you win or place!

 

[tweeet]

Alas, the cross-country passenger trains in the USA are incredibly poorly run, have serious reliability issues, and cost as much or more than flying. As the grandson of railroad men, I find this quite depressing!

Tim

A bit like over here then Tim.

 

[John114]

jetradar.com is the only place I go to search flights now, after consistently finding them to find the best deals. They don't 'promote' any particular airline, but are totally transparent, plus they include the extra fees and taxes that you know you have to pay but many other 'comparison' sites leave off. This is helpful, as you can make a fair assessment of which is the best price.

 

[Nick JD]

Go to their website(s) and look at the prices for the flights.

That's what I do. Prices depend on availability, and popularity - eg. don't go on Friday or Sunday evening.

They probably have a site like this below.

(link removed)

 

[Joe Baggadonitz]

thanks for the tip(s) folks. Flying to New Orleans in October.

 

[uriah1]

Also, days to travel (Tues cheaper than Sun, etc, etc)

 

[KokoTele]

Different airlines run their new fare sales on different days. Some do it on Tuesdays, some Wed, Some Thurs, but all seem to do it in the afternoon. There was a time when almost all airlines posted their sales on the same day, but not anymore.

I have found the 21 day rule to have gone by the wayside too, and found that catching the sale is much more important than buying at a certain time. I have gotten great fares less than 7 days in advance, as many as 60 days in advance, and everywhere in between.

I use kayak.com to search multiple sites, but don't forget to look at Southwest.com and check out their low fare calendar.