Buy now or wait?

Airfares are consistent at all three Bay Area airports, and flying across the U.S. comes at a direct cost. Also, flying into LHR comes with more surcharges and taxes than some other places.
The Summer of 2013 flights are going to just going be expensive, and expect to see few or no flight bargains.

We always fly out of Sacramento. I would rather change planes somewhere than drive down to S.F. and back, using the same amount of time, but more hassle. Have you priced tickets from Sac? Sometimes it's less than S.F.

I checked out the SMF vs SFO flights and they're about the same this morning. I also compared with my connections--to see if my ticket prices had changed--and found they are almost down to what I paid in July for a May-June trip. Susan and Monte, if direct routes and good seats are important to you, I'd buy now if I were you. (I'm a planner so I have a terrible time waiting till the last minute!) I guess I'd check out the fares on a Tuesday although I don't think Tuesday purchasing is any better than any other day like it used to be.

We are thinking about going out of SF since we don't need to leave a car(hubby will drive, he isn't going) and it just feels like less travel with less time on the flight itself. The flight doesn't leave until 6 PM so no waking up early etc. which I find exhausts me before we even leave. I just wonder the probability of the price coming down at all?

Susan, I've seen sooo many 'Expect Airfares to Continue to Rise in 2013' articles these last few months (sigh) - of course, who knows for sure? - but that doesn't bode well. Are you signed up with any website to receive fare sale notices?

Susan, are you looking at the BA flight? For the dates I just checked innJuly, it was $100 cheaper to pair the direct outbound flight with at return ( on a BA plane) to LAX and AA from there to SFO.

Yes, I'm getting daily alerts from Kayak. Seems the prices have been pretty consistent for months. It is just so much more than I have paid in the past (to Germany), and it seems like I generally have found London (even with high taxes) to be a bit less than the rest of Europe, but not since I've been watching these last few months.

I'm not exactly sure what you mean Lola. Do you mean direct from LAX to London on BA or AA you found it $100 cheaper?
We would still need to get to LAX which is probably about $100 if we are lucky. We also have a time constraint since we will be catching a cruise the day we arrive. Of course, being the obsessive planner that I am, I am also looking for the best, most comfortable flight with the best price. This may be as well as I'll do. Just wondering if in the past year it has been more consistently $1200 or something and I should hope it will go down. I suppose not.

This was on the BA website. They show not only the direct SFO to LHR flight (2 a day from SFO) but also various one-stop flights combining a flight on AA to somewhere in the US, then the BA ( or AA) flight to LHR. They all have different prices, some more than and some less than the direct flight in each direction. So for dates in July I chose the direct flight on BA outbound, which is what you want (so do we, always). And then when I scrolled down to the return, there was that LHR to LAX to SFO combo for $100 less than the direct flight. Since the long-haul portion ison a BA plane and gets you most of the way back, maybe that is an option. Of course on different dates it may come up different. But the BA site is good for showing lots of options, both for different dates within a week, and for showing different flight possibilities on a given day (using AA for the US portion of the trip).

OK, I went ahead and bought our airfare. Got it for $1365.00 non-stop! I feel pretty good about that price, so now I'll have to stop looking! Thanks for the help and encouragement. It is always hard for me to pull the plug and go for it. Ugh, so much money!

Glad you got your tickets. We just booked ours too from Kansas City to Dublin then London back to Kansas City in May. I had been wavering and boy I am glad I just did it. All the prices we had looked at went up every time we looked. They went up by $30 just in the time it took to confirm the flights we wanted and pay for them. Then when it came to seat ion, the flights were almost full already. On both of our transatlantic legs, there were no seats available together in economy. We ended up paying for an upgrade just so we could sit together on the way there, and we are across the aisle from each other on the way back. I was so worried about how much we were going to spend that I never thought about how crummy the flight would be if I was stuck in the middle of two strangers and not near my hubby. I am so relieved to not have to worry about it, and that is worth the $150 more than I really wanted to spend. To anyone else still wondering if you should wait, I'd say just buy them now if you can.

We went ahead and purchased our tickets for our June trip - we too have date constraints and I'm glad I did it even though I paid more than I typically do. We could have gotten a flight just a bit cheaper on BA (than United) but when you added Economy Plus (of which I need the extra legroom), United was a bit cheaper. So, I did it. Hopefully next year there will be no date constraints and we can be more flexible to look for cheaper flights. It's nice to not have to worry and be done with this.

For current times, I wonder if $1350 is a good deal on summer time tickets. Last year for about 9 months, I obsessed with watching airfare to London from Tampa and it never went below $1000 and this is for winter travel; one morning it was $600, checking from my computer at work, and I said "when I get home, I am going to snatch that up". Well, when I got back home, it was back up to 1k. So, like I said, for winter travel, the prices for airfare really never went down. I opted out of London, which is an expensive city and has a bad conversion ratio for the American dollar....I went with paying $900 for tickets to Spain, where accommodations would be cheaper, food and beverage cheaper, and admission into sights cheaper, and a better conversion ratio with the euro compared to the pound. I have never paid $900 for winter airfare before ever. I guess the days of finding that $400 round trip ticket are long gone, for now.

For summer travel, I think you got a good price, especially for nonstop. Fares are currently on sale, on American, for travel starting by March 20th.

If you are not flexible in when you can travel and you don't want to consider flights with layovers, then I could see buying that fare. I wouldn't like it, since I think it is high, but I would rather travel and work a little extra than not travel. :)

In my opinion you really jumped the gun and bought too early. I've flown many times to Europe and always noticed the fares don't start heading down until about eight weeks before departure date. Since you already pulled the trigger I'm just saying for the rest of you to be patient and wait.

I just made the plunge and purchased an open jaw ticket to Berlin, flying back from Dublin, for August/September travel ($1550 per ticket). I've been watching fares for the last 6 weeks to get an idea of the going rate and they moved only about $100. The thing that triggered my decision was that our little dinky, in the middle of nowhere airport matched the closest international airport we always have to use. No 4 hour drive to Spokane, no parking costs, no hotel there or when we get back, no 4 hour drive back home, dealing with jetlag. I am so stoked. We only have to make a short 15 minute commute and we're on our way. I think I'm more excited about this than I am about the trip!!!!

Well, on this trip it turns out that we are in a pretty good situation. Since we are on a cruise I was able to purchase the flight through the cruise company and actually have a ticket that I can change or get a refund on, so no risk to me. I didn't realize this before. And, I did get a better rate buying through them than I could on my own. But, I have been watching airfare for many months and have not found them budging much at all. I get daily updates so I guess we'll get to see what happens as we get closer. With specific dates I just didn't want to risk waiting. Today my same flight is $1600!

In '09 a certain someone on this Helpline used to advocate waiting til 8 wks out to buy tickets. So, for our '10 trip I did that. I ended up paying $700 more for two tickets than I would have had I bought them 9 mos out like I always did before. I will never do that again. Might get lucky and it might work, but if it doesn't, you're screwed. Plus, by 8 wks out you have far less choice of seats, you may not get seats next to your travel partner and you have less choice for non-stop or only 1 stop routes.