Hubby has been checking the fares to London for this coming December, and found that leaving the 17th for London, and returning home via CDG on the 7th January was by far the cheapest he could get through Continental. So he bought them, but I get nervous buying so early.
Do you get nervous taking the plunge and hoping that fares go up instead of down???
I often buy my tickets seven months early! When I see a deal that is so good, and I'm almost sure it wont go down more, I snatch it! Same with hotels.
The Swine flu is bad in London now, and hope it wont get much worse this fall and winter. I'm going to London and Paris this fall, and can't help but have some concerns. I made a post about this on helpline but in the To The west session. We'll just have to hope for the best!
As well as checking major airline websites for best fares also ck consolidators like cheaptickets, orbitz etc. then ck farecaster.com. Then make your decision. The fare flucuation for London from eastern/USA would prob be around $100 p/p. It is close to holiday time so if you are ok with fare buy it now. I watch my european fares and when I like fare I buy it.
I buy my tickets once I am convinced that the fare is a good one, then I stop looking. True, if the fares go up you can feel smug, but if the fares go down you will feel lousy and it may infect the trip. Once you've hit the "buy" button, just relax about the cost--it's a done deal. If it makes you feel any better, I've already booked for an Asian trip in December myself.
Another thing to think about--by buying early, you'll spread out the cost of your trip over a longer period so that the financial pain is lightened a bit.
Id you found a price you liked, then "NOW" was the right time to buy. Statistically there's about an 87% chance an airfare will rise from the time you see it, so if you got it for a price you liked, you did well. :)
OK, I'll bite...where did you get the 87% statistic?
He said it was a little over $600 per person. We also signed up for Continental credit card to earn miles, and took the advice here of sticking with one airline to earn miles. Seems that we will be travelling to Europe next year, so might as well earn miles!
But I'm not too keen on buying Theatre tickets from now though.
The best fare I've ever found was buying 10 months early. Similarly, I found some great fares for this fall back in Spring.
We have actually gotten very good deals in the past about six weeks before our "planned" departure date. I realise that this is not always possible.
For example, during Spring break this year, we bought tickets to Hawaii and they were about $560 each. About three weeks before our departure, we decided to take our son along, and upon checking, found that the fare had gone up to almost 1,000! It only got worse as our departure week arrived.
We frequently buy tickets several months in advance because we've got other things to set up, i.e., apartment/house rentals etc., and need to be reasonably sure (given the state of air travel today) that everything will, in theory, mesh. Only once has the airfare I purchased been significantly more than the airfare for the same flight close to the departure date. The airline as a consequence gave us a credit for a future flight. Be advised airlines can and will change flight times/dates (as stated in their fine print). They will, however, try to reroute you as necessary
We purchased our tickets about 9 months in advance and just like the previous poster said our flight over that time frame changed several times.
In the beginning I think we had 5 layovers, in the end we only had 1! So in the end it worked out the best for us. Just monitor your email closely and review each change closely, because the times would change ever so slightly.
Have fun!
A wee bit "off-topic", but your post made me think of a Yogi Berra quote:
"This is the EARLIEST I've ever been LATE!"
To answer your question, though: Yes, I have taken the plunge at least TWO months in advance, checking HOTWIRE, and seeing those fares go dowwwwwwnnnnnnnn! LOL
At one point, there was a $150 dollar difference!
I liked to have puked!
It's a crap-shoot. It really is.
Thanks
Bill
