Ryanair Timeline

With the budget airlines, especially, prices continue to rise as flights get closer and available seats become fewer. You still have plenty of time but prices will continue to go up

Emily, test the price goes up theory. Check the cost of the same flight, but one that departs next week, then a month, then ....... See if the price is different. Otherwise I would guess availability is just a greater gamble with each day.

The longer you leave Ryanair, the more tickets will go up, particularly for peak season tickets, which is what you are after. There prices don't go down, so it's best to book asap, but from a cashflow point of view, whenever suits you best.

I prefer using Easyjet to Ryanair, as they are more reliable and don't sting you for as many add-ons. However, Ryan to serve smaller airports in some destinations e.g. rural France.

Check which airport Ryan use. To keep costs down, they often use airports that are a long way from the town they purport to be flying you to - some can be 40 miles out and take longer and cost more in transfers.

And sometimes they use main airports. Or the outlying airport is closer to where you need to be, anyway. In essence, the "outlying airports" hassle doesn't exist for everyone or in every place.

Thanks! I went ahead and booked the flight. We really needed to be on that flight and there was no reason to take the chance the price changed.

Emily, since you have apparently read the Ryanair website, you will have seen their rules about checking in on-line, baggage fees, etc. Follow them to the letter. Most budget carriers (and Ryanair is the biggest) enforce their rules strictly. The company has undergone a charm-school reawakening in the last two years so earlier criticisms may be outdated. Only possible disadvantage to booking far in advance is that schedules might change. It doesn't happen a lot, but you can keep an eye out.

I concur with Jennifer. Read the RyanAir website carefully and make sure you understand exactly where the RyanAir airport is. Often they attach big city names to airports that are not that city's main airport and are far away (Frankfurt Hahn, Düsseldorf Weeze, Paris Beauvais, Munich West, etc.) and transportation, especially for early morning flights, is not good, if it even exists.

And in my experience following the RyanAir website, the tickets never get cheaper. Tickets purchased a short time before travel might not be better than regular airline fares.