Another airfare question

They say the best price can be 3-2 month before flight. My experience is that it is more likely 3 months than 2 month. It is benefecial to contact a travel agencies that specialize selling air ickets to specific country or group of countries (i e Western Europe), vs buying online.

I personally tend to buy early because I am a planner. In my experience, it works better to buy early but it's entirely possible I miss some sales, since I generally stop paying attention to the fares once I've bought the tickets.

As I mentioned in another thread a few days ago, the best advice is "buy when you find a flight you like, at a price you like." Then just be satisfied and go on to planning the other, fun elements of your trip. Trying to "time" airfare is like trying to time the stock market. Sometimes you get lucky, but mostly you just stress yourself out for no good reason.

Liz, I'm sure your right, just get it and forget it.
To many other things to plan and work on.

Just look at it as a function of what you are willing to pay. If the price looks reasonable (I figure a Transatlantic RT from where I am at will be in the $1000 range for the shoulder season) then get it and do not worry what happens to the price. If you stress about getting the cheapest price, you will always lose. Now if it came up at $2000, then I might shift plans and do some more looking and determine my timing.

We depart from SEA. I've found earlier is always better.
Airline first, hotel second. You'll maybe see better deals crop up as your leave time arrives. Most of these are not real and are teaser fares to get you looking at the discount airline site. But once you try to book them they are filled or they neglected to tell you the added taxes and fees.
Booking Four to Five months earlier has always saved us at least $400.

I usually start checking prices 10-11 months out to get a feel for what the going rate is among various airlines on the routes I'm looking at. I also check the two or three closest cities to my departure point, since they can sometimes have better deals. And I also decide how much of an inconvenience in terms of transfers and/or layovers I'm willing to put up with. Then I sign up for every alert known to humankind (travel websites and airlines), and I check them religiously. If I see a price drop of, say, 20% or so, I buy it and move on. Over the past 2 1/2 years, I've found the best prices 9, 8, 8, 6, and 5 months before my departures. For a coming trip at the end of October, a flash fare at the end of March was 30% below the going rate....I bought it.

Hi Jo, I recommend reading the thread under Transportation titled "Advice for those waiting to book summer fares..." Helpful info there.

We're going to Paris in June and I waited until last week to get tickets and I regret it. I waited b/c it was promised that sales would make it worthwhile. I ended up paying $300 more per ticket than I would have had I bought months ago. I'll never wait again, I'll go back to buying as far in advance as possible.

2 sites I like to use: airfarewatchdog.com & kayak.com. Sign up for all possible alerts with web sites and directly with the airlines. Also with some airlines you can view their seating chart and see how many seats are available on each flight. If plane is nearing capacity, chances are fares will not decrease. Our goal is to find rate under $800. Last year booked on AA for $765 and this year Delta for $715. Round trip LAX to FCO and included all taxes. Both purchased about 30 days before departure in mid March.

Yes, 3 months+ does seem to be the magic mark - but, that hasn't been the case for a lot of folks this year. Prices just seem to keep going up.

I'd go with the advise of the first poster. Once you see a price you like, buy it! If it drops significantly, you can see if the airline will match or refund.

I agree with Norm, start checking 11 months out and get a feel over the next 6-8 weeks. This year fares are not going down much at all. LA to europe is generally $950 usually $750 in shoulder season