Purchasing Airline Tickets

Cindy, I started looking at ticket prices to Dublin late last year, and I should have bought then, because when I ended up purchasing this month I ended up paying a couple of hundred more. I think with the way fuel prices keep going up, and some say with no end in sight, I'd buy now. At least you'll have the comfort of knowing you have tickets and then you can go on to planning the rest of your trip. Have fun!

cart......horse First; If there was any real rule for when to buy tickets everyone would do it then. There is no rule. The 2-3 months plan might have been sort of vaguely useful pre-2010, but since the economic downturn airlines have discovered the best way to make a profit is to limit supply, drive up price and fly only full planes. What used to be $1000 high season and $700 shoulder season is now $1250 high season and $950 shoulder season. Second; The best way to save money on airfare is to be as flexible as possible - flexible on airports, airlines and dates. But since you have already booked your lodgings, you now have little, if any of that flexibility. You will have to keep watching fares from today onward, keeping the new reality in airfares in mind, and hope for the best. Grab the first decent flight that comes close to your target price no matter how many months ahead of time it is and don't look back. Good Luck!

The best time to buy is when you see a price that you are willing to pay. The 2-3 month thing is a big generalization. I tend to track prices for my dates over a long period. One year, the cheapest price I saw was 6 months out. Another year, I saw a great price and bought a ticket just 3 weeks out. I would suggest that you go to kayak.com and set up an alert for round trip flights to London and perhaps Edinburgh (unfortunately, they don't let you set an alert for an open jaw ticket). You can set it up so that you get an email everyday with a price for your trip dates. Last year, I got an email with a price drop of $200 about 4 months prior and I jumped on it. This year, I've been watching since November for a May trip and have seen very little fluctuation in price. I finally bought in February when I saw some routes increase in price.

I paid around $300 more than I did in 2009. Fuel surcharges, taxes, it just keeps going up and up. I tracked prices for months, they finally went down as I checked for the second time in one day. I booked, and haven't looked back. I'm happy, the stress of waiting isn't worth the potential $100 less that I might have paid. It was a Monday afternoon when they suddenly dropped $200+. Thanks Virgin!

Cindy, We are doing Edinburgh, Cotswolds, London in May/June. I had heard the same things about buying tickets but knew there was NO way I could wait to buy them until 2 months out. I started watching kayak.com and we wound up purchasing our tickets at the end of January. We paid $874 RT. I was (and still am) very happy with that price -- if the cost is lower than that now please don't tell me...I prefer to remain blissfully ignorant! Kristen

I forgot to add: I agree with the poster who talked about being flexible. I started playing around with different dates, airlines, and airports. It wound up being $2400 CHEAPER for us to fly into Edinburgh instead of London 3 days earlier. Even with the extra expense of a B&B and sight-seeing, etc we still aren't going to spend that much... So we gained 3 days AND saved money. Not a bad deal at all.

Kristen,
Don't worry! You did very well and I have not seen any prices near what you paid for your tickets and probably won't in the future. We can't be as flexible as we would like. My husband has to bid for his vacation early in the year, so that date is set in stone now. That is why we went ahead and booked our hotels. There was a hotel in central London that we desperately wanted and we saw that rooms were going fast, so we booked there. We have points with an international hotel chain and were able to get our Edinburgh hotel with those. Our B&B in the Costwolds is The Cottage Keyes in Stowe. We like United, so we have been looking on their wesbite. I booked several fake reservations just to see what different prices were out there. Our trip is September 17, and those prices are around $1039./pperson. June was $1500/p person, but May was the cheapest at $980.00. It's just my husband and I and we are ok with $1039, but would like to see 900 range, of course. I will continue to check daily, but hate to wait too long. It just seems so far away and I know that they are non-refundable. Is there some insurance you can purchase, just in the event that something comes up and you're not able to use them?

Be sure to check out Seatguru.com and find your route and airplane....it will show you where the good and bad seats are on every route/plane. Good luck !!

Looks like the flexibility option is out, so I like the suggestion of setting a price you can live with and buying it when you get to it. Unfortunately, prices have been steadily increasing. Went to London for $450 (on United) in 2007, to Paris for $600 in 2009, and to Rome for $850 in 2010 all in shoulder seasons. My parents fly to Italy every year and have paid more every time for the same flight over the years (more than you would expect considering inflation). It may still be early for Sept/Oct, but keep tracking and buy when you feel comfortable with the price and don't look back. Have fun!

I just purchased our airline tickets yesterday. For my husband and I, we spent a little over $2000.00. In addition, I bought travel insurance just in the event we had to cancel because of illness. We also like United's Economy Plus seats. For about $100.00 each you can get a little more leg room which is worth it to us. So, with all of that plus the little extras, we spent $2400.00 and some change. I am glad I decided to go ahead and buy (thanks to everyone's input)! By booking so early we had our choice of seats. I know that doesn't guarantee that we will actually have those same seats on our departure. But I hope so!

Hi Cindy - my travel situation is similar to yours and your husband's. Because of my work schedule, I'm locked in to specific days when I can go on vacation. Since I wanted to go in September (or fall), really the only time I could take my trip (Paris and London) was Sept. 13 - 30. Another complication is that I'm traveling to Paris with my sister who doesn't like flying. She wanted as few plane changes as possible, which seems to be more expensive than more plane changes. I would have been fine on Aer Lingus (Chicago - Dublin - Paris, and a separate leg from STL to ORD) for about $1,180, but she didn't want that many flights. So we settled on STL - Dulles - Paris. We bought tickets last weekend; mine cost $1,300; hers, $1,260. Sometimes there are circumstances where you're willing to pay more for convenience, and this was one of those circumstances. I paid more for my ticket but I'm splitting a hotel room with her for a week, whereas if I went by myself I'd be paying more for a room.