Best time to purchase airfares

The best time to purchase is when the prices are at the lowest point. Much like buying stock. Always buy at the low point. Now that that is out of the way. There really is no way to know when the price is the lowest or will be the lowest. You can look on the google travel web site for the history of the fares for that route but, again, no guarantee that history will be repeated. June/July is peak travel and peak prices. If it was off season you might do better. Personally I think a thousand sounds pretty good so I would grab it but you can wait. One disadvantage to waiting is that you lose options for flights and seat assignments. I think a lot of brain damage is done trying to save a hundred bucks on flights when it is far easier to save that hundred dollars elsewhere in the schedule. If a thousand fits your budget, buy it, don't look back.

My crystal ball is more than a little cloudy, and I have no experience monitoring airfares out of Atlanta. That said, I'd keep watching for a while; it's worth checking every day if you can remember to do it. Last year was exceptional, but there several times in the fall when fares dropped sharply for a few days.

I usually look at least once a week. That being said, I had a friend who travels to Europe multiple times a year tell me that 5 months before your trip tends to be when the prices are the lowest. I took that with a grain of salt and look every week but I have been successful at getting lower prices during that time frame twice now.
My husband and I have decided that we always want to fly non-stops from here on out so I have narrowed my search down to that. There is a lot to be said for paying a little more and not having a 5 hour layover in Heathrow ;).

From my experience (which involves mostly travel from SFO to Frankfurt, but this time to Vienna), I find that fares generally follow the predictability of the travel. In summer, ticket prices will be higher, in shoulder seasons, ticket prices will be lower.

My September 24/ October 8 Flight to Vienna and back from Basel was about $950, roundtrip. In summer, that would double.

"I had a friend who travels to Europe multiple times a year tell me that 5 months before your trip tends to be when the prices are the lowest." Well, maybe that works in highly competitive markets with many carriers and flights. That's not the case where I live and the sweet spot is typically more than five months out.

Can I expect fares to drop after the first of the year, or should I jump on the $1025 price now?

for JuneJuly popular expensive London I would take jump on the $1025 price now.

No way would I buy now. From the West coast I have seen round trip on major airlines as low as $550.00 to LHR. You won't know a good fare if your don't track it. I have a spreadsheet I keep and I look daily and log the price, so if I keep on seeing $1,200.00, then all of a sudden $750.00 pops up I grab it because I have a baseline on normal. I also use an email service that sends low airfare alerts.

There you have it. Very definitive answers. Curious -- if from Maine, why flying from Atlanta? Prices generally are better out of New York - more competition. Something in the $550 range is a pipe dream. People get burned when they keeping think it has to go lower. Generally super low prices have terrible connections or strange times.

From the West coast I have seen round trip on major airlines as low as $550.00 to LHR.

I doubt that in the summer

There you have it: There is no magic answer. And it does vary a lot, depending on your origin and destination. I remember a comment here to the effect that Atlanta tends to be costly because there's little competition in that market. I don't know whether that's true or not; if it is, it could certainly alter pricing patterns.

London tends to be one of the cheapest destinations in Europe when you're flying on a legacy carrier. (Budget airlines are a different story, perhaps.) East Coast cities tend to offer less expensive flights, and I'd put Atlanta in that category, geographically speaking. For those reasons over $1000 doesn't sound like such a fabulous fare that I'd want to grab it right now. But as I said in my earlier post, I have not been tracking fares out of Atlanta. I am thinking about my own experience, which may differ greatly from yours.

Jazz-True it was for March 2018 Travel

Are you flying on a weekend? Looking at Dulles to London in June, July, etc. there are some $650-750 midweek fares on United. I know Washington, DC is not Atlanta, but the prices you're quoting seem high. If you can fly on a Tuesday, you can save quite a bit of money.