Book flight now or wait?

What dates?

Leave SFO May 12 - back May 29

Have you been following the price for weeks? Then you will have a good idea what a low price is.

Checking TAP for your dates is $800, I think that’s great.

And Air Canada in the $800 range (multi-city). Looks like a good price to me.

Thank you!

Same question and same answers -- see --- https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/england/when-should-i-book-air-travel

I would wait, the best time for international flights is usually around 2-3 months out. Download the hopper app and track your trip. Hopper is really good at predicting if prices will go up or down. You can also use Google Flights to see what the price has been for the past 60 days (although usually prices are pretty flat this far ahead of time). I would also subscribe to the airline(s) that you're most likely going to take as they might pop up with a sale between now and then.

So the best price is 2 to 3 months out? I booked my trip to Paris next March a couple of months ago. I’m now about 80days out. I have checked the price pretty religiously since then using Google flights- it’s gone up consistently. It’s now well over twice what I paid.

60 days before is definitely way too late to book in my opinion and 90 days is pushing it. Especially if you’re going during the busy tourist seasons, and may is pushing it into the beginning of the tourist season.

That sounds like a reasonable price. Fares are up over last year. Also, I have read that international flights are lowest five months before travel dates. I had been watching round trip flights to Milan for February and they varied by $100. I booked the flights before Thanksgiving for $1166, the lowest price I had seen. Ten days ago ithat flight went up to $1799. It might go back down but I'm glad I booked it.

Scott's Cheap Flight Sent me an email yesterday. Turkish Airlines has a sale on flights to Europe... Business class in the mid-$2k. Coach fights with domestic carriers to Europe are cheap right now too. Check Google Flights to compare. We recently booked business class seats RT to Barcelona on Air France for about $2100 each.

I would wait, the best time for international flights is usually around 2-3 months out

I check prices often after purchase, and this statement has never been true for me, or even close to being true, over the years 2014-2022. Prices have literally always risen for me starting 4-6 months out.

However I use a mid-sized airport, and SFO is a large airport, and those follow different rules.

The best way to know a good price is to follow it for weeks.

As soon as you see a good price, book it. I'm currently looking for June and as soon as I see a good price I will go with it and not look back. Waiting until 2-3 months out would be cutting it way too close for me and most likely result in me paying a lot more. Booking around 5-6 months out seems to me to be the best, and anytime I have looked back my same flight has always been a couple hundred more than what I paid earlier.

My recent experience mirrors Carol's. 6 flights to Europe since Nov '21, and two more booked. Most booked 5-7 months in advance, and only one has seen a price reduction (with a change of routing that wasn't great, but worth it). The two I booked 2-3 months out were the most expensive.

And I will just add that until I have flight reservations in hand, it doesn’t feel like I am going. Once flight is booked, I can move on to the more exciting aspects of travel planning!

Thank you all so much for your feedback I truly appreciate it. And I'm planning to book now, especially after all your feedback I'm don't think 2 to 3 months is a safe bet.

I booked last month for a May trip to Paris. Price already increased $600/pp.

We are going on the Best of Scotland tour in June. I’ve been watching the airfares for weeks and they have barely fluctuated.

After reading this thread yesterday, we played around with arrival/departure dates and bought the tickets. I was concerned about the prices increasing and honestly didn’t think they would be reduced by much. This is more of a gut feeling.

Seeing that the flight was almost two thirds full, confirmed we made the right decision.

Now I can relax and begin to book hotels, etc.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. The forum has guided us to great experiences.

I booked last month for a May trip to Paris. Price already increased $600/pp.

This is more of a gut feeling.

I bought in November and the price for the one-way ticket has increased by $500 pp 2 weeks ago and that price has held.

Also 2 Airbnbs I rented for 2023 have raised their prices for dates adjacent to my stays by 15%.

My gut is telling me that come February/March there will be whiny posts here from those just beginning to reserve things about the unexpectedly high cost of summer 2023 trips.

I can attest to the price increases currently happening, at least for Premium Economy and Business. Booked 2 Business yesterday (12/11), and checking today the same tickets have increased $500+ each. (I guess the "last two" note on the American website was not just push-marketing), The Points Guy had a quick article on Friday about American opening new international routes, Frankfurt/Charlotte being one of them, and it was hours later that lower priced routing available on Matrix through Charlotte had disappeared. Good luck finding Premium Economy for more than a single ticket, as Matrix is already returning just Business fares for Mid-May to Mid-June. The fear of flying during Covid is apparently behind us, even though the virus is still among us!

I guess the "last two" note on the American website was not just push-marketing

We bought 4 tickets when the Delta website said “5 tickets left at this price.” That night it went up $150, then $350 more the next week.

I bought YUL-CDG in September for next April. $745 r/t for Standard (one step up from their LIGHT, which is basic econ); same ticket now is $990. So yeah, I'm glad I bought when I did.