Do KAYAK fare alerts really work?

Absolutely they do, although kayak obviously has no control over when airlines put routes on sale. I had fare alerts and obsessively checked for about 3 months before I received an email (at midnight) for round-trip Seattle to Paris tickets for $650 in March and grabbed them. Keep checking, as you are early for the fall sales but may be able to snap up a bargain in the next month or two. Buying air fare is kind of like playing the stock market. You have to be both paying attention and a bit lucky.

I like the Kayak fare alerts, too. It means I don't have to do these searches myself on a daily basis. You'll get one email with all the fares. But, I still think it's worth getting airline emails and checking sites like travelzoo and airfare watchdog. I wouldn't expect to see sales for September until summer, though prices could certainly fluctuate. I went ahead about bought tickets for Croatia in September because I had been watching fares long enough that I didn't think I was going to beat the fare I found; or at least, not by much. We are going Air France and they've had some decent prices for Sept from SEA-CDG, and I know they go from Atlanta, too, so that might be a good bet. Are the fares you're seeing pretty high? They are supposed to be high this year though like I said, I did find a good Sept fare.

Thanks for the feedback so far. I think the fares are high but once I type them on here maybe you'll think that they aren't. If these are good prices and I oblivious please let me know. all from atl: Paris $1259 (non-stop), $1015 (one-stop) Amsterdam $1398 (non-stop), $1071 (one-stop) Munich $1232 (non-stop), $1029 (one-stop) Brussels $1107 (non-stop), $987 (one-stop)
Vienna $1139 (one-stop)

Hi Jennifer, It might be a little early for September fare sales. Watching the trends on Kayak is very helpful--I would be inclined to watch them daily for awhile. It's very hard to predict airfares and difficult to know when it's best to purchase.

Yes they do but I found it more expedient to check the airlines I was considering flying on, did this on a daily basis and got a good fare before it hit Kayak.

I like to put as many alerts out as possible to give myself the best chance of catching a good deal. As was noted earlier, if you don't respond quickly to an alert, the seats may be sold before you have a chance to purchase. A lot of times it's Murphy's law. The week after you buy your ticket, you get an alert that the price dropped by 30 percent. Alternatively, you wait for the price to drop and all the good itineraries sell out. Sometimes perfect really is the enemy of good. I focus on getting a good idea of a decent fare. Once I know that, I'll wait a little while - but not long enough for the itinerary I'd like to sell out. In the meantime, I'll pay attention to my alerts for a better deal. If one comes up, I jump on it.

I have never been able to get the alerts to work for me. I get the notice but when I log on the price is gone. Often the notice will have a time stamp of one to three AM so it is gone by 6AM or so when I check. I kind of use the notice as indication of the rock bottom price. It is all a huge game and a lot of luck.

The fare alerts have worked for me. I use sidestep rather than kayak, but they are both owned by same company so I imagine they work the same. I've used them over the past several years. Sometimes they just give me the confidence to go ahead and buy. For example, last year I watched a fare for April from the beginning of December to late February. The fare never changed significantly. I finally just bought at the end of February. In 2008, a sidestep fare alert got me my cheapest R/T to Europe since 2002 (under $500). Sometimes I have not made my mind up quickly enough to get the best rate. For example, a couple of weeks ago, I got an alert for a really cheap fare to London by Iberia. It was a flight actually operated by BA, and BA was selling the same ticket for $300 more. I checked on Iberia's website that day and sure enough the fare was there. The next day it went up $150, and the following day it was the same price as the BA flight. It seems that some new codeshares were opened up in the BA/Iberia partnership and Iberia had a short window where they were promoting with cheap fares. The moral of the story is that if you see a good price, be prepared to buy.