The guy at Scott's Cheap Flights has this concept he calls the Goldilocks window, I'm not endorsing or dismissing just sharing.
That’s 1 to 3 months in advance of travel for domestic US flights and 2 to 8 months for international flights. For peak season deals, it’s more like 3 to 7 months for domestic and 4 to 10 months for international.
https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/airfare-spring-summer-savings-tips/index.html
Giving half-year spreads for "windows" for international flights isn't exactly narrowing things down much.
I follow him too phred. There are less and less deals from LAX, unfortunately. I did read an article that Lufthansa and American cut many flights for the summer.
https://simpleflying.com/american-airlines-cuts-more-than-50000-flights-from-summer-schedule/
phred there are a couple of other studies out there that have come up with the same general (more or less) results.
But as someone wants to point out, these are averages and your situation may vary because of the airports you are using. Still, its good guidance of about when to begin looking.
I have fallen into a rut and generally buy my tickets 45 to 90 days out and have been pretty pleased with the results, but that my market and my destination but still fits the general guidance from the studies.
One interesting thing did come up a few weeks ago. I had a KLM flight to Europe that I had purchased about 80 days out for about $800 round trip; then something unexpected came up and I had to move the departure date sooner (not later), so here I am rebooking 10 days prior to the flight ......... guess how much more expensive the flight was? $30.00.
So basically the flight cost hadn't changed from 80 days out to 10 days out. Would my flight have been $700 instead of $800 had I bought it 8 months out? I seriously doubt it.
I am currently watching costs for my next trip over mid-June and right now they are stupid expensive, so I will wait and see if some of the insanity subsides as there are some reports that the prices are beginning to soften a bit. But when I see a $1200 or cheaper flight I will grab it.
I've had consistent success looking at fares a year in advance and purchasing well before 6 months out. Airline schedules change but it's been no big deal.
