When to book to get the best price on airfare.

The old guidance was "3-6 months prior to travel." The plague has thrown that out the window. Nobody knows what's going to happen, but the airlines are betting demand will continue to increase.

Start looking at Google Flights, etc., to get an idea of what the current going rate is. You can set up alerts for when the prices change. When you find a fare you are willing to pay, jump on it and don't look back.

Good advice above. Now's the time to start looking at prices, set up alerts, etc. Rising demand and fuel prices could push fares up, another Covid surge could push them down. Don't overthink it, you'll never see into the future. Keep in mind that good routing can be worth a slightly higher fare, and so can a good seat on those long transatlantic runs. When you have a sense of what fares are, you'll be more comfortable making a choice. If you see a fare you're comfortable with, grab it and don't look back. Second-guessing the fare you paid is one of the paths to madness. ;-)

Determine what you're comfortable paying and monitor the prices for awhile to see how they're trending. When you find a good price in your range, book it and forget it.

Sometimes, you just have to grit your teeth and pull the trigger. In these days of inflation, sooner is probably better than later. Personally, I start planning about 9 months in advance and watch the flow of fares. Try bundling air with hotels. Even booking one hotel with an airfare helps. I've often bundled the first and the last hotels with my fare to save and then booked the inbetween separately. Sometimes, even one night makes a big difference in the total. If you fly in late or leave early, it makes sense to book nights as part of a package so those things are less stressful.

Can I vote for the September dates for your trip? I think you will find it better to travel in the UK when the students are back in school vs. in August.

There's no rhyme or reason to getting the best airfares. I too monitor the airfares to get a feeling of what's a "normal" price where we're going. When I spot an airfare substantially cheaper, I jump on it.

You can go online and filter flight searches (ITA Matrix) for an entire month on a calendar. You'll find some days of the week will have cheaper airfares than others. And there may be one or two days in a month where airfares are substantially cheaper than other days.

I also modify my searches for alternative airports on each end of the trip. BNA is 90 miles from us, and their airfares are usually the cheapest in the Southeast. They're often cheaper than Atlanta on the same flights connecting thru Atlanta. But next month's flights out of our C rated city were substantially cheaper than BNA connecting thru Charlotte.

On the other hand, we modify our flight searches for alternative European airports. For example, we'll check flights into Heathrow and then check flights into Gatwick. Sometimes you can fly to Dublin inexpensively and then catch Ryanair to anywhere on the continent really cheap.

All I ask is where is Norwegian Air Shuttle when we really need'em for international flights? The flight world right now is just not as competitive as it was 3 years ago.

I've been watching flights to Italy for weeks now, and after seeing that prices haven't changed much in about the past nine days, I figured they may suddenly start to go up.
I booked flights yesterday on KLM, which had the best prices and connections for me.
I even got free seat selection and one free checked bag, which can get expensive now if you start adding that in afterward.
This is for travel at the end of September.
I'm not looking back......

Agree with all this advice. You'll go bonkers trying to get cheaper later. They watch you while you are sleeping and thinking about it and raise the price if you wait. Get it sorted as soon as you can and move on to other fun planning. And don't look back.

Richard, if you mean Aug. Sept. 2022 then now is the time. I think it's highly unlikely they will get cheaper the closer you get to your departure date. Depending on your destination in the UK you should probably be booking rooms now too. I hope you have a great trip!

One little hack is once you have your flights zeroed in then go to an incognito mode & book them. The airlines watch your searches & IMO the prices creep up as you are "interested". The incognito mode makes it seem as if this is a new inquiry

One would need a crystal ball to answer that.

The best thing to do is jump when you see a good fare. Don't think about it, and do a wait and see. Air France had great deals non-stop to Nice from IAH and return from Paris for about $450 RT. We jumped. Then we upgraded to Premium Economy dual seats exit row, so we had loads of leg room. From there, upon check in we were offered $550 upgrade for business class on the outbound flight. We jumped again. All in, we flew non-stop to Paris in business on the way out, economy dual seats on the way back for $2200 total for two people. That was a pretty good deal for us. Of course, if we hadn't upgraded and done the cheaper fare, we would have been all in for $900 plus I think we would have paid $80 for seat selections.