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How far in advance do you book your flights?

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thewilderside

thewilderside

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With an early November trip coming up (thanks again THP :)) I'm wondering how long I should wait until I book my flights? Do you get them booked right off, or wait until 2-3 weeks out before booking?
 
With the pricing and incentives available now I've booked flights into next year already.
 
PS, how was OOB?
 
Turtlerancher said:
PS, how was OOB?
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It was great. Not as much beach time as we would have liked since we had a big family dinner in York at 5 and the fog didn't burn off until 2 Saturday. Always nice to be at the ocean for a few days :)
 
It’s a crap shoot but usually I try to book far in advance. Haven’t been paying attention lately to fares as I’m not flying.
 
Usually at least 2-3 months in advance. We just decided a couple of days ago to take another long weekend to our Florida condo on October 14th and the ticket prices are some of the highest we’ve ever paid for the Minneapolis to Ft. Myers route. Our tickets at Christmas and Thanksgiving are way cheaper which is strange because October travel to Florida is not exactly peak season especially with Covid.
 
tahoebum said:
Usually at least 2-3 months in advance. We just decided a couple of days ago to take another long weekend to our Florida condo on October 14th and the ticket prices are some of the highest we’ve ever paid for the Minneapolis to Ft. Myers route. Our tickets at Christmas and Thanksgiving are way cheaper which is strange because October travel to Florida is not exactly peak season especially with Covid.
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Interesting, I admit to not having booked a flight since my honeymoon 6 years ago, but one of the reasons I didn't hesitate about signing up for the Hogan Mamiya event was the cost (or lackthereof) to get there. Unless something drastically changes I'll come in sub $200 round trip.
 
If the known is a good deal...….Why wait?
 
thewilderside said:
Interesting, I admit to not having booked a flight since my honeymoon 6 years ago, but one of the reasons I didn't hesitate about signing up for the Hogan Mamiya event was the cost (or lackthereof) to get there. Unless something drastically changes I'll come in sub $200 round trip.
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My round trip ticket that just landed last night was 20,000 award miles and the same ticket departing and arriving on the same days to the same cities a few weeks from now is more than four times as much. It’s difficult to understand but the demand for those flights must be way up when we are traveling next month.
 
Very odd, well since I'm flying Southwest with the no change fees I went ahead and locked in my flights last night. The number of flights out dropped and then the price jumped a bit on the return flights so I just pulled the trigger.
 
For me it depends. For personal stuff I usually book about a month ahead of time. For business travel it is usually a week to a few days. I haven’t been on a plane since March now so I am not sure how the new world will impact that.
 
Most of the time, airfare only goes up. As seats are purchased at the cheapest fare, only more expensive fares remain. Right now, you just never know. If you have a route that isn't selling much, you'll see fare sales. If you're seeing fare sales on those routes, then there's likely still "cheap" seats out there in the first place.
 
tomcat said:
Most of the time, airfare only goes up. As seats are purchased at the cheapest fare, only more expensive fares remain. Right now, you just never know. If you have a route that isn't selling much, you'll see fare sales. If you're seeing fare sales on those routes, then there's likely still "cheap" seats out there in the first place.
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Yeah I noticed that, obviously not a huge jump but the return flight I booked jumped by $10 and a similar return flight almost doubled in price.
 
Yeah, we have lots of sale fares out there right now, and some routes go pretty quickly. Like you said, keep checking back and you can always change your ticket, if something drastically changes.
 
tomcat said:
Yeah, we have lots of sale fares out there right now, and some routes go pretty quickly. Like you said, keep checking back and you can always change your ticket, if something drastically changes.
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If I find a flight with a lower cost do they reimburse the difference or just get to switch the flight?
 
I believe you would get a credit for the difference. It's not refunded, per se, but would be available for your next booking.
 
tomcat said:
I believe you would get a credit for the difference. It's not refunded, per se, but would be available for your next booking.
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That makes sense, as long as the credits last a long time. I don't get to fly very often :LOL:
 
I book mine far enough in advance that there always seems to be changes before my trip.
 
Most airlines, if not all, are now blocking off middle seats so they have fewer seats available for sale. Depending on where you fly from and into, the number of available seats can drop and fares can jump pretty quickly.
 
my schedule is constantly changing, so I tend to book around 4-7 days out. If I book earlier than that I usually have to change the itinerary.
 
I use to go with 30 days in advance. I would also pay for the ticket at that time to.

Then, when I got to the check in counter, I was better prepared to pay the mysterious fare increase that showed up out of nowhere.
 
Book as early as possible. Also realize that if you search for the same flight multiple times on multiple days, the price will go up as there is tracking involved.
 
millsan1 said:
Book as early as possible. Also realize that if you search for the same flight multiple times on multiple days, the price will go up as there is tracking involved.
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No wonder the price jumped on the flights I kept looking at :LOL:
 
millsan1 said:
Book as early as possible. Also realize that if you search for the same flight multiple times on multiple days, the price will go up as there is tracking involved.
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I've seen ticket prices jump in a matter of minutes, sometimes $150+ per ticket. It happened to me yesterday. I had the 4 tickets in my cart, there was an "error" during checkout, and when I got it to go through a few minutes later I had to pay $90 more per ticket. So strange during these Covid times to be paying way above the normal busy season Christmas time fare to be traveling to Florida in October which is off-season. The good news is we already booked our roundtrip Thanksgiving and Christmas tickets for our family of 5 at a much lower than normal fare.
 
I try to book my flight as soon as my itinerary is confirmed. For me this usually means roughly 2-3 months for personal, 3-4 weeks for business.
 
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