Nerves of Steel

Snow's Mom;2505199 wrote: How long do you wait before booking flights? I'm still 6 months out, and wanting to nail down the tickets. Is it too soon to worry about the best flights/times being sold out? I will feel better when I have the tickets purchased. In the past, I always did it two months out. I'm not that brave anymore.

If I know my travel dates early, I try to book my flight as early as possible. I fly JetBlue to Orlando as they have the best schedule; there prices only seem to go up as the date of travel gets closer. My best deals have been when I've bought my flights the day the schedule extended.

That said, I think it depends on what time of year you are traveling and whether you are flying weekends or mid-week. If you aren't going around a holiday and are flying mid-week, I think you can still get good prices closer to your travel date. I just booked a long weekend trip for early September, so about 6 weeks out and prices were still super reasonable.

Good luck!

It's really hard to make general guidelines about this. There are way too many variables. Season/dates matter. Airline matters. Your particular market (airport) matters. Route competition matters.

I fly SW. In my market (Portland, OR), the opening day fares are almost never the best ones. I can generally count on therm coming down and be lowest much closer to the travel date. My observation is that this is not the case with SW's east coast flights, which tells me there are regional differences in the way people book and the airlines take that into account as well.

If you've had success in the past booking a couple of months out, then that strategy is likely to still work for you. Unless, of course, you're going during a holiday, spring break, etc.

Truly, the best plan is to start watching fares regularly (daily). If you find a fare you're comfortable with, book it. Don't look again and don't second guess your decision (you'll just stress yourself out).

I know, not much real help.

Steve

Snow's Mom;2505199 wrote: How long do you wait before booking flights? I'm still 6 months out, and wanting to nail down the tickets. Is it too soon to worry about the best flights/times being sold out? I will feel better when I have the tickets purchased. In the past, I always did it two months out. I'm not that brave anymore.

What airline and from where are you flying?

I fly American, and generally in first and only want non stop flights. So I book as soon as I get the best rate, or if the times drop down to just a few. So, 6 months out, all the way up to a month. I probably book in the 3 month range usually, mostly so I can dictate if work will allow me to escape.

There is an app called Hopper. You can put your destination and it will tell you to wait or buy. We got great deals to Orlando that way

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Booked SW from Chicago MDW. The price was reasonable, about the same we paid for a flight 6 years ago, and within our budget. We missed the $99 flights, but with free bags, I'm happy. Got the times we wanted, which is also important. We usually fly out of MSP, but couldn't get a non-stop from there and it was more expensive. So, more driving, less flying. Thanks for the input! Will definitely come in handy.

Not to change the subject but anyone have any reviews on Frontier Airlines, they have some real low rates but never used them or anyone I know either has?

BIGDOG;2505231 wrote: Not to change the subject but anyone have any reviews on Frontier Airlines, they have some real low rates but never used them or anyone I know either has?

My mom flew it one time and said never again. They have horrid reviews online. And they charge you not just for checked luggage but also any carry on. You'll need to take that into account when pricing things out.

I thought 99.00 pvd to mco non stop was too good to be true. Thanks I will check it out not flying till Jan but want to line up soon.

Its like a flying Greyhound. Might even need to pay to use the head.

BIGDOG;2505231 wrote: Not to change the subject but anyone have any reviews on Frontier Airlines, they have some real low rates but never used them or anyone I know either has?

There's nothing in particular wrong with Frontier as long as you realize they're a discount carrier that advertises the bare bones fare and then charges for everything beyond that.

I tried to find out last night how much they charge extra for bags and couldn't find anything.
I did find it cost 5.00 to book flights and extra if you want a more comfortable seat?

Frontier has several tiers of pricing - they charge more for bags if you pay at the airport or if you travel during peak times. They'll charge a bit less if you pay online when you book, and when you're traveling less peak times. But in general, if you pay online, you are looking around $30-$45 per bag (checked and carry-on). At the airport, it's more like $40-$50 per bag. It can really add up on Frontier. It truly is one of those no-frills airlines, and if you want straight transportation to another city, and don't have much luggage to carry with you, it can be pretty economical. But the extras add up in a hurry, especially for families traveling to a place like Disney. A $99 fare nearly doubles if you even have one checked bag and one carry-on. And don't forget to print your own boarding pass - they'll charge you for that at the airport, too...... It's probably worth a drive to an airport to fly Southwest instead.

Some of their "really low rates" are Den Deals. You have to pay to join the club to get those prices.

We flew Frontier recently. Everything went smoothly. We checked one bag, paid for it in advance. No pretzels, pop, water...just a seat. And if I remember correctly, it did not recline. Not a lot of room.