Air fare down again - should I book now?

[Bobo912]

The airfare I've been watching for our Australia trip this spring has gone down another $25 per person. It's down $125 since I started checking last August. I plan to book through ABD, so I'm not concerned about trip or flight cancellations, since they will handle that for me. I have trip insurance, so if we have an emergency I don't have to worry about losing the price of the flight. I'm just concerned about booking too soon and the price continuing to drop. With the unrest in the Middle East, the price of oil has gone up some and could continue to go up, which may increase airfare. Or the bad economy could cause the airfare to continue to go down. Our trip is the first week of June. What would you do?

 

[sayhello]

The airfare I've been watching for our Australia trip this spring has gone down another $25 per person. It's down $125 since I started checking last August. I plan to book through ABD, so I'm not concerned about trip or flight cancellations, since they will handle that for me. I have trip insurance, so if we have an emergency I don't have to worry about losing the price of the flight. I'm just concerned about booking too soon and the price continuing to drop. With the unrest in the Middle East, the price of oil has gone up some and could continue to go up, which may increase airfare. Or the bad economy could cause the airfare to continue to go down. Our trip is the first week of June. What would you do?

Personally, I bought the airfare for my Canadian ABD over the weekend. The airfare is $180 dollars less than it's been, and there's not a huge selection of good flights for where I want to go. So I bit the bullet & bought them. I have insurance, also. Personally, I've lost more than one good airfare waiting to see if it would go lower, and I've also spent more money for less desirable flights because I waited. If the airfare is reasonable, I say go for it. Just my philosophy.

Sayhello

 

[Bobo912]

Thanks, Sayhello. ABD cancelled my trip today, but if I'm able to rebook, I'll probably go ahead and book the airfare too.

 

[sayhello]

Thanks, Sayhello. ABD cancelled my trip today, but if I'm able to rebook, I'll probably go ahead and book the airfare too.

They canceled your trip!? Oh, no! It's still 5 months away! I guess that's better than really close to the trip, but I'm sorry to hear that. Man, I really hope they don't cancel my trip...

Sayhello

 

[disneytraveler]

I booked my flight for the Germany Adventure last week. 961.00 round trip was a good price.

 

[Bobo912]

Since our Austrialia adventure was cancelled, we switched to Alaska. I decided not to torment myself watching airfare this time around and just went ahead and booked it last Friday. I did some research first and Alaska Air was considerably lower than the other airlines and I found a flight at a convenient time. The other airlines all seemed to have returning flights leaving around 1:00 AM. The leg of the trip between Fairbanks and Anchorage looked to be about 3/4 booked already, so I decided I didn't want to wait around. For anybody considering this trip, our airfare roundtrip from Nashville was $804 including all taxes and fees. Doesn't seem too bad for a 6000+ mile roundtrip.

 

[sayhello]

Since our Austrialia adventure was cancelled, we switched to Alaska. I decided not to torment myself watching airfare this time around and just went ahead and booked it last Friday. I did some research first and Alaska Air was considerably lower than the other airlines and I found a flight at a convenient time. The other airlines all seemed to have returning flights leaving around 1:00 AM. The leg of the trip between Fairbanks and Anchorage looked to be about 3/4 booked already, so I decided I didn't want to wait around. For anybody considering this trip, our airfare roundtrip from Nashville was $804 including all taxes and fees. Doesn't seem too bad for a 6000+ mile roundtrip.

Congrats! That *is* a good price to Alaska (at least it is compared to what I paid from Ohio 2 years ago). And Alaska Air has a very good reputation, unlike a lot of airlines these days. Looks like you got a good deal.

I did the same thing with my Rocky Trails airfare. I watched them for a while, saw they'd gone down a bit, and that there were not a lot of flights into Kalispell, MT, and there was one flight that was pretty direct, whereas most of the others were 3-legged flights, coming in & leaving at odd hours. So I just decided and bought it. It takes a load off not constantly watching the airfares bounce around. Now I can obsess over the hotels for my pre- and post-nights, as ABD doesn't make pre- & post- arrangements for my tour.

Sayhello

 

[Bobo912]

Congrats! That *is* a good price to Alaska (at least it is compared to what I paid from Ohio 2 years ago). And Alaska Air has a very good reputation, unlike a lot of airlines these days. Looks like you got a good deal.

Thanks, Sayhello. I feel better knowing I didn't pay more than I should have. This morning I got an email from Kayak that contained an ad for a fare sale by Alaska Air, which made me cringe, thinking that I had booked too early. I checked my flights/dates and the fare had actually gone up $50 per person since last Friday. So I'm feeling pretty good about the fare I got. I'm not going to look at the fares any more, so I can remain happy.

 

[Carol]

I've been watching flight prices for weeks. I finally booked this morning after our flight was $400 less than yesterday. ($200 ea.) I can't imagine it getting any lower than that. And now I can stop watching!