Best Time to Buy Flights

[disneyfreak202]

Hello,

I know I have a while, but to honestly save me time from checking every single day forever and then regretting not buying a flight, when would be the best time to buy flights for October 2019. Our trip is October 30th-November 7th 2019. We will be coming from California. I am hoping to find the cheapest flight.

 

[seashoreCM]

For getting the lowest fare, it cannot be predicted reliably. When someone tries to predict it and publish his results, the airlines will change things to make the predictions incorrect.

But if the traveling public could start a fad; start a groundswell, then a long term benefit might be achieved. If people delayed their purchases as much as they could subject to other requirements such as getting specific times on popular dates, then tickets in general won't sell as fast and airlines may resurrect the policy of honoring their own lower fare for anyone who bought early at a higher fare and later checked back and found that lower fare.

 

[rwdavis2]

There is no way to predict airfare. Prices change constantly due to supply and demand. The only exception is that over major holidays prices go up.

 

[_19disnA]

With most airlines, the cheapest tickets sell out first and when those are gone, you have to buy the next higher level ticket. I have no idea how any 3rd party website thinks they can predict when a future lower price might be offered. Usually, the further ahead you buy your ticket, the lower the price will be. Around holidays always tend to be the busiest travel times, so you need to book those well in advance. Airlines aren't going to offer any special deals around travel times when planes are going to be full.

 

[Dis703]

It depends a lot on who you will be flying. IME, JetBlue, for example, seems to release at the best rate you are likely to find and then it creeps up with occasional unpredictable sales. Southwest seemed to be pretty similar when I was watching them while American jumped all over the place.

Discount airlines like Frontier or Spirit tend to do the opposite. They release their flights a little higher and the closer you get to the date they drop them dramatically for short period sales to fill up the flight. I've booked my cheapest flights with Frontier at 2-4 weeks out but you take a chance not knowing if they will have room that close to your dates. My travel dates are pretty flexible though so it works well for us.

I think the general advice of booking when you are okay with the price is probably the most sound. But then remember not to keep going back and checking again. BTDT not worth the torment, lol.

 

[kaytieeldr]

Sign up for alerts like hipmunk.com, maybe flightaware.com.

 

[MillauFr]

We always book with Alaska. When the prices drop we can always get a credit so you don't have to worry as much about when to buy.