Plane tickets too early?

[marguline]

My first trip to couples wont be until April 2011, and I was wondering is it too early to purchase plane tickets. My boyfriend thinks its too early but I was thinking that if I could lock in a cheap price then why not take the plunge and do it. What do you think?

[Richli2]

It is not too early to book your airline tickets for April 2011. Most airlines will book when your trip is 330 days or less

[Beth]

It depends which airline you plan to use. Air Jamaica has a variety of prices for coach. The cheaper ones book up quickly. We'll book our April flight by November.

[Vee]

I would go to yapta.com and start monitoring the price. If you notice that it drops, go ahead and pop for it.

Also, depending on your airline, some will give you a credit toward future purchases if the price drops. (JetBlue does...)

Just a thought.

We are going in May 2011 and I am waiting for JetBlue to open up fares for May. Once they do, I'll start monitoring, and if it drops below a certain level, we'll purchase.

[markandjannett]

You never know with the airlines. We are leaving for CSA Saturday morning and bought our tickets back in January. A couple of weeks ago we checked and tickets are $200 cheaper each .........

[Roclin]

Absolutely. If you can lock in a price you're happy with then do it!! But be happy with your price. Don't keep looking to see if you could have gotten a better price if you had waited. You will drive yourself crazy if you do that. :-)

ENJOY!!!

[mhw]

We are going in May 2011 and we purchsed our tickets a week or so ago. My TA suggested getting them now as the rates are not bad and you never know, they could go up. The airline we are flying has a price drop credit policy so if they drop drastically then we can always get a credit/voucher toward another flight. We wanted to arrive onsite at CSS in the early afternoon and looking at the flights nonstop from Charlotte (where we will fly out of) they were booking up pretty quickly. Actually our first flight time/choice was already sold out!

[BobandJudy]

It is definitely not too early to purchase your airline tickets. Start tracking fares now, and that way you will have a better feel for when you see a drop in fares.

[DanandCindy]

We booked our flight in May for October and locked in, now the flights are 120.00 less pp then they were before so it appears rates are down.

[trhops]

I purchased mine for 3/18-3/25/11 just a few weeks ago. I found a $99 one way rate and couldn't pass it up!

[KCJen]

Just a warning about booking tickets too far in advance...

Last October (2009) my husband and I booked our trip to CSA and booked the airline tickets along with the room. This July when I logged onto American Airlines website I found out that our entire flight schedule down there had been changed. Instead of flying out Friday morning at 8am and getting to Jamaica at 2:30pm with 1 stop, they had us flying out at 7:30am and not getting to JAmaica until almost 9pm with 2 stops, with no other options for same day arrival. I was not a happy camper. We ended up having to change our flights so we're now flying to Dallas on Thursday night, having a 8 hour overnight layover, then flying out from Dallas Friday morning through Miami. The closer you are to when you're actually flying, the less likely it is that the airlines will change the flight schedule. Just my 2 cents.

[IsagenixFreak]

we are going in april 2011 and have our tix already...

[jon1963]

Buy the tickets when you think the price is right, watch, watch, and the the price drops purchase. We have purchased tickets 8 to 2 months in advance. Around holidays they seem to drop the price.

[me]

Booked ours for next June a few weks ago. Air Jamaica

[louieandsusie]

We are booked for April 2011 and we haven't booked our flights yet. Although we live by Milwaukee we fly out of Ohare and since AJ no longer flies from there we have to be flexible with the what airlines and flight times---bummer. We continue to monitor prices and flight times daily.

[jagorham]

The best way to see if there is a good price for an airfare is to know what a "normal" fare is.

Start looking at whatever website you choose to track airfares for the dates you are travelling, and keep checking a few times a week to get a feel for what "normal" is. If you suddenly see something drop (for reasons other than airline troubles - pending strikes, financial woes, etc.), then grab it.

Keep an ear out for any air fare sales that go on - sometime the JetBlues and AirTrans will announce fare sales, and the legacy carriers will match them. Similarly, some of those carriers don't offer flights as far out in advance as the legacy carriers do. Once they get into the mix, you might see a drop in prices, but probably not - if you're within a week or so, it may pay to wait.

Of course, also study what fees an airline will charge. Some charge for checked luggages, some don't, some charge on the way down but not back (US Airways did that last year!); some charge if you want to reserve a seat (which you probably will, given that the airplane will be pretty full, at least on the leg to/from MoBay). Build those into you price concepts. Otherwise, Airline "A" might be $30 less on the airfare than Airline "B" but you may find that the difference gets eaten up by fees.

[BrendaandBruce.PA]

We just booked thru Air Jamaica for next July. We thought the prices were good compared to what we paid the last 2 years and we like to sit in the front of the plane. So it's never too early.

[mrs2cool]

Two of the online travel sites( T & E) have Fare alerts you can sign on for. When the fare goes down they will notify you. It gives you a way to monitor the fares. Once I see a fare that looks good, I go to the Airlines website and book with the Airline directly or I check to see if the package with air is a better deal.

[ct ti fan]

We booked the trip we just returned from two days ago in March. The airfares went down after that! On top of paying about $100 more, American changed the flight back from a direct 3.5hr flight, to a 4 hr layover in MIA. This caused us to get home at 2:30 am instead of 9pm. My advice is to figure out what price you feel good about paying, and not look at airfares afterward as it may only aggravate you.

[dirtleg]

Something to keep in mind. Many of the travel sites advertise that they will pay back the difference if your tickets drop in price below what you paid. This may be true, but... They will only pay back the difference between the lower price and the cost of rebooking the flight. At least that is what I understand about the process for most travel sites. Many airlines charge a $200 or more rebooking fee per ticket. So unless the price drops more than the fee, you do not come out ahead. And that it not too likely with the fees being so high. So if you book, just stick with it. It is a game that is not much fun to play, but we are pretty much at the mercy of the airlines and their rules.

I have been monitoring the price for flights from STL for our trip next June and they are currently about the same as we paid last summer for this summers trip. So we are close to going ahead and booking the flights. Good luck to all at finding decent flight schedules and reasonable prices.

[dirtleg]

Just after I hit "post" for my last reply I checked the prices for next June, they have dropped about $35 per ticket since yesterday!

Woo hoo! Or not?

So, do I wait to see if it goes down some more? Or do we jump on them now?

Oy.

[rjammin]

I've been watching ticket prices via Yapta for the last month or so for our trip to CN next April. Today I got an update that they went up 21%. I'm gonna still hold out longer. I hope my gamble pays off. We're going to a destination wedding in Cancun then have to fly to Miami to connect to MBJ. It will be a total of 4 flights round trip from Chicago. I'm really missing Air Jamaica now. We never paid more than $800 for 2 round trip on 7 trips "home" with AJ.

[warmweatherfriend]

I've been watching airfares for Feb. 2011 and have had three different quotes from T.A.'s, much higher than we paid this year. Out of the blue, one T.Aa e-mailed me about a great price, a few bucks less than we paid this year, so WE BOUGHT THEM. We have airfare but haven't booked our rooms yet. So...that's the next hurdle to tackle...still waiting for that "great room deal" for CSA!

[Paul & Sue from NY]

We book up to 10 months out. I would rather pay a couple dollars more than risk not getting a flight.. or a room..

[doncindy]

Paul & Sue, I couldn't agree with you more. Although we booked our airline about 5 months out, for peace of mind it's just not worth the few dollars you may save. Plus if I find a flight that gets us in early enough, I'll book it.
Assuming of course the price isn't outrageous. If I figured right we should arrive at CTI at 1:30 pm. Don.