Originally Posted By kramer222 Hey everyone! I'm traveling in March '07. My questions is this: When should I purchase airfare? Should I do it ASAP or wait until after the summer?
Originally Posted By trekkeruss Where you are flying from and what airport and airline choices do you have? At a minimum, I would sign up for alerts from Expedia, Orbitz, Travelocity, Shermans Travel and Travel Zoo.
Originally Posted By kramer222 Flying from Portland, Oregon. (PDX) Not sure what all of my options are, but I imagine United, American, Delta, & Frontier.
Originally Posted By Disneymom443 I bought my plane tickets as soon as they were avaible. It saved me over $350.
Originally Posted By wendebird I just bought my tickets for my December trip direct from Delta.com. The rates were cheaper than anyone else. $1250 for 4, round trip from Sacramento to Orlando.
Originally Posted By GMouse In my experience over the past 10 years, the earlier you buy the better price you will get. Sometimes you can't book that far in advance though, so keep checking.
Originally Posted By jodiefra Just an FYI -- if you apply for a Frontier master card right now they're issuing 15,000 free miles, which is enough for one ticket. And if you book on line before the end of June you get double miles for your next trip. I sound like a commercial, but it worked for us -- we've got one of our December tickets covered already. Meantime, get the email alerts and check travelocity or expedia every couple of days. To me it's a little like playing poker -- I'm afraid to buy too far in advance because there are good sales every so often...but I don't want to wait too long! I know exactly what you're saying!
Originally Posted By crazyformickey I would sign up for a site like Travelocity. You can put in a rate watcher and if the rates go down you will get an email.
Originally Posted By AZDLDad The rate checker emails do not always include JUST your expected travel dates though. So you get a juicy email that says your price has been cut only to find out that its for some other days in the immediate future and not that far into the future you actually want to travel. Lately I have been booking in advance only after waiting for Southwest's price release for comparison shopping. Here is a website for average pricing, click the city you are traveling to. <a href="http://www.faremeasure.com/airports/Airport-Portland_Oregon.html" target="_blank">http://www.faremeasure.com/air ports/Airport-Portland_Oregon.html</a>
Originally Posted By stitchcrazy ^^Wow - thats a very interesting website AZDLDad, I've never seen it before. Thanks for posting!
Originally Posted By kramer222 What a cool site! Thanks for all of the great info. Has anyone used Southwest? Are they a pain in the you-know-what? Unfortunately, they don't have fares for March, yet - but they have a few options where you don't have to change planes. And pretty reasonable. Hmmm... Thoughts?
Originally Posted By LuLu I love Southwest! However, when I booked, I got a better price on Song (which I guess no longer exists) and it's 100% refundable. SW is good in that you can cancel any reservation and apply the $$ to another flight (but they won't give your money back). Once I had a flight with SW and found a lower fare with them later. I did the flight change right online and ended up with $10 credit towards my next flight!
Originally Posted By wendebird I agree with LuLu, I love SW. Just be sure to check in online after midnight the day of your flight. (They don't have assigned seats) The way the load is when you check in, online or at the airport, you're assigned either A, B, or C. The A's get to load first, then the B's & lastly the C's. So the earlier you check in, the better chance you have of getting an A.
Originally Posted By LuLu Yes, check in online, I'm not sure you can even get an "A" pass at the airport - I never have! You can do it starting 24 hours before your departure time.
Originally Posted By jazzfan4 That Okay, I have flown SW several times latly and the best seat in hte plane it he middle, more space for my big feet than either the aisle or window.
Originally Posted By Coachbagfanatic1 I always purchase our tickets as soon as they are available. I don't like playing the wait and see if the price goes down game because I did that once, and the flight was booked. Never again. I mean don't get me wrong, there were other options but we like a certain flight at a certain time.
Originally Posted By snvanvl We just booked from PDX to Orlando for the end of August and tickets were $307.00 including all taxes. We booked our travel thru Delta Airlines becausee they actually were the cheapest. Christy
Originally Posted By LacyBelle Christy, that's a great price from Portland. We got $210 round trip on American from San Jose to Orlando for our trip in November. Of course, we booked eight months in advance.
Originally Posted By AZDLDad We get hosed from here in PHX - Southwest @$399.10ea was the cheapest. Friends in L.A. booked several months earlier on AA @ $275 before the oil prices started going up.
