When to buy an airline ticket

[thepiranha]

The video is only two minutes long. What do you think of these tips?


http://www.bankrate.com/finance/vide...image_headline

[kyshel]

I only see a very short advertising video. No tips...

[thepiranha]

Oops! Try the one that I reposted. Sorry about that.

[danielboldea]

I believe that all those tips apply as a general rule of booking. However, there are exceptions. I have had great luck booking international flights a few days prior to travel in low season.

Example: travel to Chicago from Eastern Europe - regularly $1100-1300; booked "last minute" this past February with just under $900.

I usually use a third party travel site to book flights, but I always check the airline's website for the calendar-view pricing, and choose dates according to the lowest rate available in my time frame.

I usually fly into and out of O'hare internationally on a Sunday - it has always been cheaper for me and a lot less busy.

[bonniejoy03]

Interesting D. I never use a third party site. Do the prices seem lower? I always use the airline's website.

[danielboldea]

Interesting D. I never use a third party site. Do the prices seem lower? I always use the airline's website.

I always check both, but for some reason I find better pricing on a third party site. They don't always have all the connections I'm interested in, but for the most part, it works just fine.

Many of my flights originate in Europe, so if I purchased from an airline directly, they would charge me in Euro's and my bank would charge me a currency exchange fee and some times even flag my card for fraud (not very convenient when you are abroad).

Some airlines (Lufthansa for example) also have a weird policy in place that requires the debit card/credit card used for the purchase to be present at check in. No problem when the booking is for me. A big problem when its for someone else. I've actually been woken up at 4 am to rush to the airport because my parents were being denied check-in for a ticket that I had purchased for them.

I guess we all kind of have our own way of booking....sure is interesting learning more and more through all of our community members!

[[email protected]]

I always find the lowest prices to Latin America from the Philadelphia area on the airlines websites and tend to find the best prices the further out I book so when I have a trip planned (purchased a LL package and have dates confirmed), I get the airfare as soon as I can.

For example, I purchased the Nicaragua LL packages almost 1 year ago and I am not going to Nica until March 2013 and I purchased the airfare back in the summer on United. I have discovered that once the flights start filling up, and they seem to fill quickly these days, they do not lower the prices like they used to. Also with all the flight changes and cancellations going on these days I feel it is best to grab the airfare when you can!

[jmbklj]

I use other travel sites to do searches but normally book on the airlines site. There are some other travel sites out there that use consolidator fares or what's called unpublished fares. If you get one of those "unpublished" fares, you may not earn full mileage credit. It all depends on the type of fare booked.

Fares booked on airline sites are "published" fares. Typically sites like Orbitz, Travelocity, etc are usually OK, using published fares for flights separately purchased, unless its a packaged deal. However Priceline and Hotwire use unpublished fares, and often group or tour fares are "unpublished" fares. For a site like Vayama, it depends, because sometimes they use unpublished consolidator fares; sometimes not.

Here are links on this topic for Delta, United and American:

Delta - Earning Miles With Special Fares - Effective September 1, 2012, a small number of special fares (often referred to as “unpublished fares”) will earn miles at a reduced rate. Unpublished fares are normally purchased through a specialized agent, third party or to a group.
Examples of Unpublished fares include:
- Student fares
- Consolidator fares
- Flights included as part of a cruise package
- Discounted tour packages
- Group fares

United - http://www.united.com/CMS/en-US/Mark...es/united.aspx - MileagePlus miles may not be earned on certain United Airlines and MileagePlus partner airline tickets. These include, but are not limited to:
- United tickets purchased & used in violation of United’s Contract of Carriage, fare tariffs & MileagePlus Program.
- All free travel, including MileagePlus award travel.
- Unpublished charter flights.
- Industry-free or industry-reduced rate tickets.
- Promotion certificates.
- Unpublished fares, such as priceline.com and Hotwire.
- Tickets, products or services purchased and used in violation of the terms and conditions applicable to United’s MileagePlus partners.

American - AAdvantage Terms And Conditions

Certain airline tickets are not eligible for earning mileage credit. These include, without limitation, the following: all tickets issued as AAdvantage awards or other free ticket promotions including free or reduced rate tickets; companion tickets; charter flight tickets; travel agency/industry reduced rate tickets; infant tickets; items occupying a purchased seat; unpublished fare tickets, including consolidator fares; and tickets issued subject to special provisions.

[jmbklj]

I agree with the video that you often pay a higher price if booking too far in advance, at least I know that's true on Delta who I use most often. Perfect example is the Hawaii flights for Feb I booked just recently. Our accommodations were booked several months ago. Flights then were $200 - $250 higher than what I recently booked.

There are two services I often use when trying to decide the best timing for purchasing a ticket. One is Bing's Price Predictor; however it's only good for certain high volume domestic locations. The other is Kayak's Price Alerts.

[kyshel]

Daniel--I understand the Euro predicament and using a credit/debit card. Makes sense, in your case, to use third party sites. At least you're smart enough to understand the terms and conditions and fees. You probably know the rules inside and out! So many people aren't capable and when they have delays, etc, they can't cope. It makes more sense when flying US carriers to use their sites for local phone / CS on refunds, changes etc. We don't have the EU laws either, so we need to work with a US carrier directly with weather delays and such here.