Purchasing Airline Tickets

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Bigfish
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Purchasing Airline Tickets

Post by Bigfish »

DW and I are traveling to London in early May. I have been searching for airline tickets using Kayak's flexible dates (+/- 3 days) including early in the week days . There has been no significant change in price. The sooner I know the travel dates the sooner I can book other things for the trip, hotels, car rental etc. In BH experiences are the prices likely to change as May approaches? How long would you keep looking? Prices are around $1,100 for two economy class round trip seats, Virgin Atlantic has the best price although other airlines are close.
BF
jayk238
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Re: Purchasing Airline Tickets

Post by jayk238 »

Hopper is an app that may help

It offers predictive analytics to ascertain the best dates as well as when the best time to purchase tickets is.

The thing is its more for getting a general idea than anything. Id say its very good when it tells you not to buy but not the best when it says you should buy. Imo it jumps the gun too soon.

In general rule of thumb is 6 mo from date of travel. Ymmv

For us we generally purchase bw 6-8 mo. Last year we booked to munich 8 mo advance and found the best deal. This year we booked ireland for april in october and we found better prices a few weeks later but it has stabilized and we lost out on maybe 50 dollars/tick total.

The prices are creeping up now.

Tickets are cheapest during the night. By that i mean actually searching for tickets at night is cheaper.

Certain days are cheaper to travel. These are usually off days for business flyers who make up the majority of tix for int travel.

Your best prices are dependent on location more than time. Ie its cheaper for us to travel from chicago or toronto than a mid size us city for int travel.

Eg buffalo costs us 1300 per prson to ireland while toronto costs us 500 round trip nonstop.
bberris
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Re: Purchasing Airline Tickets

Post by bberris »

I think you are way too early. Eight weeks ahead should be enough. One way to tell is to look at the fare calendar on google flights. I think you will see that some close in dates are high and some low, while far out dates are all the same and on the high end. Of course summer fares are the highest but early May you have a good chance of scoring a good fare if you are flexible.
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Didymograptus
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Re: Purchasing Airline Tickets

Post by Didymograptus »

Have a look at Norwegian Air. I had a quick look and a round-trip from JFK to London Gatwick is around $433 including taxes. My flight to Oklahoma City from Austin later today is way more expensive. :shock:
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livesoft
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Re: Purchasing Airline Tickets

Post by livesoft »

Clear your browser cache/cookies and use a different browser every time you look. Also a different computer. "They" are keeping track of you keeping track, too.
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an_asker
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Re: Purchasing Airline Tickets

Post by an_asker »

Bigfish wrote: Tue Dec 12, 2017 6:05 am DW and I are traveling to London in early May. I have been searching for airline tickets using Kayak's flexible dates (+/- 3 days) including early in the week days . There has been no significant change in price. The sooner I know the travel dates the sooner I can book other things for the trip, hotels, car rental etc. In BH experiences are the prices likely to change as May approaches? How long would you keep looking? Prices are around $1,100 for two economy class round trip seats, Virgin Atlantic has the best price although other airlines are close.
BF
I'm subscribed to Scott's Cheap Flights, a free newsletter (there is a paid version as ell). This morning's edition shows the following fares available generally January through May on British Airways (obviously, YMMV!):

Austin (AUS) - $568
Boston (BOS) - $487
Chicago (ORD) - $548
Fort Lauderdale (FLL) - $486
Las Vegas (LAS) - $568
Los Angeles (LAX) - $529
Miami (MIA) - $529
New York City (EWR) - $487
New York City (JFK) - $444
Oakland (OAK) - $444
San Francisco (SFO) - $487
San Jose (SJC) - $487
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lthenderson
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Re: Purchasing Airline Tickets

Post by lthenderson »

I've always used Expedia and purchased my tickets six months in advance. Not sure how they handle cookies but the prices always vary during the week sometimes by hundreds of dollars a ticket. We usually watch one week checking daily and purchase the subsequent week on the day of the previous week's low. By the time you get within a few months of the departure date, the variation is much much smaller if any and almost always much higher than what we paid months earlier.
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climber2020
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Re: Purchasing Airline Tickets

Post by climber2020 »

Bigfish wrote: Tue Dec 12, 2017 6:05 am DW and I are traveling to London in early May. I have been searching for airline tickets using Kayak's flexible dates (+/- 3 days) including early in the week days . There has been no significant change in price. The sooner I know the travel dates the sooner I can book other things for the trip, hotels, car rental etc. In BH experiences are the prices likely to change as May approaches? How long would you keep looking? Prices are around $1,100 for two economy class round trip seats, Virgin Atlantic has the best price although other airlines are close.
BF
In 2017, there's no single website that will consistently give you the best prices, nor do the rules of thumb (like "buy 6 weeks before a domestic flight") apply in every situation.

One thing that I do that may help: if there's a specific flight you're interested in, pull up the seating chart and see how many open seats are left. If there are 4 seats remaining and the flight is otherwise full, prices are not dropping. If the entire airplane is empty, you can probably wait a while for a price dip.

My favorite way to find flights is through Google Flights: https://www.google.com/flights/
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Watty
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Re: Purchasing Airline Tickets

Post by Watty »

Bigfish wrote: Tue Dec 12, 2017 6:05 am Prices are around $1,100 for two economy class round trip seats,
Does that mean $550 each?

If so then if that is a direct flight at an ideal time then I would be tempted to just book that. Having to make connections or fly at a less ideal time, or on some discount airline might not be worth a small savings.

Where are you flying from?
Topic Author
Bigfish
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Re: Purchasing Airline Tickets

Post by Bigfish »

The price is $564 each on Virgin Atlantic non stop and we are flying out of Boston. I only look for non stop flights flying into London it's worth it to me to pay a little extra and avoid the 1-2 stops.
TravelforFun
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Re: Purchasing Airline Tickets

Post by TravelforFun »

Bigfish wrote: Tue Dec 12, 2017 9:08 am The price is $564 each on Virgin Atlantic non stop and we are flying out of Boston. I only look for non stop flights flying into London it's worth it to me to pay a little extra and avoid the 1-2 stops.
I've gone to Europe many times and $564 to London is a good price.

TravelforFun
bberris
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Re: Purchasing Airline Tickets

Post by bberris »

Bigfish wrote: Tue Dec 12, 2017 9:08 am The price is $564 each on Virgin Atlantic non stop and we are flying out of Boston. I only look for non stop flights flying into London it's worth it to me to pay a little extra and avoid the 1-2 stops.
Oh my, that is a good enough deal. Grab it now.
Charlesmetz83
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Re: Purchasing Airline Tickets

Post by Charlesmetz83 »

Norwegian non stop may 6-18th $345 round trip. We are flying Norwegian to London in June, but ate taking icelandair on the way home to do an Icelandic stopover.
TravelGeek
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Re: Purchasing Airline Tickets

Post by TravelGeek »

climber2020 wrote: Tue Dec 12, 2017 8:40 am One thing that I do that may help: if there's a specific flight you're interested in, pull up the seating chart and see how many open seats are left. If there are 4 seats remaining and the flight is otherwise full, prices are not dropping. If the entire airplane is empty, you can probably wait a while for a price dip.
Given that several airlines (incl British Airways) now charge a significant fee for seat assignments any time before checkin time, an empty-ish seat map may very well be a flawed indicator of how many tickets are sold.
bob60014
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Re: Purchasing Airline Tickets

Post by bob60014 »

You can go crazy trying to squeeze out the "best deal" that, when all said, may not be. The $564 on Virgin is a good price, take it and don't look back!
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ResearchMed
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Re: Purchasing Airline Tickets

Post by ResearchMed »

Bigfish wrote: Tue Dec 12, 2017 6:05 am DW and I are traveling to London in early May. I have been searching for airline tickets using Kayak's flexible dates (+/- 3 days) including early in the week days . There has been no significant change in price. The sooner I know the travel dates the sooner I can book other things for the trip, hotels, car rental etc. In BH experiences are the prices likely to change as May approaches? How long would you keep looking? Prices are around $1,100 for two economy class round trip seats, Virgin Atlantic has the best price although other airlines are close.
BF
We generally get hotel reservations that are fully refundable, with no penalty whatsoever, as we start planning.
Then we know we have *some* place to stay that is acceptable.

As planning progresses, such as getting plane tickets especially, we'll start looking for better rates for hotels, and change if something is better.

Finally, as the travel date draws close, and if we do have those plane tickets, we'll look for any possible terrific savings for non-refundable hotel reservations. If there are any good deals, we'll switch.
(We tend to do international travel using rewards. So if we are still searching for better date availability, we'll wait until we've got tickets we plan to keep.)

We've occasionally kept looking (as mentioned, this can drive you nuts), and IF we see a better yet deal on the hotel, we'll email to see if they would be willing to match their own new rate. Surprisingly, they sometimes do.

Note: Some large hotel chains have something like, "We'll match a better rate if you find it elsewhere, and take off an extra 10%".
We've had that work, too. They need to be able to go to the same website you are on when you call, and if they can "see it", they'll honor their "promise". But this is working less and less, as increasingly, all of the sites tend to show almost identical rates more and more often.

RM
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renue74
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Re: Purchasing Airline Tickets

Post by renue74 »

Sometimes I will piggyback a rewards flight to get to a gateway city to fly to my destination.

For example, last spring break, there was a great deal $360 RT flights from NYC to Honolulu. Not very common around spring break weeks. So I took my two sons for the week.

We are near Charlotte.....and I used airmiles to jump on a flight to NYC...then off to Honolulu. Plus, we spent the afternoon in Manhattan...so it was a win/win.

I subscribe to a few emails: Scotts, The Points Guy, etc. and I'll get an email about good deals.

Then I'll go to Google Flights and plug in my dates and cities. It's easy to view different pricing structures over different dates in a calendar view using Google Flights.

But those types of deals tend to only last hours or a day or so. So you have to jump on them.
SrGrumpy
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Re: Purchasing Airline Tickets

Post by SrGrumpy »

$564 is pretty good for that time of year, though I generally consider it unnecessary to buy more than 3-4 months in advance. And I echo using Google flights: I get alerts when the price changes.
adamthesmythe
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Re: Purchasing Airline Tickets

Post by adamthesmythe »

> The price is $564 each on Virgin Atlantic non stop

Buy it. Buy it now. Use your finalized dates to get good hotel deals.
obgraham
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Re: Purchasing Airline Tickets

Post by obgraham »

Agree, good price if it meets your needs. You that can fly direct have it much easier!

Since I live out in a smaller place and have to connect to get to Europe, my choices are usually based on connect times, along with seat availability. Often not the cheapest price, but I don't want a 90 minute Newark or a 75 minute Heathrow connect time.

I have found Hopper to be pretty good at alerting me to price trends, both international and domestic. It comes right out and tells you "buy this now" or "wait, it may go lower".
Steven in NC
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Re: Purchasing Airline Tickets

Post by Steven in NC »

bob60014 wrote: Tue Dec 12, 2017 9:50 am You can go crazy trying to squeeze out the "best deal" that, when all said, may not be. The $564 on Virgin is a good price, take it and don't look back!
Bingo. Close Thread/
sk2101
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Re: Purchasing Airline Tickets

Post by sk2101 »

Charlesmetz83 wrote: Tue Dec 12, 2017 9:15 am Norwegian non stop may 6-18th $345 round trip. We are flying Norwegian to London in June, but ate taking icelandair on the way home to do an Icelandic stopover.
Be careful with Norwegian, the advertised fares are really bare-bones and everything you can think of is extra: seat assignment, meals, luggage, blankets...
Thesaints
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Re: Purchasing Airline Tickets

Post by Thesaints »

Personally, I like VS service. They have the best business class lounges in the industry.
Not sure what the non-status, economy passenger experience is, though.
However, BOS-LHR is a relatively short hop.
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SmileyFace
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Re: Purchasing Airline Tickets

Post by SmileyFace »

If you wait until 6-8 weeks before traveling you might get a better price BUT on the other hand - you then won't be able to lock in your flights and start planning the rest of your trip (and will end up with poor seating). This is one of those areas where saving a couple of hundred just isn't worth it.
Charlesmetz83
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Re: Purchasing Airline Tickets

Post by Charlesmetz83 »

mmarreco wrote: Tue Dec 12, 2017 5:50 pm
Charlesmetz83 wrote: Tue Dec 12, 2017 9:15 am Norwegian non stop may 6-18th $345 round trip. We are flying Norwegian to London in June, but ate taking icelandair on the way home to do an Icelandic stopover.
Be careful with Norwegian, the advertised fares are really bare-bones and everything you can think of is extra: seat assignment, meals, luggage, blankets...
I understand what you are saying, we paid $90 upgrade to get seat choices, checked bags, meals and beverages. $250 per person 1 way with all fees, taxes and upgrades.
9liner
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Re: Purchasing Airline Tickets

Post by 9liner »

mmarreco wrote: Tue Dec 12, 2017 5:50 pm
Charlesmetz83 wrote: Tue Dec 12, 2017 9:15 am Norwegian non stop may 6-18th $345 round trip. We are flying Norwegian to London in June, but ate taking icelandair on the way home to do an Icelandic stopover.
Be careful with Norwegian, the advertised fares are really bare-bones and everything you can think of is extra: seat assignment, meals, luggage, blankets...
+1

These discount carriers nickel-and-dime you for every amenity.
SrGrumpy
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Re: Purchasing Airline Tickets

Post by SrGrumpy »

9liner wrote: Tue Dec 12, 2017 8:07 pm
mmarreco wrote: Tue Dec 12, 2017 5:50 pm
Charlesmetz83 wrote: Tue Dec 12, 2017 9:15 am Norwegian non stop may 6-18th $345 round trip. We are flying Norwegian to London in June, but ate taking icelandair on the way home to do an Icelandic stopover.
Be careful with Norwegian, the advertised fares are really bare-bones and everything you can think of is extra: seat assignment, meals, luggage, blankets...
+1

These discount carriers nickel-and-dime you for every amenity.
As do the big boys, more and more. The discounters are upfront about it and that's why checkout takes forever. IIRC, Norwegian does offer free wifi.

Anyway, it seems OP's spring vacation is off to a fiscally sound start.
2comma
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Re: Purchasing Airline Tickets

Post by 2comma »

I'd jump on a 500+ flight to London. We have been flying to Athens and St. Thomas for the last decade. I don't usually get the feeling I got a great deal no matter what we try. I will say that price does seem to be increasing and lower fuel prices did not bring out any altruistic tendencies in any of the carriers. They've all cut flights to the bone and any fuel savings are being used to purchase more fuel efficient planes and other infrastructure improvements to increase profits. The airline industry, which was usually not profitable in decades past (just look at how many airlines don't exist any longer) has finally figured it out and I doubt we as consumers will find many ways to beat the system.
If I am stupid I will pay.
BeneIRA
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Re: Purchasing Airline Tickets

Post by BeneIRA »

www.google.com/flights/explore

I love it way more than Google flights since you see a bunch of date combinations.
jayk238
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Re: Purchasing Airline Tickets

Post by jayk238 »

SrGrumpy wrote: Tue Dec 12, 2017 8:29 pm
9liner wrote: Tue Dec 12, 2017 8:07 pm
mmarreco wrote: Tue Dec 12, 2017 5:50 pm
Charlesmetz83 wrote: Tue Dec 12, 2017 9:15 am Norwegian non stop may 6-18th $345 round trip. We are flying Norwegian to London in June, but ate taking icelandair on the way home to do an Icelandic stopover.
Be careful with Norwegian, the advertised fares are really bare-bones and everything you can think of is extra: seat assignment, meals, luggage, blankets...
+1

These discount carriers nickel-and-dime you for every amenity.
As do the big boys, more and more. The discounters are upfront about it and that's why checkout takes forever. IIRC, Norwegian does offer free wifi.

Anyway, it seems OP's spring vacation is off to a fiscally sound start.
But not the same extent. They still allow one check in. Carry on. Offer in flight meals. For the int flights
SrGrumpy
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Re: Purchasing Airline Tickets

Post by SrGrumpy »

jayk238 wrote: Wed Dec 13, 2017 7:56 am
SrGrumpy wrote: Tue Dec 12, 2017 8:29 pm
9liner wrote: Tue Dec 12, 2017 8:07 pm
mmarreco wrote: Tue Dec 12, 2017 5:50 pm
Charlesmetz83 wrote: Tue Dec 12, 2017 9:15 am Norwegian non stop may 6-18th $345 round trip. We are flying Norwegian to London in June, but ate taking icelandair on the way home to do an Icelandic stopover.
Be careful with Norwegian, the advertised fares are really bare-bones and everything you can think of is extra: seat assignment, meals, luggage, blankets...
+1

These discount carriers nickel-and-dime you for every amenity.
As do the big boys, more and more. The discounters are upfront about it and that's why checkout takes forever. IIRC, Norwegian does offer free wifi.

Anyway, it seems OP's spring vacation is off to a fiscally sound start.
But not the same extent. They still allow one check in. Carry on. Offer in flight meals. For the int flights
One way or another, you are paying for it. As a consumer I welcome the choice of paying less if I travel light and bring my own sandwiches, etc. Others have the choice not to do that.
sk2101
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Re: Purchasing Airline Tickets

Post by sk2101 »

SrGrumpy wrote: Tue Dec 12, 2017 8:29 pm
9liner wrote: Tue Dec 12, 2017 8:07 pm
mmarreco wrote: Tue Dec 12, 2017 5:50 pm
Charlesmetz83 wrote: Tue Dec 12, 2017 9:15 am Norwegian non stop may 6-18th $345 round trip. We are flying Norwegian to London in June, but ate taking icelandair on the way home to do an Icelandic stopover.
Be careful with Norwegian, the advertised fares are really bare-bones and everything you can think of is extra: seat assignment, meals, luggage, blankets...
+1

These discount carriers nickel-and-dime you for every amenity.
As do the big boys, more and more. The discounters are upfront about it and that's why checkout takes forever. IIRC, Norwegian does offer free wifi.
Not really, with the major carriers I don't have to pay extra to sit next to my wife or to get something to eat on a transatlantic flight.
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