[Jumble Jowls]

I'm looking to buy a plane ticket online, but the prices have almost doubled since I checked 10 days ago. I plan to leave on July 22. Does this have anything to do with the coming 4th of July holiday? Do the airlines jack up prices before a holiday, and do you think I'd get a cheaper fare if I waited until after July 4?

[whistlingmarmot]

Ah, the mystery of ticket pricing. Fuel prices, demand, fare wars, all sorts of things one can't predict meddle with that. I gave up on it and just get the lowest fare I can when I buy. Then I never look again to see if it went down.

[Lagerman]

Seems like everything I hear is buy as early as you can, so I would hold off till the last minute. Although its probably already here.

[ActionBetty]

They seem to be cheap about a month before the actual departure.. then it almost doubles if you try to buy after that time limit of 30 days in advance. It's almost impossible to figure the airline prices out..ugh

[rogue_hiker]

Personally, I would wait until after the July 4th holiday, since if demand for seats during the beginning period of the summer season has been less than the airlines expected by that point, they may begin cutting prices to fill up their planes. I just bought four tickets after almost a full month of checking prices on a daily basis (actually, both my sister and I were checking prices daily!) and found that prices actually decreased the closer we got to the travel date (but have held steady or increased slightly since we bought our tickets). I suspect that had to do with prognostications of a busy summer travel season and the fact that we were buying tickets sandwiched between the Memorial Day and Fourth of July holidays. And in late April I bought tickets to Miami after a lot of research, because prices had come down and I was only three weeks from the travel date. You know what happened...just a week before we traveled, the prices fell another $100 each! Ouch! A couple of suggestions based on my experiences over the past couple of years: Don't just check the fares shown on the well known online travel sites, since in my personal experience these fares can often be significantly higher than the fares I can find on the airlines own sites or through a travel agent. I use the online travel sites to get an idea of where the better fares might be found, then go to the airlines own sites and check for fare sales or punch in the specific dates to see if I can find the same or better fare than I found on the online travel sites. Look for the special fares sections. Also, check Southwest and other discount airlines own sites (some of them aren't included in the online travel sites). I also show my travel agent the fares I find on the online travel sites and tell her to see if she can match or beat them. Sometimes she can; sometimes she can't. Also, play with dates (if you have any flexibility). Mid-week dates seem to often be cheaper, though on occasion I've found weekend flights to be cheaper. Above all, check, check, check. Then when you find a fare that looks good, pounce!

[rogue_hiker]

Oh, and be careful about the fares that you see quoted on any online site (be it from an online travel site or an airline site), since some include fees and taxes in the price they show you, and some don't. And these fees and taxes can add over $100 to each ticket, depending on where you are flying. To make sure you're seeing the real price, click through right up to the point where you have to provide your credit card info. At that point, the price you see should be the real, final price you'll have to pay. For example, on one site I checked today, the fare shown ended up being over $100 less than the actual price, because the various fees (security, etc.) and taxes were not included.

[whistlingmarmot]

To search multiple sites, try Mobissimo.

[Jumble Jowls]

I went to Mobissimo and both Travelocity and Orbitz beat it. I've decided to buy the ticket that is $75 higher than when I checked 10 days ago, cause if I wait till after Ju-ly 4th it'll be less than 2 weeks before I go and prices could be much higher then. I also went to the airlines sites, and my EYES POPPED OUT MY HEAD = the prices on their own websites are $200 higher than orbits or travelocity. Like $400+ for a one-way ticket, man. Orbitz can git me the same flite for $250.

[kiliki]

Airlines have specific numbers of seats priced at different prices-naturally the cheapest seats are bought first. The fare on the flights you wanted probably didn't actually increase, it is just that other buyers purchased all the lowest priced seats, leaving only the more expensive ones available. This is the best site I've found for pricing airfares: ITA Software BUT, they don't actually book the ticket, so you'll need to talk the flight info to a travel agent, or call the airline with the booking code. Which is not that big a hassle if you find a good fare.

[hopalong]

That's how they getchya.

[Jumble Jowls]

Well, I did it. In the wee hours of the morning when all the the world was asleep except for Jumble Jowls, I went up to ATA and their price was actually cheaper than Travelocity and all the other "discount" sites mentioned above (and then some). While the other airlines had higher prices. So ATA it is.