Booking Airfare

[lavender]

We are planning on a trip to St John (yeah!!!) and a little island in the BVI's in late April. Other times we have been I have booked airfare 330 days in advance to get my ff miles. This time we are paying for our airfare and wonder how far in advance you book your tix? Right now the prices from our area (rochester, ny) are about 800.00 pp YIKES! We are still 8 months out so I am in no hurry to book but wonder what your experiences are in terms of airfare and price trends. Thanks!!! Let's see......231 days till wheels up....not long at all!!!!!!!!!!!!

[FlaGeorge]

Hi Lavender
I set a price in my head as to what I want to pay for a ticket. And then I keep checking the airlines (everyday) to see if the price is close to what I want to pay. When it hits the magical number – we buy. This can be a little nerve racking – but patience is the key.

Several of the airlines and travel sites have a feature that will email you when the price falls. I also think, that the airlines change pricing on Wednesday nights. Maybe someone else can confirm this. Good luck

[ScubaGirl]

I'd wait for a bit. I booked from Boston to STT in July for December and it was only $365 pp down from $482.

check www.kayak.com every day!

Good Luck!

[toni]

We fly out of Buffalo; I don't know if that's a better price than Rochester would be-I'd think that it might be more competitive or give you more options maybe? Currently we have beginning of December tickets for $490 total each on USAir just to give you an idea. I thought that was pretty reasonable. I register with travelocity to see when they have sales, though their sale dates can be tough to work with, but it gives me an idea of who's running sales. Where we live I also check other airports and get some big price differences sometimes. There's big differences sometimes too in whether you fly direct to STT or via San Juan. Good luck!

[Robin in NC]

Unbelievably, the price of oil is coming down, and high fuel costs have prevented the airlines from reducing fares too significantly. But word is that prices may continue to drop through the fall, which may relieve pressure and allow for some deals. Don't be in too much of a hurry.

I checked prices every day, and suddenly one day (I wish I'd noted which day of the week) they were down about $250 from the norm. I could only get two at that fare, but it made our flight affordable.

Robin

[Pat]

Besides looking at airfares, you should consider seating. We booked a month ago for our Feb. trip. At the time there were plenty of seats. Now when I
check that flight there's alot less and mostly in the very, very back of the plane. I guess this flight is popular because of the schedule.

[Berlingirl]

We bought our tickets for April 2007 back on May 26th. We are going peak week for New England travel and can't afford to not book as seats selll out and people go no matter what the prices. Paid 485 each from Boston which we think is good.

[Xislandgirl]

I am travelling the same week as BerlinGirl and we booked as soon as we could. I don't have the energy to play the game and hope that the fare comes down. We are flying from Hartford and the flights that we wanted were almost completely full. We booked in July and are paying a little over $500.00 pp. I know it is a little steep but I was not going to get stuck with out a flight.

[lavender]

what week in April are you traveling - we are going the 19th - 30th - I don't think that coincides with school vacations around here but I better check!!!

[Xislandgirl]

We are flying out 4/13 and returning on 4/20. I just checked and 2 of our 4 flights are completely booked. I am so glad I booked when I did.

[Splasher54]

WE bought our tickets from Providence back in early July- $330 round trip. It was a great deal. My daughter is joining us in Charlotte and her flight was $472. We bought that one with FF miles. Now we have a friend joining us so I am back to checking the flights daily waiting for prices to come down a little ( our flight is now 695)