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Flights Best Time to Purchase Airfare

Kim-et-cie

New Member
I'm planning a trip to Italy out of New Orleans, LA next September (in to Rome, out of Venice). I've been checking airfare and it seems to consistently be $1100 + luggage + reserved seat. It all adds up to about $1400. If I wait, will the price come down? What's the best strategy? I was expecting to pay less for airfare :(. Any tips are appreciated.
 
Hello Kim - here is an article (with a video included) on the subject. Personally I fly very little and can't say I have enough experience to give you real-life advice, but the article seems pretty good to me, and matches what I've seen in my searches.

Don't forget that there is the subjective matter of what type of person you are. For me, I love to know that the planning is behind me. I will tend not to torture myself for months concerning slight changes in prices, and just buy the tickets when I feel that I have done the best job I can, and that further waiting will just get on my nerves. My dates are usually not too flexible, so IAC I am a bit restricted in my choices.

Good luck.
 
Likewise I'm not enough of a frequent flyer to give anything definitive, but I would say
- Get a ballpark price early
- See if any dates nearby offer cheaper prices due to lower demand
- Monitor until you see a price you like and then buy it (and stop looking after that:cool:)

There was a point in time where less-than-reputable companies like Ryanair were upping the price when you checked again (by using the cookies on your own machine against you!). Not sure if this dodgy practice continues, but useful to use your browser's private browsing option (or another machine) to check.
 
There was a point in time where less-than-reputable companies like Ryanair were upping the price when you checked again (by using the cookies on your own machine against you!). Not sure if this dodgy practice continues, but useful to use your browser's private browsing option (or another machine) to check.

From rumors, this seems to be the practice (or suspicion of practice) of many online merchants of air fares and car rentals. Some say that even using the private browsing option on your browser has lost its usefulness (if it ever truly had it). If it's that important to you, you can ask a friend to check on their computer at the same time that you are looking on the relevant site, before you pull the trigger and make the purchase. I've done this sometimes, and have not gotten different results.
It would be interesting to hear real stories about this happening.
 
One tactic I used recently after having heard about it from a coworker was to book an airfare + hotel bundle on Expedia. I was able to get substantially lower priced flights than on the airline's web site (Delta in this case to Italy) and selected that I only needed a hotel for one night and chose the least expensive hotel. I didn't stay in the hotel but rented an apartment separately instead. The the flights happened to include a checked bag + seat selection in the price. This was only about 3 weeks before the trip so I'm not sure if the savings would be the same further out from the trip.

My coworker had called Expedia to understand how to book flights for 2 with the outbound together but the return on different dates. The Expedia employee suggested the bundle with only 1 night hotel that he could choose to use or not to get the best flight prices.
 
Has anybody tried the Hopper app? It's an app the predicts best time to purchase tickets for your destination and date. I have tinkered with it and it seems reliable.
 

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