Flights

**FishinNaked** · 04-03-2014, 12:00 PM

First time Hedo traveler here :-) I have a question... How far in advance to you seem to find the best rates on flights? And do you have a favorite site that has the best prices? (Travelocity, Expedia, etc..)

We booked a room with Castaways, but decided to do the flights separately.
Thanks!!

**Ken_Memphis** · 04-03-2014, 12:07 PM

we start watching airfares around the six month out mark. We use everything we can use on the internet for pricing.

**JA Booze Crew** · 04-03-2014, 12:19 PM

Originally Posted by FishinNaked

First time Hedo traveler here :-) I have a question... How far in advance to you seem to find the best rates on flights? And do you have a favorite site that has the best prices? (Travelocity, Expedia, etc..)

We booked a room with Castaways, but decided to do the flights separately.
Thanks!!

90 days out

**HedoJoe** · 04-03-2014, 12:42 PM

We did our flights for our Feb. 2014 trip at the end of March 2013, 330 days out from the return trip. Two weeks after I made the reservations, the prices started going up and never returned to the price I paid for them. We are hoping to get our flights for February 2015 within the week.

**Dabaki** · 04-03-2014, 12:54 PM

We used Expedia to search for flights then booked directly through the airline. I like all the options that Expedia gives you to search with. We booked our flight about 3 1/2 months out for a ridiculously cheap price and watched the fare more than double 2 days later. We were very lucky.

**takemetonegril** · 04-03-2014, 06:06 PM

Hedo Joe and Dabaki had pretty summed up my strategy. I booked Air Tran the day the flights were available. They only book six months out. I thought the prices were outrageous so I booked a first class for 59.00 more than cattle car as it was refundable and if rates went down I could re-book and cancel. From that day fares have only gone up which is unusual historically. I'm travelling over Easter which is a big holiday in Ja, so rates are huge. I booked first class at 849.00, coach which is about 1300.00 now. I paid 513.00 last year. I expect to pay around 650.00 next year because it won't be over Easter. Rates are up for sure. I did kill it on the 59 upgrade to first class. I was the first one to book so I had my pick of seats, first window right side.

Dabaki is right, continue checking Expedia and book directly through the airline. Not all airlines are on Expedia so check them also, Air Tran, Southwest (new service to mobay 7/14) Get a Yapta account and they will text you price drops and certain airlines give refunds and it works, I got 120.00 back from Jet Blue on a trip to St Lucia in Sept that I'm using on a trip to San Diego in May.

Best of luck
Cheers

**loverstriangle3** · 04-03-2014, 07:52 PM

We booked for June in Feb with AirTran. Our flight total from BWI is $1500 Nonstop both ways.

**Dabaki** · 04-03-2014, 08:04 PM

Just want to say also to check all the airports that are within decent driving distance. All the airports here in ohio were running about $900 per person with a layover. We booked a direct flight out of Indianapolis for $422 per person. Like I said before, we were very lucky.

**loverstriangle3** · 04-03-2014, 08:09 PM

Originally Posted by Dabaki

Just want to say also to check all the airports that are within decent driving distance. All the airports here in ohio were running about $900 per person with a layover. We booked a direct flight out of Indianapolis for $422 per person. Like I said before, we were very lucky.

The return flight was more for us...about $530 per person..flight down was $250 per person. Non Stop from BWI

**Outlaw11b** · 04-04-2014, 06:14 AM

Originally Posted by FishinNaked

First time Hedo traveler here :-) I have a question... How far in advance to you seem to find the best rates on flights? And do you have a favorite site that has the best prices? (Travelocity, Expedia, etc..)

We booked a room with Castaways, but decided to do the flights separately.
Thanks!!

You can set an alert on kayak that emails you prices daily. When it it's a price you can live with buy. We pull the trigger ASAP even if it drops say 20 bucks it's not worth the stress or taking the chance of jumping up or selling out.

I would rather know I pAyed a little more then pay a lot more and know I could have paid a lot less but I was gambling on prices going down

**funlovincpl** · 04-04-2014, 09:28 AM

We have booked as far out as 8 months but usually around the 3-4 month range. Like others we watch the pricing and then commit when it is a price that we can live with. Tuesdays and Wednesdays are the best days to buy. From our local airport we are usually looking at connecting flights, we pick a flight time that we can live with and follow that flight until the price is acceptable. If we wait too long then the early flight (lands in MBJ just after 1:00) can get booked up and that means we are forced onto the later flight (lands MBJ after 6:30) the earlier flight is worth more money to us...we gotta get home!!