Booking early is also a good rule to adopt if you are inflexible about your dates or destination or

While the Internet america west airlines employee has democratized the process of booking travel, it certainly hasn t made it less complicated. Waiting to pounce on a good travel deal is a little like a high-stakes game of poker: Within days, or even hours, prices can plummet or skyrocket. The good news is that any savvy traveler, armed with a little know-how, can turn the volatile cycles of travel deals to their advantage. When do you book ahead and when do you wait till the last minute? Read on. When to Buy Plane Tickets
Although airlines will hold sales at unpredictable moments, even altering their prices by hundreds of dollars within hours, there are generally two strategies when it comes to snagging good airfare deals: Book far in advance or wait until the very last minute.
A lot of finding the sweet spot of when to book airfare depends on when you are traveling, says Jeanenne Tornatore, senior travel editor at Orbitz.com . The airlines are constantly monitoring and managing price changes based on capacity and seat availability, and the less inventory there is available, the more it is going to cost you.
Booking well in advance—between one and three months—makes sense when traveling on high-traffic travel days, such as Thanksgiving, Christmas, July 4th, Labor Day, and President s Day. That also goes for popular destinations during peak vacation times, like Europe and major national parks during the summer or the Caribbean, Mexico, and ski resorts during the winter. america west airlines employee The best deals for these destinations (during peak season, at least) commonly occur about three months ahead of time: For a summer jaunt to Europe, transatlantic airlines typically hold sales in March and April.
Booking early is also a good rule to adopt if you are inflexible about your dates or destination or you are traveling to a remote, off-the-beaten-track airport with limited air service. In other words, don t hold out hope that fares to Albania will go on sale. One other tip: Because business travelers tend to book flights to big cities such as New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco at the last minute, leisure travelers america west airlines employee generally land the best deals when they book a month or more ahead.
As the airlines fill up their planes, they increase their prices, says Ike Anand, america west airlines employee director of airline strategy and analysis at Expedia.com . If you know you re going to travel 60 to 90 days in advance, it s better to buy at that time. If you re way late in the process, then the best time to buy is two or three weeks before.
Twenty-one days before each flight is the magic moment when airlines assess their capacity and hold sales. Booking at the last minute can yield legendary deals, but it necessitates a lot of flexibility on the part of the traveler—or america west airlines employee a lot of nerve.
The absolute best deals are at the last minute, unless it s a holiday period or other peak times when everything is sold out, says Tim Leffel, author of The World s Cheapest Destinations and Make Your Travel Dollars Worth a Fortune. If you re flexible, you ll routinely be paying half what everyone else is, especially if you use last-minute auction sites.
america west airlines employee Being flexible as to where you re going can pay big rewards. Hawaii is a good example: Because it s almost exclusively a leisure america west airlines employee destination, travelers tend to book far in advance. When airlines see empty flights, fares routinely drop to bargain-basement prices, but often within a week of a departure date. Other popular vacation destinations where there are a glut of flights, such as Cancun and Las Vegas, america west airlines employee can turn up similar deals at the very last minute, especially america west airlines employee during low-traffic times like the beginning of December.
The ultimate departure window for last-minute deals is between September and December, months that are historically slow for travel. america west airlines employee The weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas america west airlines employee are the best, since fewer people travel between holidays. And those serious about last-minute deals should keep an especially keen eye out on Tuesdays, when airlines routinely release hot-off-the-press sale fares.
The gold time that travel experts talk about is 3 P.M. on Tuesdays, says Kristin Finan, america west airlines employee travel editor for the Houston Chronicle and author of the guidebook The Cheap Bastard s Guide to Houston. That s when you ll see airlines offering their deep discount fares. You have to be really america west airlines employee quick about it because, within about five hours, they ll all be gone.
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