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[ SECRET POST #3135 ]

⌈ Secret Post #3135 ⌋

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As many of you know, I am taking a trip in March. I've done all my major purchases except for plane tickets.

I was going to buy them this weekend but I've heard tickets drop in price at the end of August. So I thought about waiting and buying them at the end of August. But, I am worried (irrationally?) that they will just RUN OUT OF TICKETS OMG! Is that a thing that can happen?

*These are for a March 3-Mar 13 trip. Right now they are $348 from Wichita to DC roundtrip.

Ticket prices are higher in August, for flights in August. Flights after the end of August are cheaper flights, but costs still rise as you approach flight date. It is about when the plane flies, not when you book.

The closer you get to the departure date, the more expensive the tickets are until the day before the flight, then they drop. Book as early as possible.

Yes, it is entirely possible your flight might be full if you leave it, and also the more in demand the flight gets, the higher the cost of each ticket will become.

This is truth, listen to it!

Ah, okay. Then I am going to wait until the end of the month because I guess airlines slash prices then to get people to travel.

Never mind. D:

Edited 2015-08-04 23:55 (UTC)

No. Sorry. I have been unclear.

Flights departing in August are more expensive because August is a vacation month. It will be a more expensive flight, regardless of the month you book it in. If your flight is outwith peak vacation time, then the price is cheaper than if it leaves during vacation time.

Separate issue.
Flights are available to book anything up to two years in advance (depending on airline). The cheapest prices are for people who book early. The earlier you book, the cheaper the prices. Prices continue to rise, as each seat is sold, until the day before the flight departs when they put any remaining seats on a rush-clear. If you look at a price today, and then go back tomorrow the chances are the seat price has now gone up a few dollars. Every seat sold marks the flight as more in-demand. The more in-demand the more expensive the remaining seats. If you know when you have to travel, book as early as possible. Yes, it is not unheard of for flights to popular destinations to be sold out even six months in advance.

Sorry to have conflated two issues there.

DA

While all of that is true in general, kaijin can probably afford to wait until the end of August or even later to book for a domestic flight that's more than 6 months away. Hell, I don't usually even book that early for international trips during much busier seasons. We're talking, like, Japan during hanami here.

DC is a major travel hub and there are tons of flights there -- there's also little reason why domestic flights in early March should be sold out so early.

That's a long time away for plane tickets. Is it a major holiday? If not you're almost certainly fine, at least it would be in my country and I assume the level of supply/demand is similarly calibrated.

It is not a major holiday at all! That is why we chose it. So, I think we should be fine waiting until the end of August.

DA

I wouldn't. Even 24 hours delay in booking can cause prices to go up. The more in demand a flight is, the higher the seat prices.

You'll probably be fine in terms of availability. But anons are right about prices. The will go up the closer you get to leaving date.

Also DO compare companies. The same flight can literally be hundreds or dollars cheaper with another company.

And play with dates/hours.

for example an early flight might be cheaper than a late one, or vice versa. Also sometimes leaving one day later can actually win you money, even if you calculate in an extra hotel stay. it's weird like that.

Plane tickets can go on sale anything up to two years in advance. Priced accordingly, cheapest seats go first.

It honestly depends on a lot of factors, so there's no real way to be 100% sure. They adjust prices up and down depending on how full a flight is at any given time and how full they expect it to be based on past history, and it's not uncommon at all to check today, get one price, check a few days later, have it be lower, and a few days after, and the highest you've seen yet.

THAT SAID, there are three airports that serve the DC area (IAD, DCA, and BWI-- don't let that it's Baltimore fool you for the last one, you can hop the MARC to DC Union Station and back for a couple bucks each way), so check all three because one's bound to be cheaper than the others, usually significantly. And check the carriers that don't go through Priceline/Expedia/etc, like Air Tran/Southwest (who aren't yet booking reservations for March).

Right now we have only looked at the airport at the "Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport/DCA" because it has the shortest metro ride to our airport (45 minutes). The other two have a metro ride of over an hour (BWI=2 hours and IAD=1 hours and 30 minutes).

I've looked at the various airports to see what all shuttles and such they had but they all run fairly expensive ($50 or so which would remove the savings we would get by booking that airport).

Which hotel, out of curiosity? Or which metro stop, if specific hotel is too uncomfortable.

One in Bethesda. We will be right next to the Bethesda metro stop.

So Red Line. IF IT WERE ME and costs pan out, I'd seriously give BWI consideration. BWI to Union via MARC (it's about 45 minutes on a commuter train, so pretty comfy), hop the red line right at the train station up to Bethesda (about 20 minutes, less than ten stops).

Re: Seasoned Travelers - Plane Tickets

kaijinscendre - 2015-08-05 00:43 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Seasoned Travelers - Plane Tickets

(Anonymous) - 2015-08-05 00:49 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Seasoned Travelers - Plane Tickets

kaijinscendre - 2015-08-05 00:51 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Seasoned Travelers - Plane Tickets

(Anonymous) - 2015-08-05 00:55 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Seasoned Travelers - Plane Tickets

kaijinscendre - 2015-08-05 01:01 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Seasoned Travelers - Plane Tickets

(Anonymous) - 2015-08-05 00:57 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Seasoned Travelers - Plane Tickets

kaijinscendre - 2015-08-05 01:02 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Seasoned Travelers - Plane Tickets

(Anonymous) - 2015-08-05 01:17 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Seasoned Travelers - Plane Tickets

kaijinscendre - 2015-08-05 01:35 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Seasoned Travelers - Plane Tickets

(Anonymous) - 2015-08-05 02:06 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Seasoned Travelers - Plane Tickets

kaijinscendre - 2015-08-05 02:37 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Seasoned Travelers - Plane Tickets

(Anonymous) - 2015-08-05 10:09 (UTC) - Expand

Wait, you're planning a trip for NEXT March and thinking you need to buy tickets in August?

I suppose it depends on where you go and if there's a holiday then, but things will almost definitely not be sold out. If you buy them too far in advance, though, they are going to be very expensive. There's a certain "ideal" time to buy tickets where it tends to be the cheapest, and I think it's roughly three months in advance for an international flight. It can really depend though, prices can change in a moment up and down until the flight itself.

Yes, next March. I mean, $347 seems to be pretty cheap.

Nayrt

That feels like a good price for that distance.

I think the advice everyone else has given has been pretty good. Also make sure you clear your browser cookies constantly because the airlines scam you that way too, trust me I've run searches on different browsers using the same website and gotten different results.

$348 sounds pretty reasonable to me, but you can definitely mess around with flights. Search via expedia and Southwest, if Southwest flies where you're going.

I've never had a problem with flights running out and I usually book 4-6 months out for flights, so you're super good in that aspect.

Yeah, my web browser is designed to just get rid of everything.

I want to check SW but they don't have them up for all of March! Just till March 7th.

Honestly, waiting a week or two isn't going to kill you. The prices rarely fluctuate THAT much. It may go up or down $20-30, but don't quote me. I think your best bet is to wait until Southwest has their prices up and price shop and also figure out what works best.

Do you have connections? You want to make sure you have an optimal connection time.

Yeah, we are keeping an eye on connections.

Definitely try to search around a bit.

I just ran your dates and places through dohop.com and got $327 per person (connection through Atlanta) with Delta airlines.

It just depends on what airport we fly into, honestly.

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