How far in advance do you buy international air tickets?

[SnowyTater 0]

We've always bought about 4 to 6 months in advance and I felt like we were always finding the best deals, but maybe not...

It's gotten quite horrible recently. My last christmas flight (we get to see each other twice a year) was only like $800 from east coast to Scotland, not bad, but flight for last summer was like $1400 at the cheapest. That's insane :\ Always have to go in peak season summer though, doesn't really help matters I imagine.

We're probably complete idiots in that we've never done air miles but I'm' completely terrified of credit cards and don't really understand the rules <---complete idiots.

[Imua 0]

We've always bought about 4 to 6 months in advance and I felt like we were always finding the best deals, but maybe not...

It's gotten quite horrible recently. My last christmas flight (we get to see each other twice a year) was only like $800 from east coast to Scotland, not bad, but flight for last summer was like $1400 at the cheapest. That's insane :\ Always have to go in peak season summer though, doesn't really help matters I imagine.

We're probably complete idiots in that we've never done air miles but I'm' completely terrified of credit cards and don't really understand the rules <---complete idiots.

That IS insane, I have always paid $12-1400 to go JFK to Kathmandu!!!

[sarahaziz 0]

www.bt-store.com I just purchase couple of weeks befor the flight. horrible i know but I get it cheap

[Brian&Mel 0]

We're probably complete idiots in that we've never done air miles but I'm' completely terrified of credit cards and don't really understand the rules <---complete idiots.

Frequent Flyer miles are something that you pay for even if you don't subscribe (i.e. they are a cost to the company which gets reflected in their airfares or at least on the bottom line.) You sign up (never seen one charge for "joining" the program) and they will give you a number. Each time YOU fly (it will be a personal number and not a family number i.e. I can't fly my wife on my number) you simply enter in the number when you buy the ticket and they do the rest. You can also give them the number when you check in and they will add it to your account. Periodically they will send you a statement (you have 10,000 qualifying miles your next award level is 1,000,000,000 (joking) miles)

The first benefit is that you will get a "silver" card (or some such) which gets you prefered boarding. Behind the first class and folks who fly LOTS of miles but ahead of the rest of the "units of self loading cargo" (as we are known in the industry ) That is kind of nice as it allows you to get your overhead rack space close to your seat.

When you have enough miles then you can trade them in for various things. Upgrades, free tickets, lounge visits, and such. Actually using your miles for free flights is, I have found, rather difficult as they will have a very few number of seats on any particular flight (very limited - like 2!.) You have to be VERY flexible in your planning; i.e. don't plan on using them around holidays because it will be next to impossible.

These are not credit cards and have no "cash" use nor will they show up on your credit statement. At least for US companies all they want is your contact information and you're done.

FYI You might try www.kayak.com for planning. This is a "meta-search engine" in that they do not sell tickets themselves but instead will search all the other places for you (the airlines as well as travel companies.) I'm a frequent flyier to Malaysia and Kayak allows me to easily check different departure cities to see who is cheapest from Seattle compared with Los Angeles for example. Priceline.com allows you to "bid" on a ticket and this works best the closer you get to the actually flight (airlines don't make any money at all if a seat is empty so sometimes it's a case of "anything is better than nothing.") However one needs to be very flexible as the closer to departuer you are the less chance you might have of getting that particular flight. US carriers are getting very good at being 100% occupied. With Priceline (as well as most of the other popular webbased ticket sites such as Expedia, Travelocity, etc.) the trip must originate in the US.

regards,

Brian

[sparkofcreation 0]

We just bought tickets for our trip to the UK and Spain in October, but it's crazy because we live in the middle of nowhere and we needed to fly into and out of different airports, so we bought early to be sure we could get exactly the times/dates/route we needed. It ended up being about $1000/person which to fly from the western US to Europe is pretty good, I think.

We don't do FF miles as there's no airline we fly often enough for it to be worthwhile. Last trip we took was Continental to the East Coast, the trip before that was American, I'm flying ExpressJet to Cali in April, then we're flying Delta to Boston later in April and then United and BMI to the UK.

Edited March 16, 2008 by sparkofcreation

[Donna A 4]

they usually say a month in advance from the travel agent. i at least try to book them a month but my cheap husband will keep delaying and delaying it in hopes of finding a cheaper ticket and end up paying more. really it is very stresfull finding tickets for him. just when i find the cheapest im going to find he says...just wait. i want to kill him when he does that to me.

[Niels Bohr 72]

The flight to Cambodia is very expensive compared to Thailand.

[Toshtishtash 1]

I usually book mine about 2-3 weeks before I fly. I always manage to find a good deal. I have booked a few days before in the past too...

[chri'stina 190]

Since last posting, hubby bought a ticket to visit India the end of this month. He bought about a month and a half ahead of time. Continental had the best prices. Well now, 2 weeks in advance of the trip, the tickets went down by like $60!! It's unusual. I guess they are trying to fill the last seats. Usually the prices this close would be a couple hundred or more higher.

[Sister Fracas 5]

We're probably complete idiots in that we've never done air miles but I'm' completely terrified of credit cards and don't really understand the rules <---complete idiots.

Brian & Mel gave a good description of air miles.

Hubster and I are in the process of booking two tickets to Peru which will only cost us a total of $110 (for taxes only) for the both of us because we are booking them with air miles. It is SOOOOO totally worth it to sign up for the air miles programs with any and all airlines you travel. And even if you don't use the airmiles for free tickets you CAN use them to buy other goods and services. There is a website www.points.com, that keeps track of different airmiles programs for you and you can convert miles into things you can buy. It's gotten a lot easier to rack up miles, dining, shopping online and using airmile progams promotion codes, renting cars, hotel stays, etc, etc, etc. SIGN UP for airmiles NOW!!!! LOL

[Kez/JWolf 6]

We have just booked for our trip home to Scotland at christmas time... we can only travel on given dates so had to book early to get the dates we wanted... we got Boston to Edinburgh return for $512.00 each and thats departing Dec 18th and returning Jan 3rd... so we are happy...

Kez

[Cassie 8]

Bought my tickets to Canada last week (about a month in advance) and got great rates -- it also helped that I was willing to travel on a Wednesday, which is infinitely cheaper than the weekends, and had more selection in cheap flights.

[tom&tata 2]

For travel to certain foreign destinations flights, it is easier to use travel agent. We booked 1 month ago for to visit Indonesia in July (summer peak season - bad time to fly - I know), we could not get confirmed return for Japan Airlines (on waiting list). We just got Korean Air for $150 more per person but it is still in the budget & we got the dates we wanted. We also got to stay overnight in Seoul for 24 hrs. If I tried to book directly on the airline website, same trip cost us $100 more per person. I have no idea.