<p>I know this has been discussed, but I couldn’t find the answer for purchasing a ticket that is still months away. We are flying Detroit to San Diego in mid march. I’ve finally narrowed down that the best fares right now and the best schedule is on Delta. I’ve been watching for a couple of weeks and the fare hasn’t budged. Every single online site has the fare exactly the same. </p>
<p>So the question is: will it go up or down between now and then? Even a few dollars is going to make a difference since there are so many of us going. If it was just one, I’d just book it and not care as much.</p>
<p>Go to kayak and subscribe to a fare alert. It will also give you a chart that you can play with to figure out how low the fare has gone recently etc.</p>
Almost certainly. The problem is knowing which way it’ll go. Generally, the earlier you buy the ticket the better but it’s not a hard and fast rule since the airlines sometimes get into fare wars, they’ll sometimes lower the fares if they have new competition in the market (or increase them if they lose competition), and they’ll sometimes lower fares if they think they can’t fill the flight.</p>
<p>I think you won’t be able to get a definitive answer.</p>
<p>Other options - sometimes a one stopper flight is less expensive (but more annoying and more lengthy) than a non-stop. Sometimes an alternate airport has lower fares. If you have a bunch of people going this can add up and perhaps cover a car rental and a couple of hour drive to an alternate airport. I’ve done this a couple of times when the flights out of LAX were quite a bit less than San Diego - ex: it amounted to about a $500 savings once for a family trip (4) to Europe so I rented a car for a one way dropoff on the way out and did the same on the way back (no dropoff fee) which also added convenience since there was no parking or airport shuttle charge. using the local airport is preferred, of course, and worth a bit more in teh air fare but multiplying the additional times 4 for me made the decision to use another one.</p>
<p>I have been told, and experience holds true, that tuesdays are the best days. I usually do it early in the morning, rather than night as noted by teriwtt. Haven’t compared morning and evening to see whether there are changes in the meanwhile. </p>
<p>Also, I have been told that airlines release additional seats 3 months before the flight. I never plan far enough in advance to have any idea about this though.</p>
<p>Ah, a topic near and dear to my heart. Here’s my experience…</p>
<p>We travel a lot both internationally and domestically. I often start planning our international trips 6 months or more in advance. This has given me plenty of time to watch fares over the years.</p>
<p>-In general, fares tend to go up the closer you get to departure. The airlines often set aside x number of seats at different price points and once the lower ones have sold, the price goes up. If demand is low for seats on a particular flight they may lower the price but these days with flights so full, that doesn’t happen as often as it did in the past. These days if a flight is underbooked, they will often cancel it.</p>
<p>What I do is watch the fares for several weeks, checking it at least once a day. Sometimes the price will remain static, sometimes it will go up or down a bit. If it goes down, I will buy it. If it goes up, I wait because generally it will go back down after a few days. After I buy my tickets, I will often go back and recheck the price on a regular basis until departure. I have rarely seen it drop.</p>
<p>I have also researched this issue several times on the internet and read a study last year that supported my general experience that prices tend to go up over time. I can’t find the study at the moment but here’s a good article:</p>
<p>Make sure you check on the cost of Southwest flights. They don’t show up on some of the air search engines. It looks like they might be a pretty good option for you.</p>
<p>I recently went through this. We are traveling in early December from San Jose to Texas. I checked Southwest’s website every day for a week and the price on the weekend was significantly more expensive than the following Tuesday (when I finally bought the tickets). Our return cost did not change because we are returning on a Sunday (high price day) but our cost to fly to Texas on a Wednesday went down $70 per ticket!</p>
<p>On the Southwest website you can use their ‘low fare calendar’ view to see which days in about a month around your dates have the lowest fares. Some of the other air fare sites have a similar view. Using this type of view will readily tell you if you’re better off leaving on a one day over another.</p>