$200 for coast-to-coast on a non-stop flight is good. We’re also going coast-to-coast in mid-June, but no non-stop flights for our trip. I booked 2 months in advance because for some of our flights, seats were getting limited, and we’re coordinating with another family member flying in from a different city. What a PITA.
I also continued to watch the fares after I booked, and did get aggravated. If I’d held off, we could’ve gotten cheaper fares on some of our legs, but I’m rationalizing it because I made it up on our rental car.
$400 round trip coast to coast is good. The best I have done was about 2 1/2 years ago when D was living in New York City and we got two round trip tickets coast to coast on Southwest for under $500 total. We traveled in October on Southwest. My H and I book a lot of flights on Southwest when they are having a sale since there are no change fees. Sometimes we don’t use the tickets we booked and instead re-book something else. My D was flying from Southern California to Dallas a lot when her bf was living there and we got some really cheap deals on Southwest.
I don’t live near one of the cheaper/major airports. My airfares are always higher than if I flew out of NYC or BOS. But when I add in the travel time, and cost of limo service to NYC airports…or Boston…I am usually ahead by flying out of my local more expensive airport.
It depends on the trip and the reason for travel. I usually book at least one trip to visit my mom in Florida in the winter the summer before but there are usually other trips before and after that I do on spur of the moment for various reasons.
I’d like to book real vacation travel a few months in advance but H’s job the last 5 years and his new job makes planning in advance impossible. There is a window in his new job where it might be possible to do some advance planning so I’m going to start researching this summer for a trip in late Jan/early Feb next year.
I usually book with a week or two of deciding to travel. But we fly Southwest as much as possible, and they have no change fees, so I can always switch if my plans change.
You always have to factor in hassle and ground transportation costs in deciding what airport you’re using. For us, we rarely bother with airports less convenient to our destination. Also rental car availability and pricing will vary by location.
We considered going up to Boston so we could fly non-stop to SFO. Out of Hartford (BDL), there are no non-stop flights to SFO, But we’re taking a red-eye back (not preferred, but necessary because of our scheduled plans) and don’t want to have to drive home all the way from Boston after getting little sleep on the flight. So this time we opted for driving convenience over flight convenience and cost.
Yes, it is a balancing act–sometimes the savings are NOT worth the extra hassle and sometimes for whatever reason, it is cheaper to book your preferred flight anyway. When there are only two tickets involved, I don’t really stress so much over it. When I’m booking many more, I tend to agonize more.
I do find that if I wait too close to travel to book, a lot of the desirable seats are already gone. I prefer window seats in economy plus. I just got the last one for June flights, so was glad I didn’t continue dithering. When we were younger and airlines tended not to have so many issues come up during layovers, we were fine with saving some $$$ by having layovers. Now, we just want to get directly to wherever we are going and tend to just stick with the nonstop. We will let our kids book whatever they want, pocketing the savings if they choose the cheaper flights with layovers.
Our kids like to book flights with points, so they can but at the very last minute. It work for them ok. I’m glad it gives them that flexability. D just now booked a flight to meet with us on Saturday, less than 2 days away. No word on S yet, but he’s meeting us as well, I believe.
I laughed at myself as I read this. I have tickets for a trip next February already. Also have tickets for September. but, I try to use frequent flyer miles, so to get good flights to popular places you need to book way out (330 days, but who’s counting). I try to make all reservations at least a week ahead of time,mbut usually it’s longer.
When we booked our tickets for Italy in Sept. 2014 for our trip in June 2016 on Delta–well, they changed out flight 7 times. They transferred our seats from aisle to a window and middle. It was maddening.
I spent so much time watching them that whatever money saved was not worth it.
I am with Himom. We recently purchased tickets to Iceland for about $200 more per ticket just to have a nonstop
flight. When we were younger we would have taken the layover. Also, this way I might go ahead and put a suitcase through, while with layovers everything stays with me.
Too many things come up in my life and my family’s life to plan too far out these days–my health, my parents’ health, weddings of loved ones, etc. I haven’t noticed a tremendous savings by booking air way in advance (except I sometimes do book hotel rooms as soon as the hotel will allow and get significant savings). They generally allow booking 330 days out and if it’s fit a convention I’m planning to attend and I can cancel I will book.
We booked Yellowstone air on United 330 days ahead. When I called about a week prior to flight to confirm, they said, oh yea, one of those flights you booked got cancelled. What do you want to do? I had to rethink everything and adjust – would have been much worse if we hadn’t thought to call to reconfirm! [-( #:-S