When is the best time to get the lowest air fair prior to the flight date?
I need to fly from san jose, CA to mexico city in Feb 2008. What is the best time to buy lowest priced tickets? Is there any trend, e.g. the price possibly dropping, then may start rising at some point? Is there any strategy for the people who fly?
Air Travel - 2 Answers
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1 :
On international flights there is usually not such a thing like and advance purchase in order to get a good fare, it all depends on the dates (if you are flying on busy season). Still, sometimes airlines make "sales" in certain markets, so my advice would be to start monitoring the prices on the dates you want to fly on the Internet. If you are flexible with your traveling dates it will be easier to get a better fare, most webs for airlines now have a feature that allows you to search based on price. Monitor for a week or two the prices on all the airlines that you can, and I would suggest not to wait more than a month before your flight because you could end up not finding space when you want it. A good way to know if the flight is full is to book the seats on the Internet.. continue clicking until they let you assign seats (usually that is before you have to type you credit card number) . When the seat map pops up you will be able to see how full it is.
2 :
Generally, you *do* have to book in advance to get the best fares--typically 14 days or more in advance. Generally, 90 to 21 days advance is best--less than 21 days before departure and you will be inside the advance purchase window for cheapest fares; more than 90 and you might miss a good sale. You can see exactly what you asked for here: http://www.farecompare.com/search/year.html?destination=Mexico%20City,%20MX%20(MEX)&p=1&s=r&t=r&departure=San%20Jose,%20CA%20(SJC)&type=homepage Can also sign up there for fare alerts to your email, can click to check seat availability, click to book, and see on a calendar how far in advance you need to book for the cheapest fares.
