
Flight tickets: buy two weeks before even during holiday seasons? - jakub_g
http://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/2952/flight-tickets-buy-two-weeks-before-even-during-holiday-seasons
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mcargian
While traditionally flights were cheaper when booked round trip and 21 days in
advance, those requirements are often no longer required. I just did a month
long search on ITA for one way flights from New York to Los Angeles. There are
plenty of tickets for next Saturday (7 days from now) for $130. The round trip
price is simply the two one way tickets added together.

Within the next 7 days, the price increases but not by much. You can travel
anytime before Saturday for only $284 one way. Obviously if you want a
refundable/changeable ticket the price is more expensive.

While this is only one example (and a domestic USA itinerary only) the point
is that the days of requiring a round trip, with a Saturday night stay and 14
or 21 day advanced purchase are often no longer required.

~~~
david_shaw
_> There are plenty of tickets for next Saturday (7 days from now) for $130._

 _> Within the next 7 days, the price increases but not by much. You can
travel anytime before Saturday for only $284 one way._

I'm a little confused; aren't you basically saying that the price more than
doubles ($130 each way to $284 each way)?

~~~
mcargian
Yes, it doubles at 6 days and under, but my point is, it's neither 14 days nor
21 days for pre purchase, and no round trip is required. The "old" thinking
about fares is no longer valid.

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contingencies
In China, as well as running the ticketing system and (previously, and now
probably still effectively) all of the airports, the government heavily
regulates pricing to maintain accessibility of air-based transport for the
citizens. One results it that people frequently book same day or day before.
It's not uncommon on major routes between large cities to just go to the
airport, buy a same-day domestic flight, and fly immediately.

This is really cool, and it's how things should be.

~~~
tptacek
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airline_Deregulation_Act>

It's possible that everything you don't like about the US airline market is a
relic of exactly this kind of government planning.

~~~
spearo77
Wow, that "bureaucratic complacency" is incredible!

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voyou
"There is a common story that airline ticket prices rise significantly if you
buy them less than two weeks before departure. And that any time before that
will yield standard prices."

Is that a "common story"? Because IME it's not true at all. Prices seem to
rise fairly steadily from at least a couple of months before travel.

~~~
jessriedel
I think it is the conventional wisdom, which is a statement about people
rather than reality. It's evidenced by the fact that I've heard it stated
almost verbatim by at least two unrelated people. What they both had in common
is that they were older and had never used Kayak.

~~~
techsupporter
Most fare classes that carry the cheapest fares require a minimum 14- or
21-day pre-purchase window. This kind of thinking is probably a legacy of many
people calling travel agents--or the airline--and hearing those rules over a
long period of time. The rules still exist but demand and technology are such
that they're not all that important any more because the tickets will be sold
or reclassified several times prior to the flight.

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ComputerGuru
I never have a problem finding the right price so long as it is just 2 days in
advance with ITA Matrix: <http://matrix.itasoftware.com>

I'm surprised it wasn't mentioned in this thread. Incredible value, even for
international flight. I used it to book a day-before-Thanksgiving flight two
or three days before and ended up with a ridiculously good deal on a non-stop
coach flight.

~~~
Erwin
That site doesn't seem at all useful in Europe -- it does not include
"discount" airlines like EasyJet or Norwegian which are half the price of a BA
or SAS ticket.

Perhaps they're not paying Google enough to appear in the search results.

This sites does include them: <http://www.momondo.dk/>

~~~
jakub_g
Didn't know neither of the pages. Thanks for sharing. I used to seek for
flights with <http://www.skyscanner.com> (actually I just checked some
European route in July on the those three pages and SkyScanner found the
cheapest fare, with all pages including same airlines, but certainly it won't
be like this always). I especially like the stay range option (instead of
fixed dates) in the Matrix.

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bhickey
For the holidays I flew a nested fare. It was the cheapest way I could find to
fly the itinerary I wanted.

The first ticket was: 11/20 SFO - MHT 12/30 BOS - SFO

And the second: 11/25 PVD - SFO 12/20 SFO - PVD

~~~
grimlck
Beware that nesting tickets to circumvent minimum stay requirements is almost
certainly against fare rules.

For example,
[http://www.aa.com/i18nForward.do?p=/customerService/customer...](http://www.aa.com/i18nForward.do?p=/customerService/customerCommitment/conditionsOfCarriage.jsp&v_locale=en_US&v_mobileUAFlag=AA#TicketCompliance)

American specifically prohibits the practices commonly known as:

Back to Back Ticketing: The combination of two or more roundtrip excursion
fares end to end for the purpose of circumventing minimum stay requirements.

And yes, there are automated algorithms to detect that (although both tickets
would need to be on the same airline for those algorithms to work, and the
fact that MHT/BOS/PVD are different airports may be enough to get around that
in your case)

~~~
bhickey
I flew the entire itinerary on United. I wouldn't have booked it with a single
East Coast airport for fear of running afoul of a fare rule. In the future,
I'll spread a nest itinerary over two carriers just to be sure.

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switch007
I have to praise Cathay Pacific for their prices of a long-haul ticket
(LHR->PER) which was purchased same day as travel. The ticket cost only 1.7x
more than the cheapest advance fare. All the other airlines were at least 2-3x
the cost of Cathay's. (They also held that seat while I arranged a visa - they
were so awesome).

