To book or not to book.......

[Mr. Twister]

I've got the room reserved but have held off from making plane reservations hoping prices would drop for a mid-August trip. I'm flying the cheapest days, midweek to midweek and I cant get anything nonstop from Atlanta for less than $500. While that may be a deal from other cities....its certainly not from Atlanta. I've been checking everyday and the prices haven't budged one bit.

I'm worried now that time keeps getting closer that prices will actually go UP rather than down. Most online sites, including Delta, have price guarantees but there is so much fine print good luck getting an adjustment. They just want you to book.

Should I suck it up and book now or wait for a special?

[LuvinNegril]

I would say book and keep track of your flights and see if a sale pops up before then.

I'm doing off days for my trip out of Baltimore (non-stop Airtran) and looked for the same thing. Hoping the price would drop or a good sale would pop up and it didn't. We jumped on prices when it was about $400RT pp and since then the price has steadily gone up, even on the good midweek days.

In the past I've booked and if a good sale popped up; I called customer service and they charged the change fee but I still got a credit for the difference that was still there. It doesn't look like too many airlines are running those great sales anymore sadly. Just my opinion.

Hope it works out.

[msmari]

I am going down from NY and booked my flight in January. The prices have gone up steadily since Jan! I got $453pp

[Lynntt]

Well, I'm flying out of Atlanta, and just purchased my tickets June 5 for July 4 departure....flying out on Monday and returning on Thursday 10 days later I paid $418 including taxes and fees. I usually start looking 5 or 6 weeks before I actually want to fly in the summer because my dates then are very flexible. For travel at other times of the year, I start looking much farther in advance. 3 or 4 months usually. On Delta my concern is that the seats will be sold out on certain flights. I don't blame you being worried about prices going up at this point; that's definitely happened to me before, and I'm a teacher who is as flexible as can be with dates during the summer. Good luck!

[Mr. Twister]

Lynntt...are you flying nonstop on Delta? That is what I'm trying to get. I can save a few bucks on Airtran but when you add in the baggage fees, seat charge, its NOT nonstop, and it gets in a few hours later....it really isnt worht it.

[Lynntt]

Yes I am flying nonstop - and when I booked I could have saved $60 had I been willing to take the early flight back on the 14th, but I like having that last morning to sleep in and enjoy a good breakfast, hang out looking for dolphins, have an extra cup of coffee, have a leisurely drive to the airport...you get the idea. LOL! The 3:00 flight is great for that.

[Mr. Twister]

Airfare dropped $30 today. First movement I've seen in two weeks. Lets hope it makes a significant drop. Another $20 and I'm all over it...lol.

[rastagirl777]

Twist - hold out if you can until 30 days out.

[Ohio_Buckeye_1]

I always find the sweet spot is 5weeks to 21days prior. Much earlier than that and the high-discount seats aren't setup yet. When prices are staying above the historical price, I've also gambled and bought with less than 10days to go - can get a last-minute discount. But that's really playing chicken with them - and can end up higher. It's only worked about a third of the time for me. OK if by yourself, but not for a family.

I use a site like SideStep because it tracks the daily price on a chart. You can see how the price has fluctuated in the past to better guage if is likely to come down, and when.
Plus you know what the lowest price is, and how much more you would be paying. Even though tracking on those sites, I go to the airline site to buy - to avoid any booking fees.
You'll definitely be paying more for a direct flight, though - and on Delta instead of a discount carrier. It's what is important to you - convenience and travel time versus price.

One tip. If you're buying tickets for a family, buy the tickets one at a time.
If there are only a couple of discount seats available, you don't get them if you are searching for more than that number of tickets.
Reason is they sell you tickets that all have the same price - and if you need say 5, but there are only 3 discount seats left - they sell you other higher-priced ones.
By buying them one at a time, you would get the 3 discount seats, then 1 a little higher, and so on. You can still choose your seats together, once all done.

[Schuttzie]

I've heard that, too, from Clarity about purchasing tickets separately. I'm afraid that if I do that and can't get all our 4 tickets on the same flight, we'd be in trouble