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That all depends on a really lots of factors IMO, most notably: continent, the number of airlines competing on a given route, is it a high peak time (e.g. vacat
by jakub_g 14y ago
That all depends on a really lots of factors IMO, most notably: continent, the number of airlines competing on a given route, is it a high peak time (e.g. vacations, xmas, May period in some European countries when there are lots of possible "long weekends" due to national holidays).
In my experience on the route I'm flying (indirect European connection, only two airlines competing, not many connections each day), the price in time is growing kind of exponentially. The threshold for sudden change is about 2 months (i.e. the price difference between 2 and 4 months in advance is not huge, while 2 and 1 month it's bigger). Moreover buying ~10 months in advance is more expensive than say 3 months before.
- OSButler 14y agoMy experience is the opposite, where booking way in advance will give you often the best deal, if you are using their special offers. Most airlines have those special offers, where you can book a cheap flight within a specific date range for a huge discount. I've been doing this for all the "big" holidays and usually ended up with a price that got me the second ticket almost for free, when compared to the normal flight prices. However, this means you are planning the trip based on your flight dates and not the other way around, which of course doesn't work for almost all non-holiday trips.
- secabeen 14y agoMost customers who book way in advance are in one of two classes: really price-sensitive, or really time-sensitive. The airlines try to figure out which you are through the special offers. As such, they'll set the base rate higher than the 3-month out rate to catch some extra revenue from the time-sensitive people, and then have "special offers" to induce the price-sensitive people to book.