When does the Airline Schedules Become Final? How Far Out To Buy Tickets?

[tennisWalt Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close tennisWalt]

I normally buy my airline tickets too early and the airlines, some of the times, end up making small changes in their Schedule (Departure time 5 to 15 minutes from when I bought my tickets.) That is no problem for me.

However, I have also bought tickets and the departure times have changed by hours with additional stops.

So when is the best time to buy airline tickets, both for price and schedules?

Walt

[SallyHoover Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close SallyHoover]

As someone who worked in reservations at an airline, i can say that schedules never become final. Schedules can change the night before a flight. There are generally 3-5 times a year when more than 100 flights are altered in a slight or major way.

[tennisWalt Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close tennisWalt]

As someone who worked in reservations at an airline, i can say that schedules never become final. Schedules can change the night before a flight. There are generally 3-5 times a year when more than 100 flights are altered in a slight or major way.

How far out is the best time to buy airline tickets to Hawaii and Florida?

Walt

[Spence Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Spence]

When does the Airline Schedules Become Final?

never

[lawren2 Malibu Beach Barbie & A Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close lawren2]

If you end up having hours between flights instead of the original 40 minutes or so, you can call and rebook at no charge to better flights.

[T. R. Oglodyte Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close T. R. Oglodyte]

I normally buy my airline tickets too early and the airlines, some of the times, end up making small changes in their Schedule (Departure time 5 to 15 minutes from when I bought my tickets.) That is no problem for me.

However, I have also bought tickets and the departure times have changed by hours with additional stops.

So when is the best time to buy airline tickets, both for price and schedules?

Walt

The two majoar factors that drive the airfare pricing swings - how fast the plane is filling up and what is happening with fuel prices.

The airlines have ticket pricing algorithms that are designed to maximize revenue. The pricing you see at any given moment are what the airline anticipates will fill up the plane. The airline doesn't anticipate that they will suddenly have to make large price cuts to fill the plane; if they suspected as much they would lower prices now to fill up that space with modest price cuts rather than trying to fill up later with large price cuts. Conversely, if the plane is filling up faster than expected they will raise fares. So there isn't any common rule of thumb about what when the best airline deals are. It all depends on what is happening with bookings.

Most often the airlines seem to manage fares by either increasing or reducing the number of tickets they put into different fare buckets. Plane isn't filling up as fast as they want => increase the number of lower fare tickets. Often this means adding new seats in a low fare class that has sold out. To increase prices they will reduce or eliminate the number of tickets available in the low priced fares. Those sorts of changes seem to happen pretty often. It seems to me that less often they change the overall pricing structure, though that type of change certainly does occur.

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Now, there is certainly lots of information out there about getting deals as the departure date gets closer. That certainly happens, quite frequently. A couple of months out if there is still remaining space, the airline has a lot of incentive to reduce pricing to fill up the plane. Hence, fare sales. But if they've hit their pricing model right they won't be scrambling to fill the plane, and there will be no last-minute fare cuts. Instead those who held off booking waiting for the fare cut will only see the prices get even higher as the departure date nears. It's a crap shoot.

And it's especially a crap shoot if you are traveling during a peak demand period, as that is when it is most likely the airline will not have difficulty filling seats.

*****

For myself, I just start tracking prices. Often I set up a fare watcher alert at site such as Kayak. Or if I'm looking for bonus mile flights on a particular airline I recheck the site frequently. Right now I'm tracking some flights for February that are currently coming in a bit over $1200 for two tickets. Eight weeks ago they were almost $1400. A few weeks ago they dropped below $1000 - that was when a low fare bucket suddenly opened up on a particular combination of flights. I didn't bite and a week later that cheap fare bucket was gone and that combination of flights went back up to where it had been previoiusly, and they've been stable at that level for about three weeks now. I need to travel during a peak period so I'm not expecting any last minute fare sales; I'll jump as soon as I see something that looks like a good deal; probably if it drops below $1000 I'll get in.

[gthorson Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close gthorson]

I agree with lawren2. I frequently book my airfares far in advance (6 months) and they almost always get changed due to flight schedule changes. I believe the rules vary by airline, but for Delta, I believe that if they change the flight arrival and/or departure by more than 15 minutes, you can switch to any identical class on the same day with the same airports for no charge. I've frequently found myself hoping for the changes so that I can book the cheapest fare yet make changes to more convenient times with no additional charge.