Flight purchases - 330 day rule?

northerngal · Post by **northerngal** » Tue Dec 08, 2015 1:01 pm

Has anyone heard anything or had any experience with purchasing your flight tickets 330 days ahead of time for the best rates. I have read this in a few places and am wondering if I'm missing something here.

RickG · Post by **RickG** » Tue Dec 08, 2015 1:27 pm

We book frequent flyer mile tickets as soon as they become available, for United it is 330 days. We book one-way tickets for each leg. If you wait to book round trip the frequent flyer tickets may be sold out for your flight down.

Some airlines, like Jet Blue, may post their schedule more like 270 days ahead. This can influence the market rate for tickets. For example, United tends to keep prices high until American starts posting fares. But, airlines have been doing availability based pricing for years. As a flight fills up tickets get more expensive.

Here's the strategy I've been using for 5-6 flights to St. Thomas for the last couple of years:
- Book one-way tickets
- Check frequent flyer tickets starting at 330 days
- Look at paid tickets at 300 days
- Set alerts for price drops

Out of DC we only have United for direct flights and then only on weekends. I buy these flights as early as possible.

Cheers, RickG

northerngal · Post by **northerngal** » Tue Dec 08, 2015 2:02 pm

Thanks RickG, you always have good advice! how do you set price drop alerts? I know I did it a while ago but it's not coming to me now that I'm actually looking! ps....I passed your list of group rules on to the others in my party!

RickG · Post by **RickG** » Tue Dec 08, 2015 3:32 pm

I've used Kayak to pretty good effect to check price drops. There are a half dozen other sites and a couple of apps available. Nothing works better for me than checking prices every Tuesday morning.

Travel rules for groups still work, after all these years. This biggest challenge still seems to be newbies who set their expectations based on some random idea. But, rule #1 takes care of that.

Cheers, RickG

northerngal · Post by **northerngal** » Tue Dec 08, 2015 4:34 pm

this will be our first time with a group. Last year we finally agreed to have another couple join us and it worked just fine. Let's hope this trip goes as smoothly! It will be basically two young couples and two older couples so I'm hoping!!!!!

Bigcheeze · Post by **Bigcheeze** » Thu Dec 10, 2015 10:27 pm

Ditto for the FF miles at 330...we have even booked them at 12:01am...

Keeps getting more expensive every year.

Hope it doesn't price us out at some point.

Dave

kklay · Post by **kklay** » Mon Dec 14, 2015 9:41 am

Has anyone else noticed that since U.S. Air and American Airlines merged, that the miles required on AA seem very high? I don't just mean for travel to the islands. As far as miles go, at least right now Delta is much better, takes less miles than American. Just my two cents.

mls10 · Post by **mls10** » Fri Dec 18, 2015 2:26 am

I have never found the best rates for travel at 330 days. Rates vary throughout the year and generally start out higher than they will be later.

On the other hand FF flyers to the Caribbean must know the 330 day rule and be flexible as the airlines don't always stick to exactly 330 days. FF users make those few trips available to the Caribbean during high season so competitive that my experience is that even on day 330 or whenever airlines open it, you still are very likely to hear that all the FF seats have been sold already. I am convinced that on some days no seats are made available. In fact that was more or less corroborated by an agent saying that no seats were available the first day as those seats were not released yet.

Trying to use FF miles anywhere, anytime is hard;to the Caribbean at high season, it is really tough.

RichG's suggestions are very good for anyone willing to try to play the game.

mrscherry2000 · Post by **mrscherry2000** » Wed Jan 06, 2016 2:14 pm

Saw this at the perfect time. Found a direct flight from Dulles to STT today using minimum points. Flight back isn't yet available. We usually fly out of BWI with a connection, can't wait for a straight shot.

mrscherry2000 · Post by **mrscherry2000** » Fri Jan 08, 2016 7:23 am

and it has backfired on me. I purchased the outbound trip with miles the return trip opened up today and I wanted to pay cash but it's $900 per ticket! May try a puddle jumper to San Juan and fly home on SW.

JohnM · Post by **JohnM** » Fri Jan 08, 2016 8:47 am

mrscherry2000 wrote:and it has backfired on me. I purchased the outbound trip with miles the return trip opened up today and I wanted to pay cash but it's $900 per ticket! May try a puddle jumper to San Juan and fly home on SW.

At least from my most recent UA booking experience, I'd suggest checking again over the next couple of days. Initially, my return flight was priced ridiculously high when it first became available to book. But two days later, it went down (STT-EWR was $174.)

PA Girl · Post by **PA Girl** » Fri Jan 08, 2016 1:13 pm

Like RickG, we have booked one way tickets for the past couple of years. There isn't any reason not to do so and I have found better flight times and often better prices buying one-way.

My mom is relentless in her FF mile quest, she is obsessed and extremely frustrated with the lack of availability. She is the person that sets the alarm to get on line at the exact time award space is released. She said it is getting harder and harder for her to redeem miles. They are retired and can fly whenever they want so and are completely flexible and still can't get flights. They fly American.

mrscherry2000 · Post by **mrscherry2000** » Sat Jan 09, 2016 11:26 am

It looks like right now UA is the only one that has December 10 open for flights to book. I'm guessing once Delta and American start booking for December 10, the price will drop. December 3 is about $250 one way and I can't imagine why a Saturday a week later would be that much more expensive except for the fact that there is no competition yet.

usvi-on-line