USVI-On-Line

According to this article the best time to purchase domestic airfare is 49 days in advance and for international airfare it is 81 days.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/when-is-t ... 59230.html

Unless, of course, you're traveling during spring break - we're adding an extra person to our trip and he's going to have to fly Spirit Air, because our AA flight is full

God Bless them on Spirit. Just sayin'!

I would take this guideline as perhaps the latest time frames/closer to the end point when you can get the best airfare, certainly not the starting point. I start to track as soon as we pin down our time frame for a trip, which is usually pretty far out.

An example: in November we knew we wanted to go back to the BVI and STJ this year in late May so started tracking then. From here in central Jersey we have lotsa options we have used in the past (PHL, EWR, JFK) so track different combinations. When the AF fell under $300 just after Xmas, I booked, even though we don’t go til late May. To me it was doubtful that I would ever see sub $300 RT to the VIs again, so I thought it was pretty unlikely to fall even lower than that closer in to the date of departure, so pulled the trigger.

Concerning that article, for flying between major metro areas serviced by many carriers and multiple flights a day, that advice might be ok but I disagree with it for vacation destinations, especially if you are travelling with a family.

Our mid week flight for our upcoming trip had just 5 seats left last time I checked a couple of weeks ago. Friends of ours were up in the air about their travel plans and I was checking from time to time to see if they could get on our flight. The same friends are going to Key West instead and he had a hard time finding midweek flights for just the two of them buying six weeks out.

I was surprised last summer how full the STT flights were and I found some to be sold out when we were trying to plan a trip 3 months ahead of time.

Knolmom wrote:God Bless them on Spirit. Just sayin'!

I know - I warned him, but that's all thats left for that week.