when to purchase airfare

My husband %26amp; I will be heading to Maui for our anniversary in May 2008. Some of the lodgings we are considering accept reservations 6-12 months out. One in particular I am interested in is 9 months out. I don%26#39;t know when to purchase our airline tickets. We%26#39;ll be traveling from SC. I see on some posts that some families from Seattle %26amp; the west coast have already purchased airline tickets for April 2008 %26amp; have gotten great fares. Some of the travel newsletters I%26#39;ve subscribed to suggest that waiting closer will give less expensive airfares. What do you all think? I%26#39;m pretty certain we%26#39;re going to choose American Airlines since they have a route with only one change of planes (others are 2). Thanks in advance for your suggestions!

when to purchase airfare

Lots to consider.

First you need to decide what a fair price to pay is....or one you can live with anyway.

Waiting used to be a good idea when planes were not overbooked however overbooking is the norm these days so waiting may mean the only tickets left are expensive ones.

Yes the airlines do run specials but you certainly can not predict when or if they will from every destination. The west coast has a lot of flights with a lot of competition, something we don%26#39;t have east of the Mississippi.

If you can find a ';cheap ticket'; that is refundable or changeable (even for a small charge) then buy it and keep looking. If you find a better deal close to your departure then change it to that deal.

There is no sure bets that something that has worked for others or in the past will work now...just look at the price of fuel..it may go down but I doubt it.

when to purchase airfare

Make your accomodation reservations ASAP if you are doing a condo. You can always change them later if you need to even if you risk losing a deposit. Nice condos get snapped up sometimes even over a year in advance.

As far as flights in May I think you have plenty of time. I only bought our tickets for April now because it%26#39;s more expensive because of spring break that particular month. I usually wait till fall to buy them. Two months ago you could still get tickets on Hawaiian from Seattle for May and they were cheaper than when I bought mine last November.

The eternal questions: what is the meaning of life, why are young kids like that, and when is the best time to buy your Maui tickets?

I go to Maui twice a year from Cal and I monitor the fares on Hawaiian and ATA closely. when I see an acceptable fare, I buy it. And then I hit myself when it drops $10 a few months later. We%26#39;re going SFO-HNL in whale season for under $300, and then HNL to west Maui for another $70.

The best thing you can do is to try NOT to fly on a weekend, when the timeshares are turning over, and the visitors with a week off are traveling. Midweek fares are a LOT cheaper, especially during busy seasons.

Hawaiian seems to have lowest fares available in late winter and perhaps very close to the departure date. I don%26#39;t think that the major airlines change their fares as much.

A flight to Hawaii from the east coast would be a good use of FF miles. American shows you available FF dates 11 months in advance. With your FF tickets in hand, you could then pick your hotel dates.

We found a website that searches all fares, similar to Travelocity, Expedia and Orbitz - www.kayak.com

We bought our tickets OAK-OGG, non-stop RT for $478 on ATA in February. Same flight is now $600+

I peeked at American%26#39;s web site for April looking for FF miles. They don%26#39;t have May 2008 posted yet, but they will in a few weeks.They%26#39;re offering that flight from Columbia to HNL any day of the week for 35k miles. And of course they have the 2-stops as well. Not a bad use of 70k miles.

For what it is worth:

charlotteobserver.com/165/story/79044.html :

What%26#39;s the best time to buy a plane ticket? At 5:15 p.m. on Saturday if you%26#39;re booking through an airline over the phone, or after midnight on Sunday if using a Web site. Airlines usually lower rates on Friday, then competing carriers try to beat those prices by reducing their own fares on Saturday at 5 p.m. (the designated time when airlines change fares on the weekend). It takes two to four hours for new prices to filter down to the computer-reservation systems used by Web sites.

just found airfare cheaper today than what I paid yesterday afternoon on Hawaiian..UGH!!!!!!!!!!!!

dfhauk--unfortunately, it is very tricky to get the 35K award travel seats. Typically they only offer a few of those seats per flight, and they go fast. Be sure to call EARLY, and try to be flexible in your travel dates and times to up your chances of getting seats. Also, I would wait until you have your seats before you book your accomodations so you can be more flexible in your dates and aren%26#39;t locked into certain travel times.

Also, I just saw on the news last night that several airlines are putting 18 month deadlines on using award miles. American was one of them, so use those miles ASAP.

Good luck!

I%26#39;m surprised that%26#39;s your only option but I looked around and it seems you%26#39;re right unless you want 2 stops. Delta does have a ';direct'; from Atlanta to Maui that stops in LA (no plane change).

Anyway ... I would sign up for fare alerts from American and watch them between now and the fall ... going to Hawaii from the East Coast, I would say once in a while you can find a fare around $500 (this is rare from smaller cities but I%26#39;ve found them) ... if that comes up, buy it. $600 is more likely and if I found something between $600-$650 I%26#39;d buy it ... I would probably shoot for this ballpark.

I would try not to pay more than $750 or so.

Our West Coast friends always get good deals ... On the one hand, I wish we did ... on the other I might be off to Hawaii WAY more often than I could afford!

FrenchFryDog,

the link to the newspaper article didn%26#39;t work... do you remember the title?