To get the best price on an airplane ticket, do you try to get one further from the date or as close to the date of leaving?

I have always noticed ticket prices going way up closer to the date of the flight. I try to buy as early as possible.

I like JetBlue. They’re usually among the cheapest tickets and they let you check one bag for free.

Special note: always clear your cookies before visiting any site selling you tickets. The prices will go up if the site notices you’ve visited it multiple times.

Early has always been better. The price use to jump up dramatically at 14 days before the departure date. Travel with rewards or credit point are only available at the earliest dates that tickets are for sale.

I usually buy well in advance for the best value.

Most airlines practice a pricing method called “Yield Management”. Essentially, as demand increases (closer to the travel date), the prices go up. They get away with it because most leisure travelers book in advance and are price-sensitive. Those booking closer to the travel date have to be in a location at a specific time, thus are willing to pay a higher price in order to get there.

The hotel company I worked for had an in-house travel agency. They told us to book our trips at least three weeks in advance in order to get reasonable rates. Apparently, after that point, the rates go up dramatically.

@SavoirFaire Wow. Do you have a source for proving that rates can go up based upon cookies? It seems odd that the rates could change solely based upon internet searches done on one computer.

There was a couple articles about rooms at hotels and other things, that the browser was the controlling item for hotel room prices. The Mac/Safari prices were higher but only because the rooms targeted were at “higher stars” hotels, logic was the Mac user would pay more than PC user. Here’s an article from February about the pricing for Mac.

@Pied_Pfeffer It’s not that rates go up for everyone, it’s that rates go up for you. There’s no law saying that companies have to offer everyone the same price, and there is case law stating that they do not have to offer everyone the same price. That’s why there are discounts for children, senior citizens, Apple users, non-Apple users, and so forth depending on the retailer. Sites like Travelocity note that you’ve already been to their site a few times and change the prices presented to you specifically (even while another customer may be seeing a different price). Consumer Reports did some investigations into this a few years ago and found that dynamic pricing was fairly common across the web. Travel sites are also notorious for changing the price just before finalizing the sale (on the grounds that something changed in the minutes you were browsing).

I all depends on supply and demand. It can go either way.

Further from the date. Southwest has great prices and they are not on anyone else’s web site so I always check them. The you can check Kayak.

Airfare increases as the travels dates approach. If you were to book a flight for tomorrow, you’d get socked with a high fee. If you plan in advance, however, you can do very well.

I’ve noticed that hotel fees actually drop as the dates get very close. Hotels make no money from vacant rooms; if they see that nobody’s reserving a room, they’ll discount it, in the 11th hour, in the hope of generating some revenue. This is a risky strategy, however, if you really need a room and have no other options. There might not be anything available when you try to swoop in for a great deal!

@SadieMartinPaul I’ll be visiting relatives so I won’t be needing a room. But that is good information for future use.

@Tropical_Willie and @SavoirFaire Thank you for the additional information. Please correct me if I am wrong…the price increase based upon computer information is only applicable to the third party sites? This isn’t applicable to the airlines’ direct sites, is it?

@SadieMartinPaul At hotels, some may drop the rate in the last minute if they know that they aren’t going to sell out, but not all do. The key is in forecasting demand and setting appropriate rates for that day based upon it. There is a long list of other factors that need to be taken into consideration as well when pricing hotel rooms. The company that I worked for (parent company for nine world-wide chains) found it much more financially strategic to set prices and stick to them, even on the day of arrival.

@chyna If you ever need a hotel room, you are much better off booking it in advance, then calling the hotel directly closer to the date to get a quote for the same stay. On occasion, they may quote a lower rate. If so, book it and cancel the original reservation. Often though, you will find that the rate is the same, has gone up, or the hotel is sold out.

@Pied_Pfeffer The price difference by operating system is only on Hotels and is was not higher prices for all hotels, it was higher number of stars. A hotel with fours stars was the one presented to the Mac user while a three star hotel was for PC’s. Most Airlines tickets are scaled from cheapest at 330 days before take off. ( round trip that means the day you are returning ) and jump at about 20 to 14 days before take off. The highest is 14 days to day 1.

@Pied_Pfeffer My understanding is that this only affects third party sellers. The airlines themselves have some complicated algorithm that determines prices and does not change based on a single customer’s behaviors.