For those that travel or maybe just those that understand airline prices. I’m going on a trip in October. I checked prices 2 weeks ago and now they have increased 200.00. Do I buy now, or will they go back down?

I’ve always heard that the earlier you buy, the cheaper, and it doesn’t cost much extra to buy insurance for if you have to cancel or change flights.

Really depends on the airline. Some airlines have “flash sales” and some airlines are cheaper if you buy on a Tuesday. It’s weird.

Difficult to say. I tend to think of prices like a futures contract. The airline is making a bet on the demand for that particular route at a specific point in the future. If the demand is lower than expected, the ticket price will drop the closer to the date you get, but the opposite could be true too. If the price just went up, it might come back down soon if the new price is depressing demand. Just one way to look at it, not expert financial advice, I’m afraid.

One thing I’ve heard but not personally confirmed is that spoofing a different country of origin through a VPN can do interesting things to the ticket price.

no way to tell; it all depends on supply and demand. If they see in September that the have a half-full plane, they will lower. If it’s almost full, they will raise.

Seat pricing varies from minute to minute, and is unpredictable.

If you search “goldilocks window,” you’ll get a number of answers to this question. One site I follow says it’s 1–3 months before departure if you are flying domestic, so I would guess prices for your itinerary would go down again.

This is from a year ago”
“Google published new insights based on five years worth of Google Flights historical airfare data. For U.S. domestic flights, the study found that prices were usually at their lowest three weeks to two months out, with average prices bottoming out 44 days before departure.”

But you also have to take in to consideration if anything is going on at your destination. For instance, there is a solar eclipse in October right over Albuquerque. I plan to get my flights by August 7. Albuquerque will fill up that weekend, because it is also the middle of the balloon festival.

^I bet the balloon festival is beautiful!

Typically, airline prices go up closer to the fly date, but some airlines do sharp discounts a few days before to fill a plane.

Are you flying one of the big airlines like American, United, or Delta? Their prices will likely go up more. Even Southwest is likely to go up.

Spirit, Frontier, and Jet Blue you might get a last minute deal, but no way to know. If you have flexibility and don’t care if you don’t go, check it again periodically.

Did you check other airports near you?

If you want to take the trip on those dates, I think just pay it. If you have some flexibility, a lot of airline websites have the ability to check many prices throughout the month. Often times flying on a Tuesday or Wednesday is the cheapest, but not always.

Where are you going? Would you want to consider driving? If you can drive last minute, then you could just keep an eye on flights.

Maybe if you pay more for flight insurance or a changeable ticket, you can get the lower price if it happens. I never do that, because then the ticket is more if it doesn’t go down.

@Caravanfan is right that Tuesdays is usually when new pricing comes out, but I just bought tickets on a Sunday that I was not happy about the price, but I didn’t want to risk it going higher. When I got to the seating it was a very empty flight, so I feel like it might get discounted. So frustrating.

I’ve always heard that the earlier you buy, the cheaper

Nope. Not in m experience. I have always bought flights about 30 days out to get a low price.

Another tip, fly Southwest, which gives me a credit if I cancel and re-book after the price declines.

It depends . . . 3 month to 2 weeks best prices and last two or three days; if they have any leftover seats they drop the prices those last couple of days !

It depends on where you are going and what airlines you are using. We discovered Spirit Airlines and I believe Allegiant as well offer what they call “penny deals”. You have to go to the airport ticket counter to ask about them, you cannot find them on line. But the deal is that you pay 1 cent for the ticket plus tax/fees. My stepson gets them all the time. He flies from Myrtle Beach SC to Cleveland (or Akron) Ohio for $20.01 each way.

The funniest I saw with him was he bought his tickets for a total of $40.02 and then, when leaving MB, they got stuck on the tarmac for about 2 hours. He was given a $60 flight voucher for the inconvenience.

On the Today Show, just now (Friday morning) they did a little spot about booking air travel to get the best prices (specifically it was about using AI to get the best prices). They had some tips and they said don’t look and book between 10 and 1 because that’s when most people are on the computer, at lunch at work or whatever and so prices are up during that period, and don’t fly on Sundays because prices are higher then.

@jca2 And I was trying to leave on a Sunday! I changed the date to Saturday, and there was a big difference in price. Thanks for the information.

I’m so glad it worked, @chyna!