Travel recommendation and advise from my 20+ years traveling around the world.
Hotwire’s TripStarter shows you when airfares are lowest. But when to buy, in advance, is a different matter. Overall, once you’ve decided on a destination and time frame, the best time to buy your ticket is when tickets are on sale. That’s not just a “duh” answer; lots of online agencies and information resources publish sale alerts. Start with SmarterTravel’s Deal Alerts, and check for others.
Also, for more general guidance, CheapAir, a large online travel agency, combed its database of ticket sales to recommend that the ideal time to buy an air ticket is seven weeks in advance of departure for domestic trips and 11 to 12 weeks for international trips. Earlier, airlines don’t know how the marketplace is behaving so they post high fares in the hope that someone will bite; later, consumers start snapping up the cheap seats, leaving seats in only the higher price brackets. And for cruises, you can’t beat last-minute (within a month or so of sailing) deals.
