When Is the Right Time to Book Air?

Air remains the least pleasant and most troublesome of all travel arrangements.    

The truth is that nobody enjoys booking air, except agencies that book corporate travel with companies who don't really seem to care what they spend on air and allow agencies to tack on hefty booking fees.  Businesses are okay with tickets that might not be the best rates, but most of us are not like that.  To be clear, I don't charge booking fees.

  Some people will go out of their way...literallly...to save a few dollars on air fare.  They will stay up late at night searching every air booking engine in the world, and then tolerate six hour delays on an indirect route to get the lowest price. Later they find out about currency conversion fees, booking fees, itinerary quirks and other weirdness they never envisioned.

 

 Please note: all air booking engines work off the same Amadeus spine with the same prices, with only the add-on booking fees making any difference at all.  

  As you may have heard me say before, I wish we had Star Trek's "Beam Me Up, Scotty" capabilities.  It would be great to just push a button and have you arrive at the port to embark on your cruise.  Once you're on the ship, I know everything will be great, and the ports will prove to be wonderful, as long as you either take the time to learn about what you will do on shore or purchase excursions.  Then again, even if you never leave the ship, you can enjoy a wonderful resort reservation.


However, sooner or later, we all must fly to catch a cruise, so what is the best way to book air?


Because you can option a cruise for at least a day before even putting down a deposit, the best idea is to get the cruise lined up first.  The same applies to land packages and hotels.  After taking an option, at a minimum you will have an hour or more to check out air rates and schedules to see if one works. 

In the case of a cruise, you actually have until the day before final payment to cancel and get all of your deposit back, so you can deposit your cruise and then search for air for weeks or even months in some cases.  While some land packages and hotels may have cancellation fees for the lowest advance purchase rates, we can do the same with them, as long as you know for sure you will be going regardless of air rates.  You can even pay in full for a vacation or cruise and book your air later, if you want to live dangerously.

The best time to book air, however, is at the point when you see an itinerary that looks good to you at a price that fits your vacation budget.  There is nothing more secretive than that.  Airlines will move prices all over the place for no apparent reason, like a form of price-spouting Tourette Syndrome.


The easiest way to book air is to add it to your other arrangements.  Book it with the cruise line, and then add transfers and hotel arrangements, if you want to make it seamless.   Cruise Planners also has some special packaged vacations for hotel stays in conjunction with selected cruises.  Having it all booked at once takes a way a lot of stress, which is definitely worth a small premium, and in most cases, any price difference is negligible, and sometimes the packaged deal costs less.  Some cruises have free or reduced price air on select itineraries.


It is true that sometimes midweek around midnight, one airline might introduce a new sale price, which may be followed by other airlines.  And generally weekends, when people are sitting around their computers dreaming of vacations, demand seems artificially high to the air booking computers, resulting in temporarily higher prices.  But even these effects are usually modest in most cases.


Once you have booked your flights, they generally involve payment in full, and you are immediately subject to cancellation or change penalties.  There is no point in torturing yourself by looking for lower air prices.  If you check into them, you will probably find those special air rates don't apply to your exact dates or flight schedules, and if they do, what difference does it make?  You can't do anything about it.


As the Serenity Prayer goes, "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference."


Ideally, you say that prayer often in your life, but even if you don't, you should remember it when it comes to air.