Best time/way to buy a plane ticket

Improvolone

I know I'm flying at the end of May. I usually don't have this much notice for trips and am used to buying less than a month out.
Kayak is telling me it'll be about $220 to get from Florida to NYC. I'd like to spend less.
Is there a better site to use? Should I... name my own price? Should I buy closer to the date? Should I buy ASAP? Am I totally fucked with the new restrictions? Yes.

EggyToast

Kayak is great for price checking and price tracking. As for spending less, Kayak posts up what other people are finding for fares, and you should scroll through the months to see if anything's cheaper. You'll usually get a feel for what the absolute lowest price is, and can use that as a gauge for how much you're paying.

You should also include other airports. For example, Fort Lauderdale and Miami are pretty close to each other but the prices can be substantially different. Where I am, I pretty much only have one airport option but I still search in case there's a significant savings (driving an extra hour might be worth saving $200, for example).

If your dates are flexible, you could try naming your own price via Priceline. The worst that could happen is they say no. Otherwise, set up a price tracker on Kayak to alert you if the fare drops into your pricepoint.

Typically prices start climbing 3 months out, but that's not universally true. You have time to look and shop. And don't worry about restrictions until you're packing, unless you intend to go carry-on only.

Iceman.USAF

I had some wonderful success this past holiday season booking sperate one-way flights through Kayak. I was able to fly for like $85/each way BWI-BOS and back. Florida to NYC should be pretty common.

Have you considered rail? Trains are sweet.

Improvolone

I don't have the time for a train unfortunately.

Scrublet

I've priced stuff out from Balt-Wash to Florida before. I'll be surprised if you do much better to NYC than $220 without some kind of abnormal deal.

Deebaser

Improvolone wrote: »

I know I'm flying at the end of May. I usually don't have this much notice for trips and am used to buying less than a month out.
Kayak is telling me it'll be about $220 to get from Florida to NYC. I'd like to spend less.
Is there a better site to use? Should I... name my own price? Should I buy closer to the date? Should I buy ASAP? Am I totally fucked with the new restrictions? Yes.

I like expedia, but honestly $220 sounds pretty reasonable for end of may travel. You're competing with regular traffic + all the college kids coming home / leaving one of the 20 colleges in the immediate area of the airport.

One thing you can try is expanding your search to Newark airport. You can get a van to Manhattan for about $20.

samsam7

Are you a student?

I was studying abroad this last summer and using student airfare sites was significantly cheaper than hitting up the airlines site. I'd try out sta travel and student universe.