Booking a Flight?

[Bean316]

I was just curious about any info you guys could get me on booking a flight. Basically, I'm taking a round trip from Phoenix, AZ to San Jose, CA from March 18-25 for the GDC. I Priceline'd it, and I got a price around $200, which strikes me as a great deal because it was $300 not but a few weeks ago. The only thing is, if you do it the PriceLine way, you have a window, not a specified flight time. What's your experience with this sorta stuff? If I go for a set flight, it is going to be around ~260 currently. Since the flight is about a month out, do you think prices will go up or down? Thanks for the help guys!

[hal]

Flights typically go up in price on official sites as the flight nears.

[AriTheDog]

You will eventually get on a plane if you do it via priceline, you just might have to wait at the airport for hours on end. What happens is they put you on a flight when an empty spot comes up. Decide how much your time is worth, I guess.

[Angel_Mapper]

I'd check out Southwest as well, I don't think I've seen them on any of the internet services, and for me at least they've always had the cheapest prices (and you can pick the exact dates and times). www.southwest.com

[Bean316]

Ok, the straight up 'choose-my-flight' price was $259 two days ago, and now it is $243. I don't know when to buy!

[8-4-7-2]

Flights typically go up in price on official sites as the flight nears.
Yeah, generally you should book flights well in advance to get a cheap one.
Later, they tend to go up, because free seats get less, while demand might still be the same

It's possible to sit next to someone who paid twice your price, just because of different booking times

[Jackal]

I hope you got a close hotel too. But as far as the whole "book early" thing goes, I belive prices go up 2 weeks before the departure (might be 3). As much as I have flown across the US for the past 15 years (around 20 times), I've figured that one out. Have you also checked the other known sites? Expedia, Travelocity and the likes.

Also don't forget to get a rental car too, if you don't have a ride.

[Bean316]

Prices
I know how traditional logic is with flights, but in the past 3-4 weeks, I've watched prices go down ~60. I know you're supposed to book early, but why should I if prices keep going down?

Hotel
I already got a hotel. It's part of the deal for being a GDC CA.

Car
Hotel is right by the conference center.

[anaemic]

id say its worth paying for a fixed ticket if your in a rush, if your doing it the other way aim for flights at antisocial times of the day, things that land at 7 or 8 am usually have more people after tickets on them as do 6-9pm kinda flights.
planes that leave at 4 am or turn up where theyre going at an annoying time should be easier to get onto and not fully booked

[ilkman]

I did a few searches on some of the more popular booking engines such as expedia.com and travelocity.com and discovered that the cheapest price for your sort of trip is going to be around $243. So, I'd say book the flight whenever.

What I would do is look out for package booking deals some places might be offering. Sometimes you may find a cheaper deal if you book a flight, hotel, and/or a car all at once. Now, the overal price would be higher then $243, but if you plan on getting all those things anyways, the overall price may be cheaper to get it all at once.

[Kaligraphic]

$243 doesn't strike me at all as an unreasonable price, for what it's worth. I will say that I've had good experiences with Southwest. Do the online check-in, too, within a day of your departure time. It lets you print out your boarding pass and gets you through the airport a lot faster and it'll get you into the first boarding group if you do it early enough.

[Angel_Mapper]

Still as low as $218 on Southwest if you hurry. ;)

[Bean316]

Still as low as $218 on Southwest if you hurry. ;)
Aha, but then they hit you with fees, which are around 40 bucks!