International Air Travel in April - Book Tickets Now or Later?

Check farecaster.com to see their prediction for whether prices will go up or down for your itinerary. Kayak.com will give you a graph of the fare for the past 30 days, so you can see if it's gone up or down recently. Sign up for alerts from kayak when the price hits your desired level (be reasonable, here--a transatlantic flight will never be $20!). Sign up for the travelzoo and kayak weekly deal emails, to watch for international sales. They do come up periodically, and can be quite good. I don't think that you need to be in a rush to buy a ticket this week, but I would do your research so you know a good fare when you see one, then jump on it when it comes up. Airline fares are always a bit of a gamble--you can get great deals last minute, but if you know you need to go, you don't want to count on that. GL!

Some online booking companies now have a price guarantee that if another person books your flight for a lower price, they refund you the difference - you might check and see if your flight is eligible for that guarantee. I think it's orbitz that offers it.

I recommend buying now and reserving your seat. If you delay you're far more likely to end up in the back. Also, many airlines (AA I know for sure) will give you a credit if the price goes down (for the SAME itinerary).

I have not booked international trips personally but I do a lot of domestic tickets for hubby and our family.

I prefer to work directly with the airlines...specifically American and Southwest.

When I find a fare that is fair and reasonable I book it. You can at least hold the ticket with American for about 24 hrs. IF the fare has gone down, when you sign in to pay for the ticket you will get the lower price. Same goes for if the fare increases....you get the increase or start over.

It is a personal choice but if it were me, I would go ahead and book and get a confirmed seat. It just depends on how important the trip is to you (as in flexibility on dates, etc).

Have fun!!

Hello Andrea,

The price will also depend of where you're going. If you're going to a hot vacation spot for that time of year, then prices will most likely go up. How about you track the prices for a few days and see how it's going. Good luck and happy travels! ~C.~

i travel international yearly~ prices changes daily and monthly it seems. there is never a good price but the longer you wait the more you risk the price going up and not down. Please seats are a getting slim pickens~ Check all www.vayma.com, aa.com, travelocity.com never use priceline or hotwire for these types of flights~ best of luck.

Well this will sound weird but we now live out of the country, just moved mid-July, but I still check in and love Mamasource-it keeps me connected to Texas and "normalacy". We live in the Carribbean and we just bought our Christmas tickets-to the states, two weeks ago, they have dropped dramatically in the past two months. I don't know if this means it will go lower or if it will go up during the busier seasons like, April(Spring Break). I don't know where you are going but if you keep a good eye on them you can watch and see if it looks like they are going up or down and buy if you see them going up. Does this make sense? We check lots of sites; airlines directely, kayak,expedia, travelocity etc. I guess all of this to say, I wouldn't buy right now, I would keep checking-don't wait past Feb. but I personally wouldn't buy immediately, JMHO. HTH and let me know if you have any questions.