Budget Travel - Best time/price to get tickets from BUF to LAX July 4th weekend?

I will be heading out to LA during the july 4th weekend. I want to know when the best time and best site that I can get tickets for? Ive been looking everywhere like orbitz and expedia but their kinda expensive, around 350+ round trip. Should I wait abit or is this the best price im going to find. Can anyone help me out? Thanks

Farecompare graphs are sometimes interesting for seeing patterns:

http://www.farecompare.com/search/year-homepage.html?destination=Los%20Angeles,%20CA%20(L AX)&p=1&s=r&t=r&departure=Buffalo,%20NY%20(BUF)&type=homepage

I don't know that I've ever seen such a flat graph.



ITA software (address below) shows a Delta direct flight Tues July 1 - Wed July 9 for $240. I think the route is pretty date sensitive around that holiday, so do check any dates that are useable for you.

http://matrix.itasoftware.com



My theory is that if you are too far out, fares are usually high, set that way for the people that have to book way out for some reason. As you move closer to the date there is a sort of sweet spot, between 2 and 3 months out where sometimes there are sales. Then the fares start climbing again. And they get quite high at the last minute UNLESS there is a lot of unsold capacity and then you will see those last minute sales. And sometimes this pattern just doesn't work at all. In any case, I've learned to just jump on any reasonably good sale in that 2 or 3 month out period.

If you are OK with any airline, you might try a Priceline bid or use Hotwire. In fact, I got curious, and for the same dates as above Hotwire had an AirTran flight for $328.

Do check the airline sites also. They sometimes have fares that don't get on places like Orbitz.

Good Luck - Romelle

Try www.farecast.com

You can also sign up for e-mail alerts.

Good luck!

still not finding anything decent. Should I still wait?

A belated welcome to FlyerTalk Tijuana.

I will try to answer your question, but Romelle has you pointed in the right direction. It seems to me that airlines release fares that a a little on the high side hoping those who book VERY early will pay the extra bucks :rolleyes:

As they see that seats are not selling, they will lower prices. Of course high travel times like holidays (which is what you seek) are a different animal, so those particular dates may not come down as much.

As for booking YYZ v BUF, well, let's just say there was a thread right here in BT about getting to Buffalo cheaply to avoid the high CDN taxes and fares. But fair to say it's not just the Canuks that do this, as I noticed when I fly to YYJ or YVR the American taxes and 911 fees spike compared to traveling inside the US :td:

BTW, lots of value conscious YVR will go to SEA for lower fares. Been to that part of the world many, many times, and can't recall last time I connected in YVR. (hint, hint)

EmailKid

so should I wait? I mean prices arent gonna double, but they might go up, but still

so should I wait? I mean prices arent gonna double, but they might go up, but still

Whether you should wait or not depends on how much flexibility you have, both with dates of travel and with airports. For example, if you absolutely have to fly from YYZ to LAX from July 3rd-6th, I'd say you might want to bite the bullet and just buy now.

If you have flexibility in your departure and arrival airports, and some flexibility on dates of travel, you run a much lower risk by waiting.

still not finding anything decent. Should I still wait?

like others have said, if i were you i would wait. try using nearby airports (particularly BUR (burbank)) which is only about 20 or so minutes from LAX (plus of course the dreaded traffic), or Long Beach, which I believe is close as well. i would just watch it every day and if the prices start to creep up, and the seats are filling up, that would be a good sign that the price is probably not going to go down. again just my opinion. from the midwest area, a good deal is about ~$240 all in, but again, you have to be flexible, and i'm not sure what the usual cost would be farther east.