Originally Posted by
CX HK
I rarely do ticket bookings myself these days, but I will have to book a ticket online myself for a flight in the summer. I was wondering - I know in the old days, the earlier you book, the cheaper your ticket would be. But with all the price discrimination and other calculations that goes on behind the screens, can anyone confirm that booking ASAP is still economically the best way to do it, or is it actually cheaper to wait a little?
Thanks,
CX HK
Nope, airlines got smart and decided to do "dynamic pricing" - i.e. selling early at prices they think passengers would pay for, rather than lowest price early strategy. Now, as time passes by and they don't get the amount of ticket sales they would like, they will lower prices.
A few times flying AA domestic I bought my tickets a few months in advanced, but when I check the prices less than a month in advanced sometimes I would see lower prices. Now it's not that big of a deal for domestic (usually it's $50 less or less than that), but for coast-to-coast flights I noticed sometimes it can be $100 less.
Now for CX flights, again, sometimes out of curiosity I would see fare bucket availability at ExpertFlyer. Take my April flight for example. When I bought it in February the fare prices are down to L with all classes after that at 0. But 2 weeks ahead of the flight I see all the fare classes in Y at number 9. This is true to a day before the flight.