I also buy tickets a year out, or as soon as they go on sale, for predictable annual commitments.

It's different if the airline(s) you fly are LCCs and that only reduce the prices 5-7 months out (like Ryanair and Aer Lingus). On most network carriers, the cheapest seats are available from the moment they go on sale (you can buy KLM tickets from their starting-from price of €99 for dates up to early March 2017 - these flights are not going to get any cheaper). It also means that you can select from all available flights, and not - as will happen when you leave the booking until later - find that all the best-timed or most popular flights have sold out at the cheapest/cheaper rates already by those who book the best deals early.

And, as Donegal has pointed out - November is not "a year in advance".

Sidebar: there was a guy on the tram to work this morning with a Miles+Bonus gold luggage tag on his backpack. I have never seen that outside of an airport! (Come to think of it, I'm not sure I've seen one in an airport either!)