Originally Posted by
anteater
I never book that far in advance, so others may have more experience on this. I noticed as of today 12/25 is at the very edge of the schedule. I recall others discussing the lack of fare class availability at the edge of the schedule which is, 330 days from now. 12/25 currently is showing Y/J. If I look a week prior to 12/18 there is U space availability and lower fare class availability. I would keep an eye on it in a week and see if any lower fare classes become available and perhaps additionally that golden U space.
Keep us posted, definitely a good topic!
It was definitely pushing it to book so early. The primary reason I hopped on so quickly was because of available U space, otherwise there isn't as much urgency. After tracking U availability over the past week, I felt it was ok to book at first chance. We shall see if this changes. The interesting thing I see is that U space is readily available on days where high demand will be expected. But on Christmas Day, when demand might be suppressed and especially so for an evening flight, there's nothing.
This is what I found over the past week of tracking. When selecting dates for flights, you can pick from the calendar control on the query screen up to and including what is probably the 330th day. But when the results are returned, it will show one additional day. For example, yesterday when I made this purchase, the calendar control allowed me to select 12/24 as the latest date, while the results showed 12/25 flights being available and selectable. As for pricing, it quickly changed over the following days. For the flight I was tracking on 12/25, prices changed every day (t): t-0: $399 (that day hidden from the calendar control), t-1: $999 (the last date available in the calendar control), t-2: $499. This went as if on a pre-programmed schedule. The flight I paid $399 for yesterday is $999 today. Tomorrow it will be $499. Those hidden dates showed U availability, just like all other dates in the days prior to the "hidden" day.