Some good points there SPN Lifer

Some airlines offer full credit when cancelling a flight. I was able to do that with UA for a domestic flight, and then used the credit months later for a Canada - Europe flight, so at least with UA I am able to purchase a ticket months in advance, and watch to see if the price drops. I don't recall if that is related to my lifetime Gold status, but IIRC this is a relatively new perk for all fliers (but if you don't have status you may want to double check).

But I do agree that buying months in advance does not tend to get the best price, as the airlines will throw out high fares, and lower them later in most instances - my guess is that they hope pax will want to lock in a flight and/or think that is the time when prices are lowest and don't bother to check later to see if price will be lower.