To those using the United Connection software:
(And, before the inevitable question comes up, here is where you can get it: http://members.aol.com/premexfiles/ucweb30.exe or http://www.baze.com/ucweb.html )

I have a trip I need to take from OAK (or SFO or SMF) to either BMI or PIA in late August. While I suspect there may be a fare sale at some point, I wanted to start watching the fares. So I selected an itinerary on the United Cxn software and saved it (without, of course, reserving it). For the past 5 days, I have loaded that itinerary, connected to the system, and see what it fares at. Over five days, it has had seven different pricings, ranging from a low (today) of $406.25 to a high of $598.00. Most of the time the fare only changes once per day, but one day this week it changed three times in the course of a day!

So the possibility is this: IF you think that a fare might go lower and you have time to wait, you might just select an itin, save it, and check each day. Only you can decide when to jump. The caution of course is the flip side of this: a couple of weeks ago I fared an OAK-DEN-MCI-STL-ORD-IND-DEN-OAK trip for June for $460. That was the lowest it got during the two days I was willing to "gamble." But ever since it's been consistently faring in the >$550 range.

Your mileage will doubtlessly vary....