Booking plane tickets at short notice - question

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user 6862

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Jun 18, 2009
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Have to admit I'm not up to speed with all things flying but many here are.

Trying to arrange shipping our camper from Europe to the US and have hit another snag, the RoRo ferries are not often on schedule at the moment, full stop. The current delay is either on time, 1 week late, or 2 weeks late. This is only known about 1 week before departure although the booking has to be made at least 2-3 months ahead of dep[arture as shipping is going through a bad spell of not enough capacity/availablity.

We would fly from Europe maybe 3 or 4 days before the camper should arrive, a maximum 1 week before, but the costs for short notice flights are eye watering (to us anyway).

I usually try to book flights about 3 months out to get a reasonable price, is there a method to keep the cost of short booking notice flights down?

Thanks
 
Some airlines are allowing changes and cancellations at no charge - usually resulting in a credit that expires in a year from initial booking. However, some airlines may be more lenient or more strict than that. I've also seen a few airlines offer fully refundable tickets for a small premium.

If you can front the money for multiple tickets, it may not be a bad idea to buy tickets for three dates, roughly a week apart, and then cancel the two that you wind up not using. Then make sure to use that credit before expiration! If you don't have any intent of significant flying within a year, this may not work well, but if you'll wind up using most of the money anyways it may be a good option.

Alternatively, it may be a good idea to look at ultra-low-cost airlines. If the base fare is super cheap, and adding on the extra luggage/seat assignments/etc. for one flight is still cheaper than a close-in ticket from a major airline, it may make sense to book three tickets a week out speculatively, knowing that you'll likely throw away two of them, and then once you know which one you'll use buy the extras at that point.

This also may be a good use for any airline points you may have. Sometimes it'll still be cheap close-in to use points, and with many programs these days points bookings are fully refundable (points go back into your account.) Again, make sure to check the details of cancellation and expirations.
 
v v said:
Have to admit I'm not up to speed with all things flying but many here are.
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All of my recent flights have been packed. Fuel pricing is volatile, aircraft deliveries are delayed, labor pools are constrained, cancellations are common, available seats are limited, and airlines are in no mood to sell below cost. I'm unsure what kind of voodoo magic could counter all these factors.

v v said:
I usually try to book flights about 3 months out to get a reasonable price, is there a method to keep the cost of short booking notice flights down?
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If you are locked into a date and destination with short notice at booking you have no leverage. That being the case the advice above (points bookings, presumptive bookings) makes sense but may not save you much money depending on the airline and rules in effect at the time. May the odds be in your favor.
 
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It seems, the only things you could play with are carier and location. So perhaps you will get lucky and find airports to travel from/to which don't cause a lot of cost and unwanted time spending pre/past flight.

For example Google Flights can help you by searching from/to multiple airports and it can send you updates if prices change, although looking yourself a few times a day will catch more price fluctuations.
 

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