travel experts - when to book flights

LnR70707

I'm watching fares right now to book our trip to St.Thomas in April.  We'd leave Apr 18 and return the 25th.  So far booking directing with american is the cheapest and our cost just dropped about $120 from yesterdays fares.  Anyone know when fares are usually at their lowest?

I did this 3 years ago and I know they skyrocketed as soon as we hit the one month out from departure mark and seemed the lowest right before that, but I don't want to wait quite that long.  Will they do the same at the 2 month mark?

MinM

For some reason I think I remember Zilla saying eleven days out is the cheapest, but I asked her years ago and I've slept since then so I could be totally wrong.

zsazsa-stl

There are soooo many factors that affect it.  Are you searching on Kayak?  If it is a trip that other people have searched they will show you a chart of the fare trend so that you can see if this is the lowest it has been, but of course it can't tell you if it will ever go any lower.  There is a feature on Bing that will supposedly tell you if now is the time to buy or not that you might try.

Also, I think some airlines will give the either credit or refund if you see that the fare drops after you purchase but only once.  LIke if you buy a $500 ticket and see that it drops to $400 you can get the $100 credit if you ask.  But if it drops again to $300 you can't ask again. 

NOLABridesmaid

I tend to book them at the first signs of a price drop. I usually get screwed if I wait.