Wait on airfares to come out before booking?

AllyIdo

Hi everyone,

After what seems like so much research online and here on the boards, I think we finally got the plan set for our wedding next April.

Very excited to book everything and send save the dates, but I'm a little apprehensive because it's so early.

Airfares are not published until 330 days beforehand and I just want to make sure that they aren't crazy high that weekend for some reason before we commit to the date. I've been looking at the same weekend this year and the furthest weekends out in March and everything looks pretty decent. I know airfares come out high, dip down lower, go back up...that's why I'm such a believer in sites like Yapta where you can track pricing.

My mind tells me wait a few more weeks but it's so hard! I just want to book already!

Anyone else been through this?

:

missmo14

Definitely wait! Fares for us are currently about 800 more than they were for the same dates this year. We are waiting for sale fares :

LUZELENANY

You can do a little research by checking if there usually are any special events during the dates you are thinking of. Really large conventions drive airfairs and hotels up. My wedding is may 17. The prices were great until up to about a month ago they suddenly shot up and all my guests who had waited till the last minute were complaining! Turns out the Billboard awards are scheduled that weekend!

vegasgroom

Is Southwest an option for you?  They don't allow you to book as early, I think six months at most, but are generally very cheap in and out of Vegas since it's one of their largest hubs.

sunni96

So your saying that you haven't committed to a ceremony location or reception venue or a date for that matter because your waiting on airfare, is that correct? I just want to make sure I understand. If that's the case, I would go ahead and pick a date. There is no way that you are going to know what the prices are going to be next year so I would start booking before vendors you like book up. Just my thought.

missmo14

I agree with PP. The good vendors book up really quickly. I had some already booked more than 12 months in advance. Just have a look at the conventions on around that time. I know that the National Broadcasters conference is on around 710 April then the show is 12 17 April so maybe later in the month if you want to avoid that expecting 96000 attendees

AllyIdo

Yup, that's what I'm saying. National Broadcasters is over on the 10th. My guests would be coming the 11th. So airfare shouldn't be affected as we're flying in as they fly out. I did go ahead and block the rooms already, got great rates, because there is no penalty for canceling that and I wanted to hold the rate. I am just hesitating to book DDB, the ceremony, dinner and send a save the date until I see airfare. Maybe I should ask those vendors if there's a fee to move the date if need be.

mnupp

I suggest reviewing Bing Travel -- they have the (former FareCompare) software that can predict whether prices will go up or down based on your travel dates, and I found their advice to be quite accurate.