When is the best time to purchase flights for summer travel to Switzerland?
My family and I (two adults; two kids, ages 5 and 7) travel to Switzerland every summer to visit the grandparents. Because of school schedules, summer is the only time we can go; naturally the tickets cost a ton. Has anybody any tips for when to buy flights? Any websites better than others? And so on. We typically fly from Washington-Dulles, but have also flown from Baltimore/BWI. We're happy to land anywhere in Switzerland (thanks to the good rail system). Would prefer 0 to 1 transfer en route. Thanks in advance for any advice/help!
Air Travel - 3 Answers
Random Answers, Critics, Comments, Opinions :
1 :
The best is to book it early (at least 3 months before the departure date) those rates are one of the cheapest for any companies. The worse time to book is 1-2 weeks to 1 day before the departure date. (They know you have some type of emergency/plans so they are going to make you pay for it..lol). The other cheap one is the "last-minute" flights, not the "I have to go there now!" last-minute but the "I want to travel to anywhere~ as long as it's cheap.." For the 1st one you will pay up to 3 times the usual price but for the second one usually pay a lot less it's like a sale ticket, unfortunately they have, most of the time, a lot of transfers and awful timing (wait over 5 hours in a terminal). For a real-life example: my friend comes over from time to time, he paid a ticket for about 680 ish USD when he booked 2months pre-depart, and paid 1400$ for 2 weeks before the departure date (both tickets from the same company, departure airport, arrival airport and around the same period of the year). Last tip would be to find an airplane company that you liked (food/service etc..) and stick to it to earn points/miles and use these to upgrade your flight to first-class or for a free flight! :D
2 :
While your at the counter - I tried doing it three munutes before I got there and a) the guy couldn't hear me b) people in the queue started getting annoyed and c) there was no C just a and b
3 :
try: http://airfarehawk.com/ http://www.airfarewatchdog.com/ http://www.sidestep.com/ http://www.airgorilla.com/ http://www.cheapair.com/ http://www.cheapoair.com/ http://www.farecompare.com/ http://www.kayak.com/ http://farecast.com/ http://farechase.yahoo.com/ http://www.bookingwiz.com/default.asp?mic=5ruwex6&prod=air&gclid=CIi2xd3HmIoCFSHsPgodDg7Qjg http://www.orbitz.com/ http://www.expedia.com/default.asp http://www.travelocity.com/ http://www.hotwire.com/ http://www.priceline.com/ http://www.travelzoo.com/ http://www.shermanstravel.com/ http://www.placestostay.com/
