When Is The Best Time To Buy Airline Tickets?

Starting today, a new travel web site can help Atlanta travelers figure out when is the best time to buy airline tickets! Consumer Advisor Clark Howard tried it out, and says this is one tool to help you book and save.

One of the most frequent questions Clark Howard is asked on the Friday Flier is “Should I buy my ticket today?” And it’s hard to know when you’re trying to decide if you should pay this much or take your chances when you buy.

Well, now there’s a web site that’s in test right now that lets you do that for fares and flights out of Atlanta. The web site is called FareCast.

And with it, you go and put in Atlanta, where you want to fly to, the date you want to fly and date you want to return. The web site – based on one year’s historical travel data – will let you know their best guess whether or not you should buy your ticket now or wait for a better fare. They’ll also tell you what percent confidence they have that they’re right!

Clark’s looking right now at one for New York City and they’re 60 percent confident it would be a good idea now for a trip in October – so they’re not really certain in this case, but in some markets they’ll say buy now – others they’ll say ‘no way, don’t buy now.

It helps with that dilemma, “Do you pull out that credit card now or do you wait?” Clark expects their recommendations to be even more accurate in the coming months as the site gathers more pricing data.