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A few nights ago, Rick Seaney, CEO of FareCompare.com, helped me bust the myth that Wednesday at midnight was the ideal time to buy plane tickets. Which led the Consumerist to throw down the gauntlet, demanding to know when the best time for ticket purchases actually IS.

Rick Seaney took their challenge. His answer, published in the Consumerist’s hallowed electronic halls, includes a detailed primer on the technical side of how airlines actually post their fares for others to see. Definitely worth reading.

Rick’s conclusion, though, is once again without a magic bullet. Shorter version: Get a feel for the historical price range for your desired itinerary and buy whenever it’s cheap. Use fare alerts to keep on top of price drops. Pull the trigger when the price is in the comfort zone. Don’t expect great deals more than 5 months before your flight date, or within two weeks of travel.

Rick astutely compares the price of airline tickets to the stock market. Like stocks, airfares run in a range, and they occasionally break to the downside — or the upside. If you’re really out to get the lowest airfare, you may need to take a stock trader’s perspective. (If anyone has figured out how to both buy low AND sell high in the air ticket market, let me know… Maybe the compulsive gamblers rational market economists at Tradesports.com, who seem to find a market/wager for any kind of world event, can figure out a way to make side bets on airfare…)

Added advice from me, for the truly hardcore: Even if you’ve bought the ticket, don’t stop tracking the fare. If your airline offers repricing or re-faring, stay on top of the fare trend and request a refund voucher if the price drops again. See my earlier post “The black art of repricing tickets.”

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tags: travel | low fares