# Does booking airfare much earlier save money? **URL:** \ **Category:** Travel\ **Created:** [April 2, 2022, 1:47pm UTC](https://community.clark.com/t/does-booking-airfare-much-earlier-save-money/276 "2022-04-02T13:47:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Henrius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/87869e/32.png) [@Henrius](https://community.clark.com/u/Henrius)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2022, 1:47pm UTC](https://community.clark.com/t/does-booking-airfare-much-earlier-save-money/276/1 "2022-04-02T13:47:47Z")
Has anyone tracked airfares over time? I wanted to go to Dayton Ohio next October. Would it save money to book now, or would it be just as cheap to buy 2 months from the departure date? There are sometimes sales that pop up, but I am usually not in the loop to hear about many of them. ---
**Author:** ![PricePerformer](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/community.clark.com/priceperformer/32/159_2.png) [@PricePerformer](https://community.clark.com/u/PricePerformer)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2022, 2:50pm UTC](https://community.clark.com/t/does-booking-airfare-much-earlier-save-money/276/2 "2022-04-02T14:50:06Z")
We found that SW runs sales about 3 times a year. We were able to use them on long lead time events like Weddings. SW does not fly ATL to Dayton. Cincinnati however is an hour south of Dayton on I-75. Do you plan to rent a car? We signed up for the SW sale Emails. Worked great. Unfortunately Delta is alone offering Non Stop Service to Dayton. You can sign up their emails… but Delta is not as big on sales as SW. I wonder if any of your Delta Patients can give you a heads up! ---
**Author:** ![SonoranSilkies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@SonoranSilkies](https://community.clark.com/u/SonoranSilkies)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2022, 12:57pm UTC](https://community.clark.com/t/does-booking-airfare-much-earlier-save-money/276/3 "2022-04-03T12:57:54Z")
I get sales notifications for southwest all the time…at least every month or two. My last two trips they rescheduled, and the times changed significantly. For my upcoming trip, the departure moved from 8 or 9 am to 6 am. And the return changed from a 6 and a half hour trip with no plane change to a 10 and a half hour trip with two plane changes. The trip a year ago they did not notify me of changes, and I only discovered them when I checked in online…they moved my return trip several hours earlier. If id not checked in online, I’d have shown up for a nonexistent flight… ---
**Author:** ![ole1845](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/e495f1/32.png) [@ole1845](https://community.clark.com/u/ole1845)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2022, 5:42pm UTC](https://community.clark.com/t/does-booking-airfare-much-earlier-save-money/276/4 "2022-04-03T17:42:31Z")
If you book a Delta flight and later discover the price went down you can go on their website and rebook it and they will deposit the difference in fare as an e-credit for a future flight. You can use google flight alerts to let you know of flight price changes. ---
**Author:** ![Nicki54](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/e274bd/32.png) [@Nicki54](https://community.clark.com/u/Nicki54)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2022, 8:14pm UTC](https://community.clark.com/t/does-booking-airfare-much-earlier-save-money/276/5 "2022-04-06T20:14:32Z")
Both Columbus and Cincy are reasonable options for Dayton. They are generally, but not always, less expensive. Depends on your origin. If you live in a Breeze Airways city, Columbus is definitely a bargain. Drive from Columbus beats the drive from Cincinnati. ---
**Author:** ![Henrius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/87869e/32.png) [@Henrius](https://community.clark.com/u/Henrius)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2022, 2:00am UTC](https://community.clark.com/t/does-booking-airfare-much-earlier-save-money/276/6 "2022-04-07T02:00:13Z")
> [@SonoranSilkies](#): > > My last two trips they rescheduled, and the times changed significantly That is the biggest complaint I have heard with Southwest- cancelling or changing times of flights. ---
**Author:** ![TeamClarkAdmin](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/community.clark.com/teamclarkadmin/32/17_2.png) [@TeamClarkAdmin](https://community.clark.com/u/TeamClarkAdmin)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2023, 1:58pm UTC](https://community.clark.com/t/does-booking-airfare-much-earlier-save-money/276/7 "2023-04-17T13:58:20Z")
In the current travel environment, booking anytime closer than 21 days out is considered last minute. The prices increase exponentially if you book too close to your departure date. Google & [Going.com](http://Going.com) say that booking flights around 60 days out seems to be a sweet spot for affordable fares. ---
**Author:** ![KristinaDM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/47e85d/32.png) [@KristinaDM](https://community.clark.com/u/KristinaDM)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2023, 7:24pm UTC](https://community.clark.com/t/does-booking-airfare-much-earlier-save-money/276/8 "2023-06-28T19:24:51Z")
The Google travel app has a way to track flight prices. It’s not for all flights, but you can toggle a switch to track it. Kayak has a feature that tells you if the price is low/average/high and I think some tracking as well. ---
**Author:** ![Jan\_Brazell](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/community.clark.com/jan_brazell/32/1839_2.png) [@Jan\_Brazell](https://community.clark.com/u/Jan_Brazell)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2023, 9:49pm UTC](https://community.clark.com/t/does-booking-airfare-much-earlier-save-money/276/9 "2023-07-06T21:49:49Z")
Southwest used to be THE most reliable & safe airline. Wonder what happened to it?