Best time to buy tickets?

[Heynekamp]

Planning on another exploratory trip from the last week in November to early January. Thoughts on when the best time to buy tickets? Now, right before we go, after the world cup? I'll be going from the US to NZ; is LAX or SFO recommended?

[wiseboy22]

Have a look and see what the flight prices are now. It will be a chance you take, whether they go up or down! I booked my flights to go over at the end of September about 4 weeks ago, and they seem to have stayed the same price. There are lots of factors to take into account as well- airline, route, dates, etc!

[Dell]

I was in NZ this past March. When shopping for the ticket, the lowest prices on AirNZ were in Sept and Oct. I didn't buy then - hoping they'd go lower. They dropped a bit - but not as low as they had been.

As I'll be going to NZ again in February, I'm back to fare-watching. The fares just dropped about a week ago and it looks like they'll stay lower for a couple of weeks.

LAX or SFO? Definitely SFO if the flight is convenient. The AirNZ ticket counter in LAX is in an old part of the terminal. When they start check-in, the line often goes out onto the sidewalk. AirNZ tkt counter in SFO is in a much nicer location.

Edited to add: The weather in November may be cooler and rainier than in January but high-season is mid-December through the end of January so fares are usually more then. (and the kids are out of school so everyone goes on holiday)

[LuminaireX]

I left on 9/11. The plane was half-empty and a one-way ticket was like $600. Nobody wants to fly on that day.

PS: Incidentally, I'm also from Arizona, welcome home! Fly out of PHX on US Airways and pay extra for the bags if you need to.

[Dell]

This evening I booked a ticket to NZ (return - round trip) PHX-LAX-AKL for US$1220. This is a really good price - cheapest I've seen in a while! There were only a few seats left.

[kiwieagle]

They usually kick out some deals for the end of November and the first week of December. It must get pretty slow right before the holidays. Best time to buy is around 5 to 7 weeks before you want to go.
Sometimes they have specials that make SFO and LAX the same price and sometimes LAX is slightly cheaper. It also depends on if you want to go to AKL or CHC or some other destination. Again, they sometimes have specials that make AKL and CHC the same.

[LuminaireX]

Air New Zealand usually posts international deals on Grabaseat when they anticipate high demands for flights that fail to sell well. They might even do it on the North American site but I never watch that one anymore. You have to be ready to go in like a week and can only stay for 2-3 weeks max, but at least the price is right. They recently did one to LAX for $800 return, and I'm betting my holiday plans that they'll do another one around Christmas/New Years.