I've been checking the airfare for LAX-AMS for August on kayak and sidestep (both are essentially the same now). It was hovering around $1250-$1275 till yesterday. I've added Brussels and Brugge for my itinerary so now it's LAX-AMS-BRU-LAX. Yesterday, I priced an airfare for one person for that itinerary at $1308. Because we're a party of 6, I checked today on kayak for that many people and came back with $1336 as the cheapest! The lesson learned is that I should check for airfare for the number of people in my party. I was under the impression that there are still plenty of seats so it didn't matter whether I checked for one or six persons. Obviously, I was wrong. I can't believe I have to rush to buy tickets 7 months in advance. Last year around this time I was buying tickets for June.

I'm going to buy my tickets tomorrow. Before that, are there search engines other than kayak and sidestep I should check?

Thanks.

http://www.mobissimo.com/search_airfare.php

Try this site to compare.

Also, I booked my premium economy seats with British Air 330 days prior to my flight. Price jumped quite abit within a month after my purchase.

These prices you posted seem fairly high to me for economy. Could you fly to London and then continue on to Amsterdam?

Chiaro - I tried that website which is run by Orbitz. Kayak still came out cheaper. I could fly to London, but I'm not sure how that helps, as kayak gave me $1100 for LAX-LHR. With another RT leg for LHR-AMS, the total will very likely come to at least $1300.

A couple of months ago I saw this feature in 20/20 and they said that the best time to buy a ticket is 3-4 months before your departure. Buying it 6,8 or 12 months in advance you typically will get the "normal" ticket rates that have been initially published. If your itinerary are popular destinations like AMS and theres a lot of flights from your airport to that destination then you can try this approach. I started checking flights through AA last Oct for my april 08 trip and the flight is 20 dollars cheaper today than it was in oct. Of course this may not work all the time. What I do is try to book a flight online and just put it on hold (American Airlines lets you do that). It then lets me make seat assignments when I see a ton of seats empty then I wait a few but if most of the seats are taken then that flight probably wont stay open long so I grab it if thats my only option.

You can also try http://www.airfarewatchdog.com/ it gives you alerts and even access to business class and first class seats that are discounted.

You might also try searching on ITA Software "Searching Airfares using QPX":
http://www.itasoftware.com/

What is happening is that there may be A number of seats available at the cheapest price, and B number of seats available at the next cheapest price.

So, for example, what can happen is that you get charged the B rate for all six tickets, even if there were two available at the lowest price and four available at the next lowest price. It's quite tricky to maneuver.

www.expertflyer.com may help a bit, because it lists the number of seats available in each booking class for particular flights, but the airline can decide to change these numbers.

I don't believe the 3-4 month rule, although it may be true more often than not. I've seen airline sales and fare mistakes happen at practically every single point in the 11-month cycle.

Thank you all for your suggestions and wisdom. I tried the suggested search sites this morning and they all came back with similar fares and flights. There must be airline du jour. Yesterday, the cheapest was on Continental. Today it's on Delta. It's a big mystery how airfare pricing is determined! The cheapest flight on Continental yesterday had plenty of empty seats too.

The number of airline seats are fixed so the number can only decrease with time. As seat availability decreases, it's logical that price goes up. My opionion is that sales are unlikely for popular August travel dates. Since more people are traveling and airlines have not increased the # of flights (so I've heard), I think the squeeze is tighter this year. With the high euro, I think high airfare during popular travel month to popular destination is just another thing we must bear to travel to Europe. Unless we're willing to change destination or not go at all, we're stuck. Life is too short to wait around...

I am trying for Amsterdam for first two weeks of May and I am getting for a non-stop $1000 w/taxes and one or two stops $900-$1000. IMHO, I think its too soon to be booking for August for AMS...but whatever makes you feel comfortable. The only time I have bought that far in advance was last year when I spotted a deal on British Air for $497 RT w/taxes. I saw it in January and the ticket was for the end of October...good luck!

Well, I finally did it last night. With all the help I got from people on this forum, I bought tickets to Amsterdam for August. What a relief this is!! I was getting anxious and nervous researching airfares. I hate having to plunk down so much money so early, committing to what I'll do in 7 months. But at last I can get to the fun part of trip planning! Thanks everyone for this stage of planning.

I shouldn't have been doing this but I have been checking airfare now and then after I purchased them back in January. Today the fare for my tickets went down by $50/person!! An article in the LA Times Travel section a couple of weeks ago predicted that airlines could be lowering their fares for the spring. I feel like a sucker for having bought them early... Well, next year I'm going to wait until at least March for summer fares. Maybe early birds don't always get the worm.

flennie, it could have gone either way and you might have only got 5 seats instead of 7 at that price. You just don't know.

flennie, don't feel bad, I bought my fares to london 3 months ahead of my departure date and today, a month later the fares have dropped $174 for the exact same flight. I think it's a good idea to start 3 months in advance and then keep checking for a 2-3 week period to see fare trends before buying around the 2 month mark.

Check with the airlines to see if you can get the price reduction. It may depend on the class you have but you might save a few bucks.