Air Travelers Beware Don't Book Too Early Or You May Overpay

Air Travelers Beware, Don't Book Too Early Or You May Overpay.

Air Travelers Have The Freedom To Fly Cheaper Through March 6, 2009.

Southwest Airlines has now extended their flight schedule and airfares from January 9, 2009 to March 6, 2009.

This new extended schedule and airfares, by Southwest Airlines, has forced most of the major airlines including American Airlines, United Airlines, Continental Airlines, US Airways, Delta Airlines and Northwest Airlines to roll back their airfares to match these new lower airfares for travel through March 6, 2009.

It's important today for air travelers to watch and monitor airfare sales offered by low-cost airlines such as: AirTran, Jetblue, Spirit, Virgin America and Frontier Airlines and in the case of Southwest Airlines, their booking schedule. Most U.S. airlines accept reservations up to 330 days in advance. Southwest Airlines only accepts reservations up to 200 days or less.

Due to this shorter booking window, many of the major airlines on routes served by Southwest Airlines, will only match their lower airfares to the end of the schedule and charge much more for dates further out. The old rule of booking as far in advance to qualify for the cheapest airfare is no longer valid.

For example, on August 20, 2008, the cheapest airfare being offered by American Airlines, Continental Airlines and Delta Airlines to San Diego for travel January 22, 2009, was $404 roundtrip. Today, American Airlines, Continental Airlines and Delta Airlines have rolled back their lowest airfares, due to Southwest Airlines extended airfare schedule to $278 roundtrip. A difference of $126 roundtrip.

We also checked to see what the airfare between Dallas to San Diego is for travel March 13, 2009, a period that Southwest Airlines has no flight schedule or published airfares, and not to our surprise, the $278 roundtrip airfare jumps back to $404 roundtrip.

It's Flyer Beware when it comes to not only finding the Bestfares, but when to buy the Bestfares. We suggest that you sign up for email alerts from the low-cost airlines and to other third party Hot Deals By Email, such as Bestfares.com, that tracks not only airfare hikes, but the important airfare sales.

We suggest since Southwest Airlines and other low-cost carriers don't serve every U.S. destination to compare airfares to nearby airports that do.

Listed below are other sample airfares that have changed over the last 24 hours.

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