Last-minute plane tickets?
Is the concern about finding a decent fare or just finding a flight? You’re really not to the ‘last minute’ stage for Christmas at this point, especially if you are somewhat flexible on your dates, although it is harder than many periods. I got tickets on less than 24 hours notice a couple of weeks ago due to a family emergency. Some flights only had astronomical fares, but others were just moderately higher than if I had reserved months ahead. Also, if you have frequent flyer miles, they can sometimes be helpful in getting last minute reservations without paying too much. As far as finding flights, I know that United has a ‘my dates are flexible’ option on their website and many travel sites now do them flight by flight, so you don’t necessarily have to pick both departure and return dates in order to see the fares or availability. Also, often if you travel ON the actual holiday date, you can do a little better.
I hope this helps. Good luck!
Keep in mind that tickets booked with frequent flyer miles do charge a fee which gets higher the closer you are to the travel dates. Also, the miles required to get the ticket increase as well. The sooner the better if you plan to use miles.
If you use an aggregator like Kayak.com or Momondo.com, you can specify how flexible you are on dates, and see on a grid or a bar chart what the best fares are for each day. Based on your dates I'd guess the fare would range between $400 to $700, but you may find a better deal by looking on another day. Momondo asserts that prices are likely to fall soon.
Prices for Christmas /New Years week have likely dropped as much as they will drop. I’d wait maybe 2-3 more weeks but at that point, fares will likely only go up.
There’s no “last minute” deals anymore- no great sales last minute. Typically flights hold steady about 3-weeks before and they will climb 1-2 weeks before as fees are added for late booking (if using miles for example). One exception has been Frontier airlines which seems to run specials for travel within the next month as they have seats to fill. As budget as they are, my family has been using them from Islip to FL past few years and they are always on time and sometimes dirt cheap (like $60 RT). They just started flying out of EWR
Try Scott's Cheap Flights: https://scottscheapflights.com
More international than domestic, but you might find something.
I've been using Google Flights a lot lately to find flights and fares. I like how it shows you a calendar with fares on the dates, so if you're flexible with your travel dates you can easily see cheaper fares in a range of dates.
I do this because my work travel website is much clunkier.
I fly last minute all the time and use skiplagged.com. I'd advise reading the terms though, there's some risk involved.
Does anyone have experience getting last minute flight tickets? My 17 year old & I are planning to visit family in West Palm Beach between Christmas & New Years. It's not important that we be there on any particular date, just that we be back by New Year's Eve.