When to buy plane tickets

[julers]

I was curious to know if anyone has figured out a "golden rule" of sorts for buying plane tickets (by plane, I mean easyjet etc).

How long should you wait before buying your tickets, or should you buy them as soon as they become available?

I usually buy mine asap, but I was wondering if there were benefits to holding out for a little while right before they crank their prices up. Does anyone know when the companies typically start raising their prices?

[pointofnoreturn]

Buy yours ASAP. The downside with European budget airline is that the prices get higher as you get close to the travelling date. There's no point in waiting.

[herrbert]

completely agree with pointofnoreturn, as soon as you know the dates you want to fly, book them. try at least to book them 2 months before the trip, but like she told you earlier, waiting longer has no use.

another 'golden rule' is double-check where they are flying. especially Ryanair often mentions a city, but have their flight arriving miles away, leaving you with a trip of an hour (sometimes close to 2 hours) to reach you destination.

Some examples on RyanAir:
Paris = Beauvais (70-80 miles from Paris)
Vienna = Bratislava (another country !!)
Milan = Bergamo (more airlines fly from this airport)
Florence = Pisa
Barcelona = Girona
Stockholm = Skavska or Vasteras
Düsseldorf = Weeze