When to Buy a Ticket

In message

someone claiming to be OccasionalFlyer typed:

Well, I booked a flight today on Westjet, though I can't say that
having to pay an extra fee for my plain old seat seemed like a
discount, and almost $400 from LAX to YVR seems like a lot to me, but
most other airlines (except Alaska Air) were more. Alaska just didn't
have the schedule I wanted.

The seat is included in the price of the ticket. Choosing the seat more
than 24 hours in advance costs extra, and if your goal is to find
specific seats it's money well spent. However, if you just want a seat
or three together, I've never once had a problem arranging this doing an
online check-in 24 hours out.

I'm not sure of your dates, but for a one way from LAX to YVR on March
21st (A date I'm already looking at, I just changed the destination),
you can pay $149 on Westjet or $200 on Alaska, $233 on United or $382 on
Air Canada (direct flights only, although you can save yourself $2
flying United with a 2h27m stopover in the middle)

Looking out to May 9th (probably closer to your plan?), I found one
flight on Air Canada for $136, Westjet is $149. Same thing for the half
a dozen other days I looked at in May.

Round trips seem to be around $318 on Air Canada and $356 on Westjet
today for a randomly selected weekish trip in May.

Personally I'd pay the $38 difference without even thinking, both to be
on Westjet and to not deal with Air Canada, although if I did want to
think, the first thing that I'd check would be baggage fees since
Westjet doesn't charge for a checked bag.

Oh and if you booked today, did you happen to get 10% off? If not,
"Promo code PCR64 and Coupon code HS9MDGH" together will get you 10%
off, these codes are good system wide until March 4th at 9:59MST, so if
you booked within the last 24 hours, check to make sure your prices are
still available, cancel for a full refund (check your ticket rules to
make sure you get a full cash refund, but you should get one in most
cases, call to confirm if there is doubt), and re-book using those
codes.