VS wrote:
Qantas has every date between Dec 20 and Dec 23 available for $1900
roundtrip or so. Pricey, of course, but it's the lowest published
fare for these dates. Consolidators seem to have the same dates for
less on UA.

How do you know they are the lowest published fares for those dates ?
Are you 100% sure that whatever web site you are using isn't filtering
out fares that are no longer available ?


There are also cases of tour operators blocking large amount of seats
early on and later on releasing seats they may not need. Booking your
seats before the tour operators do means you have an assured place on
that aircraft at the lowest fare available at that time. Wait until the
tour operators release their unused seats and you risk not getting a
seat at all or not getting a seat at the lowest fare.

It really depends on the routes and specific dates.

A different example: this spring, a ferry, the Queen of the North sank
in BC. BF Ferries is stuck with only one ship capable of doing this open
water run through the inside passage, down from 2, and that ship has
less capacity than the QofN. Right now, there is no available space in
September because as soon as it happened, tour operators booked all
available space on all sailings to keep their options opened, and BC
Ferries is now working with them to release seats the tour operators
won't be using on a week by week basis. Those who had booked as soon as
the new schedules were announced would have had assured place on the
date of their choice. Thos who didn't will have to wait until probablty
a few weeks before their sailing time to get a confirmation and this may
wreck their plans.

There are times when paying a bit extra for a regular apex fare ends up
being more convenienty because you then have an assured seat on the day
of travel of your choice. Of course, that far ahead, you risk the
schedule changing as well. (and this comes back to Delta having higher
risk of changing its schedules in the next 12 months).