Have you flown to this destination before? or, you have no idea of the regular price?

check different airlines and go with your gut feeling, and don't look back?

I just booked flights for 12/19-12/29 but the holiday is a factor there.

Other than not booking travel the week of or the week before (when you can avoid it), I don't think it much matters.

I agree with moni - book it whenever you want and then be done with it, don't look at it again.

Thanks folks! I didn't know if airline fares had big variables or not insofar as timely booking and I was curious about opinions. No, Moni, I've never flown here before and probably won't again - its a college graduation. I appreciate everyone's comments.

Not anymore. It used to be that you could see great differences, but in recent years, they are all in cahoots. All the old tricks about waiting until Tuesday at midnight, or even waiting 6 weeks before really don't apply.

The best is to have a credit card linked to an airline and you can get free flights.

I agree with Moni. For example, when I do have to pay for a Costa Rica trip, I do it way in advance and I know the prices.

You can get cheaper flights flying in and out during the week. Once you add a weekend, even just one day of a weekend, the price goes up which is what will happen in your case.

If this trip is important to you, I would book now. Years ago I used to have to book my DD's trips home from college. I would keep checking back and if the exact flight went down I would be credited the difference. Not sure if any airlines still do this, but it would be worth checking into.

Interesting, I've never heard of a college graduation ceremony in December.

If this is a big school in a small college town, flight reservations could be difficult because of the graduation itself or if you're leaving around the same time when students are leaving to go home for their vacation. If a bigger city, the graduation shouldn't overwhelm what's available.

This will be my second December graduation and while there should be 3 more ceremonies that I will eventually attend, they'll be a long time in the future as the other 3 grands are much younger.

For those familiar with December graduations, can you say what colleges were involved? I don't think the undergrad schools my kids went to had these and I know the one I went to didn't either (at the time)

Is it mostly for students who can't finish in 4 years and need an extra term, rather than those finishing early?

Book at least more than 30 days out. You can go to some of the fare-watcher sites for a week or so before you book to get an idea of flight price variation. I would not wait too long but it supposedly is better to book on Tuesdays.

Do book directly with an airline, not through Priceline, etc, and try to not have more than one stop with more than an hour layover in case your first leg flight is late (common). Even better but sometimes more expensive is a direct flight.

Elmer & other’s, I can’t recall exactly, but several years ago our kids (son and Dil) finished their Masters in Dec. Their grad ceremonies were a week or so after classes finished at the first of the month iirc. The school is fairly large (UAB) so they split the two semesters or they would never get through all the people graduating or have a venue large enough.

Going to Dec. 30th wedding and we have booked our flights. They usually go up in price flying during the holidays. I used Expedia and have always been pleased.

Elmer, our eldest took an extra quarter at SLO so that she could add a concentration in finance to her business degree. She graduated in December, and it was a schedule all day of the various colleges' graduations. Early hotel reservations are important too.

Elmer...I had a grandson graduate in Dec. He was in an Engineering program that was supposed to take 5 years and he finished in 4 1/2.

Okay, so at least on that list are Cal Poly and somewhere else. Thanks.

My younger daughter is going to Clemson. Starting her Senior year. She actually has enough credits to graduate in December, but wants to take some more she thinks are useful. So you can add Clemson, SC.

Elmer, fyi, my last December and this December grads are from Applachian State in NC. Here's a story from last year's ceremony.

https://today.appstate.edu/2017/12/16/commencement  

This year's graduate was overseas for a semester and the timing didn't work out perfectly and so she got back too late to start the semester here and had to skip one. But she ended up with a good internship in her field and so she worked at that in the meantime.

Add University of San Francisco to the list. I thought most universities had both spring (May) and fall (Dec.) commencements. UC Berkeley and UC Davis do. I am wondering what schools don't.

Depends what airline. Some have ticket sales around Thanksgiving where I can get tickets $50-75 off.

Hmm, maybe the experiences with my own kids lead me to the wrong impression. Could very well be. My kids all went to schools with high 4 year graduation rates and I know in each case, it wasn't a problem to take all classes required to complete a major and graduate by the spring semester of the senior year (as an undergrad) and staying longer was discouraged. Finishing sooner wasn't really possible.

Add William and Mary. I am sure there are many more.

A lot of schools have Dec commencement in addition to the traditional May one. Cornell, Penn, U of Michigan, USC, Purdue all do - sure there are many more. Some graduate then, having done Jan admittance, some due to having a huge number of AP credits. My grandson has 27 hrs of college credits from his AP’s, 8 of which count toward his major in the College of Engineering. Many of his classmates entering our local university will enter with full Sophomore standing, and enter med school after 3 years. Saves a ton of money. And with tuition prices these days, that’s huge.

My quick look at Penn's site has only a May commencement date listed on the calendar. I didn't look at the others, that was one I (thought) I knew about.

My kids had a lot of AP credits too but none of the schools (at the time) accepted them to waive classes in the major. Units, yes, on a limited basis with a score of 5 and sometimes 4. Major classes or prep for major classes - no, those had to be taken again.

Getting back to the OP's question, several airlines will refund you, in credits, if you notice that the price goes down after you book and call them then. You won't get cash back but you can get "banked" credits for another trip.

Jet Blue, for one. You just need to keep an eye on it nearly every day (you can set up alerts) and call them and request the credits.

Both kids graduated from University of Wisconsin-Madison and both graduated (different years) in December.

Ohio State also has graduations every term. It isn't always a matter of not finishing in 4 or less than 4 -- many student start with the winter term, or are working their way through (as my grandmother, father, and I all did) and attending part time or needing to skip a term.