Buy Plane Tickets Two and a Half Months Earlier
You’ve all heard that. Buy on Tuesday! Wake up at 5am! Buy a separate return flight! But travel advice is rarely universal.
However, thanks to a recent report from CheapAir.com , which analyzed about 917 million individual flights in 2018, we do have some useful insights into when we should finally buy our flights.
Booking a flight about two months in advance is the best option.
Did you know that the price of a regular flight changes 61 times before departure? According to the report , the best time to buy a ticket in 2018 was anywhere from four months to three weeks before the scheduled departure. However, 76 days was the best option (and up from 70 days in last year’s report and 54 days two years ago), proving that booking two and a half months before your planned trip has its advantages.
You don’t want to book too early, as tempting as it may be. Bookings longer than four months will cost travelers between $ 20 and $ 50 more, which is not a big deal considering that early booking can give you benefits such as choosing a flight at a more convenient time.
Traveling on weekdays is ideal
As in last year’s report, Sundays were the most expensive days to fly; Cheapest on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. This differs from the days on which flights were actually booked. Bookings on Tuesday or Sunday had a slight difference last year, perhaps $ 1, so there is no real secret here as to which day of the week you should book.
Plan ahead for months of stressful travel
The seasons were also important. If you are booking a summer vacation, you need to book earlier (ideally a little over three months) than if you are planning a trip in the fall (ideally 69 days), with spring and winter. This is simply because most of the travel is in the summer, so it is more competitive. Winter is also quite busy considering the Christmas holidays and free time.
Don’t get lost in daily fluctuations
So what have we learned? First, you don’t need to pay attention to the daily changes in airfare. It’s a waste of time and prices will vary slightly. The best strategy is to strike about two and a half months in advance and plan a trip that departs and returns on a weekday, such as Tuesday or Wednesday. But it’s perfectly okay to buy anytime within four months and up to three weeks earlier. Fares are usually within 5% of the lowest point during this time, so you won’t be missing out on too much unless you are sure to pull the trigger on your flight in the weeks before departure.
As we wrote earlier , Skyscanner recommended two to three weeks for domestic flights, which is a less conservative estimate than CheapAir.com. If you are unable to pre-order and want to take the advice of Skyscanner and CheapAir.com, the second option is to wait exactly three weeks before your expected departure date.
And whatever you do, you should know that last minute booking almost never has any benefits. It costs travelers an average of $ 220 more to book in the week before departure than if they had booked at a more convenient time.