When is best time to book flights?
Kayak.com, farechase.com are among the best search engines to book flights. But based on my own experience, the air fares not only depend on the search engines you used and the date of travel, but also depend on when you book the flights. This could be easily ignored by many people who work during the week and tend to book the flights on weekends.
According to travel experts, the best time to book the flights is Wednesday when airlines release their available seats for the upcoming weekend and the weekend after. Anne Banas, executive editor of SmarterTravel.com, a consumer travel advice Web site, added that the best time is Tuesday evening, and Wednesday morning, 21 days (or a couple of days earlier) before your flights. This is the time airlines trying to fill up the seats.
In addition, it is best to book domestic flights at least two weeks in advance, and even earlier for international flights. If you can not book the tickets two weeks ahead, delayed the purchase within a week of your fly. The tickets from 7 to 14 days ahead of departure are the most expensive.
Thanks, didn’t know about wednesday! I can supplement this post with a few good additional tips I found at http://www.fly-how.com
Donie,
Thanks very much for the information. Very nice links and good tips.
To summary the tips on http://www.fly-how.com/ here:
1. Buy airline tickets at least 1-2 months in advance
2. Schedule your flight flexibly
3. Check the flights from the neighbourhood airports
4. Check out round-trip fares, even if you are flying one-way
5. Avoid holidays
6. Be smart in using systems comparing air tickets prices
7. Browse the websites of airlines. Low fares airlines too
8. Follow “sales” by ordering the newsletter
9. If you travel out of the continent, try to do it via London or the like
10. Choose electronic tickets
When to book flights makes a big difference in terms of flight fares. You can easily save hundreds of dollars booking at the right date. The flight fare will also depend on the date of traveling and the airports. When you book travel, you can select the nearby airports and flexible dates to save on the tickets.
It is my hobby to search for cheapest flights, even if I dont end up going, and I forsure found a trend that ariline prices change during the day. Its been a while since I’ve checked this but booking in the morning is usually much cheaper than booking at night. its like the airlines have a quota they need to meet that day, and so its cheapest in the morning and once enough seats are sold the prices go up.
Very good point. Thanks for sharing! Patrick
pls i will like to kn how to book fight ahead like two weeks and what is require to book it
Yes. It actually happened to me. I was surfing the web to book for San Diego on Wednesday morning arount 8:30 am. I did not pay cause I don’t have my card with me. I then delayed it and decided to go online again on Thursday night around 11PM. Wow, the price went up with a $100 difference, thinking we’re 5 passengers. I will just check it again, until the price go down again this coming Wednesday.
When is the best time to book a vacation package for Mexico?? My trip is in December….
Best bet is
Book at least two month ahead,
Book at Tuesday night
I don’t agree with Tues PM like one famous site said! Yesterday, Tues at 3 PM flights to SLC were $600, today Wed 3:00 they are as low as $431.