Best Deal on Flights?

[jcmaro]

I've heard there is bad days and bad times of day to book flights. What is the good time? And how far out should you book and how close is too late for good deals? Thanks!!

 

[Cruise]

Worst time to shop for flights in on the weekend. They know people have free time and are trying to do vacation planning, so the fares go up. Best time to shop for flights is Tuesday afternoon - Wednesday afternoon. Usually, one airline will start discounting flights on Tuesday morning and the others will follow suit to try to match fares over the next 24 hours. The cheapest flights will be on Wednesdays and Saturdays and the highest fares will be for flights on Fridays and Sundays.

When looking for fares, start looking as far out as possible to get a general idea of what the "usual" is. There was a recent article that said some blog tracked flights over an extended amount of time and found that the best fares to be had were at about 6 weeks out. But if you start looking early, you'll have an idea of what is and isn't a good fare for a particular route. The worst times to book are less than 2 weeks before your preferred flight date.

Good luck.

 

[ssawka]

Worst time to shop for flights in on the weekend. They know people have free time and are trying to do vacation planning, so the fares go up. Best time to shop for flights is Tuesday afternoon - Wednesday afternoon. Usually, one airline will start discounting flights on Tuesday morning and the others will follow suit to try to match fares over the next 24 hours. The cheapest flights will be on Wednesdays and Saturdays and the highest fares will be for flights on Fridays and Sundays.

When looking for fares, start looking as far out as possible to get a general idea of what the "usual" is. There was a recent article that said some blog tracked flights over an extended amount of time and found that the best fares to be had were at about 6 weeks out. But if you start looking early, you'll have an idea of what is and isn't a good fare for a particular route. The worst times to book are less than 2 weeks before your preferred flight date.

Good luck.

I'm not sure these rules still apply. It seems lately that a price is set on the first day tickets are available and continue to rise from there. I say book ASAP!

 

[ValpoCory]

Worst time to shop for flights in on the weekend. They know people have free time and are trying to do vacation planning, so the fares go up. Best time to shop for flights is Tuesday afternoon - Wednesday afternoon. Usually, one airline will start discounting flights on Tuesday morning and the others will follow suit to try to match fares over the next 24 hours. The cheapest flights will be on Wednesdays and Saturdays and the highest fares will be for flights on Fridays and Sundays.

When looking for fares, start looking as far out as possible to get a general idea of what the "usual" is. There was a recent article that said some blog tracked flights over an extended amount of time and found that the best fares to be had were at about 6 weeks out. But if you start looking early, you'll have an idea of what is and isn't a good fare for a particular route. The worst times to book are less than 2 weeks before your preferred flight date.

Good luck.

+1. I'd check Southwest.com and Kayak.com every day/every other day for 2 weeks before decided when to purchase. I know Southwest.com has cheap prices for the few few days after they release flight information several months out. Then they raise them, before sometimes dropping them again later.

 

[packofjedis]

I've been watching flights for months for the end of May. Cheapest by $100 was in December when I wasn't ready to book. Since then I haven't seen less than my starting price in February ($100 more than Dec's price). I'm past the 6 week prior time frame, I've shopped on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and every other day and nothing has come down. Actually right now the cheapest I can find and have found is about $20 more than February's price.

My advice would be to buy it as soon as you see a price that seems reasonable. It's just going to go up from there. I think the advice people are giving is what used to be true. Now with gas prices going up, airfare goes up too.

 

[sissy_ib]

I'm not sure these rules still apply. It seems lately that a price is set on the first day tickets are available and continue to rise from there. I say book ASAP!

I don't thing they do anymore either. The airlines have figured out all of these loop holes. I recently read that the best time is about 6 weeks out. Not sure how accurate that is.

 

[Mom2micayla]

I'm on the same train of thought that you should start shopping around as early as possible and book when you find a price that you're comfortable paying. Waiting until you're 6 weeks out to book could really bite you in the behind, especially if your dates aren't flexible or you're looking at high travel times like spring break, Christmas, Thanksgiving, etc. I know we traveled to WDW in March last year for Spring Break and booked our flights 6 months out. The prices did nothing but go up from there.