Best days to book airfare: how and when to look for profitable offers from airlines

Finding and booking airfare is an important part of planning a trip. Discovering good and affordable flights may seem like an art form, but these skills can be mastered by following certain economic rules of thumb to learn how to choose the best time to book flights. The two main ones are that reservations for flights open up a year in advance, and the cost of airline tickets will often go up and down throughout the period leading up to departure. On this basis, the main thing you need to do to buy good tickets is to book them well in advance.

But many other factors determine airfare pricing, including the destination, season, and time of year. There are some destinations where you can take your time and not be overzealous about figuring out the best time to buy, and buy good flight tickets best time to buy a couple of weeks before departure. In other cases, it is worth doing this at least a few months in advance, for example, if you are going to a popular tourist destination during a period of high demand.

Ticket prices are also affected by the general market environment. For example, right after the end of the pandemic, their cost peaked. Then prices slowly started to decrease but remained high due to increasing demand and limited supply.

In any case, all factors affecting the dynamics of airfares are related to time in one way or another. Finding the best time for flight booking is not easy, but we are willing to share some tips to help you. The first thing you should do as soon as you start planning your future trip is to start tracking ticket prices as early as possible to identify periods of price fluctuation. It is convenient to use special applications or programs for this purpose, such as Hopper or Google Flight, thanks to which you will be able to receive notifications about price changes for the flights you are interested in.

For a long time, there were even recommendations about the day of the week when is the best time to order plane tickets. Even now, in various articles on the Internet, you can find advice to book tickets on Tuesday. Ten years ago, it had the right to exist because, on Tuesdays, airlines usually launched new sales, quickly negotiating prices among themselves. However, this practice is now long gone. The ticket and hotel search platform Expedia conducted its study in which it found that over the past four years, travelers made the most profitable purchases on Sundays, saving 5% on domestic flights and 15% on international flights. On the other hand, Google presented its study, according to which buying tickets in the middle of the week was slightly more profitable than on weekends. But its outcome was a statement that is closer to the truth than anything else: today, trying to figure out which are the best days to book flights has little resonance. It makes much more sense to look at the time before departure and the peak periods of the season.

The best time to book domestic flights

Popular flight, ticket, and hotel search platform CheapAir.com conducted a study last year on when are the best times to book flights for domestic flights. According to their results, the optimal time to do so is about 76 days before your flight date. This does not mean that you should wait for 76 days and buy a ticket right away. The favorable period for booking lasts much longer - from about 127 to 21 days. Good tickets can be found during this window. But the most favorable price is set about 2.5 months in advance.

Expedia gives even more favorable conclusions: the best time to reserve airline tickets for domestic flights is between 28 and 35 days before departure. Google determines the best day to buy flight tickets is also close to these figures - 44 days before departure. Even though all studies provide results with quite a big difference, they all agree on one thing - you should not postpone the purchase of tickets until the last moment. You should take care of the flight for your trip at least 3 weeks before departure.

The first increase in the cost of tickets for domestic flights comes about a year before the flight, as soon as the first of them are on sale. Then the price gradually slides down to its lowest in the previously mentioned period of 4 months to a few weeks before the flight. And then their price rises sharply when travelers are no longer able to choose the best days to buy airfare and have to take what they have.

The best time to book international flights

For traveling between countries, it's best to book your tickets as early as possible. Expedia has identified the most profitable period at least six months before your desired departure. Also according to its data, you can save about 10% on lodging if you take care of it six months before arrival rather than two months or less.

According to CheapAir.com, there are some regional differences in determining the best days to book airfare. For example, for flights to Canada, the best time to buy tickets is 300 days to 3.5 months before departure, to Central America, it's 5 to 2 months before departure, and for travel to Africa, the optimal window to book tickets is 10 to 2 months before the departure date. The best deals for flights to Europe were found 129 days before departure, but the favorable window for booking is 50 to 179 days. And flights to Mexico or the Caribbean didn't need such early booking: the best time to buy airline tickets remained between 37 and 87 days before departure, and the best deals were found 59 days in advance.

Advanced booking of airline tickets helps in most cases and is the basis for successful travel arrangements. But the main trick to planning is not only the date when it is best to book flights but also to avoid peak periods when most travelers are traveling. This could be vacations during the summer or weekends for major vacations. Pay attention to these factors not only for your country but also for the country you are traveling to. Otherwise, you risk arriving at your destination during a major celebration with correspondingly high ticket, accommodation, and entertainment prices and huge crowds of tourists.

The best time to book your summer flights for 2024

Summer is the traditional period for traveling and the most popular time of the year for tourists around the world. Finding bargain tickets for summer flights is not easy as there are not enough offers due to the huge demand, so it is important to determine the best moment to book a flight.

The general rule of thumb for this time is to book flights as early as possible. According to Expedia and Hopper, the best time to book a flight is at least six months before the desired departure date. Prices usually peak during the summer season, so it's not like you can find the best date and time to book a flight weeks in advance. Fares usually peak in June but will start to decline in July and August. If you are planning a summer trip, aim for the end of summer when you can already find good deals.

The best time to book your vacation tickets for 2024

If you think it's too early to look for the best time to book flights for a holiday in 2024 (best time to book flights for 2023), then you're an inexperienced traveler. If you want to plan a trip for Thanksgiving or Christmas, it's best to book your tickets as early as September. But it's a good idea to start tracking price trends to find the best day to order plane tickets even earlier.

For travelers who fly quite often throughout the year, another little trick is to take advantage of price reductions to rebook your flight when the best time for buying plane tickets arrives. While basic economy fares don't change on most airlines, standard fares can easily be changed on many airlines. This way, you can book a fare that gives you a voucher in case you cancel your reservation. If flight prices drop, all you have to do is cancel your original ticket and use the resulting credit to purchase a cheaper option. You can then apply the balance to future travel, but make sure your credit doesn't expire.