Travel Tips
Travel Tip: What’s the Best Day to Buy Plane Tickets?
It’s a question I’m asked all the time.
Is there really a better day—or time of day—to buy your airline tickets?
The answer, quite simply, is that everyone claims to have an answer.
After midnight on Tuesday nights…or very late on Friday nights.
How about 54 days ahead of the day you really want to fly?
The real answer here is that there is no answer.
Airlines update fares about 250,000 times a day.
Everything is based on computer modeling that follows the booking and capacity issue of individual routes dating three years back and projecting one year ahead.
If the projected capacity on your flight matches the pricing, there won’t be deals.
But if the model doesn’t hold up, the discounts happen.
My rule of thumb is to generally pick midweek flights in the middle of the day about 45 days ahead of time.
That is, unless you’re planning on flying the Wednesday before Thanksgiving or the Friday before the Super Bowl.
In those cases, book as far as 330 days out if you’re hoping to get a deal.
For more information about booking plane tickets, check out:
- How You Can Save on Airfare This Fall
- New Ways to Bid on a Seat Upgrade
- Are You Getting a Good Deal With Base Airfare?
Keep reading for more travel tips.