There is a best time to book flights: Wednesday at 1 am, just one hour after Tuesday midnight.
Why? Turns out, most low airfares seem to appear between Sunday night and Monday night. And then, when people find those fares, they have 24 hours in which to purchase them. At midnight Tuesday, all the discount fares that weren’t purchased come flooding back into the airline’s computer systems. And that’s when you strike.
You can’t do this online…you need to have a conversation with a human being at the airline.
Here’s the catch: The rule doesn’t apply to one particular time zone. It applies best to the time zone of the airline’s hub.
Here are the best times to book flights as well and the numbers you need to call for all the U.S. airlines:
Eastern Standard Time
- Delta Air Lines / 1-800-455-2720
- JetBlue Airways / 1-800-538-2583
- Spirit Airlines / 1-801-401-2222
Central Time Zone
- AirTran Airways / 1-800-247-8726
- American Airlines / 1-800-433-7300
- American Eagle Airlines (soon to be called Envoy) / 1-817-967-1577
- Southwest Airlines / 1-800-43-9792
- United Airlines / 1-800-864-8331
- US Airways/ 1-800-428-4322
Mountain Time Zone
- Frontier Airlines / 1-800-432-1359
Pacific Time Zone
- Alaska Airlines / 1-800-252-7522
- Allegiant Air / 1-702-505-8888
- Virgin America / 1-877-359-8474
Hawaii-Aluetian Time Zone
- Hawaiian Airlines/ 1-800-367-5320
Click here to discover more of Peter Greenberg’s flying tips.
