The Best Days to Book a Flight and When to Fly - NerdWallet (2024)

FAQs

What day of the week is the best day to book a flight? ›

As previously mentioned, booking airfare on Sunday is cheaper than other days of the week, especially Fridays. Be willing to fly mid-week. Since Thursdays tend to be the cheapest day to fly, see if you can tweak your travel plans so you depart and fly home during the week instead of on weekend days. Set price alerts.

Tuesdays may not be favorable for booking, but if you're hoping to score major savings, booking your departure on a Tuesday or Wednesday is a surefire way to do so. Mid-week flights offer the best deal prices in comparison to flights departing the rest of the week.

The general rule is that for domestic flights, travelers should start searching for flight tickets one to three months in advance. For international flights, the best prices are typically available from two to eight months in advance. Prices can also vary widely among airlines.

Figuring out when are flights cheapest and finding a great deal on flights can feel like a full-time job with all the changes in airfare, but use this general rule when booking: Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays are typically the cheapest days to fly.

The majority of passengers prefer to travel during the day, which leads to multiple vacant seats for midnight flights. To fill out those vacant seats, the airline has no choice but to reduce the prices. Different flight options - You will get multiple flight options during the night for short and long-duration flights.

You may not get cheaper airfare by booking on a specific day, but when you plan on flying can affect the price of the ticket. Generally, Mondays and Fridays are more expensive than Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. Keyes says this is mainly because business travelers tend to avoid traveling in the middle of the week.

“Historically, Tuesdays were the cheapest day to book flights,” says Laura Lindsay, global travel trends expert for trip-booking website Skyscanner. “This was broadly true prepandemic as seasonality and even weekly pricing cycles were more predictable. However, this is no longer a hard and fast rule.”

Some experts suggest purchasing your tickets on a Tuesday afternoon, while others insist that this technique might not produce the results you're after. Buying airfare at the stroke of midnight can yield a small amount of savings, say others, but it may not always be worth it to stay up late just to book a flight.

It's widely accepted as gospel: “The cheapest day to book flights is on Tuesdays.” But it's time to set the record straight: It's just not true. Yes, you can find cheap flights on Tuesdays. But you might get a better deal on a Wednesday.

Bottom Line. Booking on Friday will cost you more, and booking on Sunday can save you up to 15% on your airline tickets. But there are tons of ways to save even more on airline tickets instead of just waiting until Sunday to book your flights.

What is the sweet spot for booking flights? ›

There's a sweet spot travelers should hit when shopping for their plane tickets. The sweet spot is the time frame during which airlines are motivated to sell seats more quickly, giving you as the buyer the upper hand. For domestic flights, that sweet spot is one to three months prior to departure.

Is there a cheapest month to fly? If you're looking for a bargain month to travel, January is best. Flights in February are a close second for being most affordable. At the other end of the spectrum, November and July are the first and second most expensive months to travel, on average.

Currently, Frontier Airlines offers the lowest-priced flights around United States. The lowest price we found over the next 12 months is $34.

According to our data and flight price history, Tuesday is the day to book. It seems most airlines launch their discounts on Monday nights, so you can pick up the best prices on Tuesday mornings. Typically, you'll save somewhere between 15 and 25 percent.

Timing plays an important part. Specifically, plane tickets usually don't get cheaper closer to the departure date or if you book too early—more than five months in advance. Instead, flights tend to be the least expensive when you book between 5.5 and 1.5 months (164 and 46 days) in advance of your departure date.

The oft-repeated idea that it's cheaper to purchase airfare on Tuesdays is simply not true. We analyzed airline price trends every day of the week and busted this myth with the discovery that observing demand trends over time was far more important than booking on a specific day of the week.

Lower Demand: Tuesdays and Wednesdays are generally less popular travel days, resulting in lower demand for flights. Airlines use lower prices to entice travelers to book flights on these less-desirable days.

Fares are usually lower on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Saturdays and highest on Fridays and Sundays. Flights later in the evening are also usually lower demand. Search nearby area airports. Low fares sold out at one airport, may be available at another nearby airport.

Unlike some airlines that rarely offer sales on fares, Southwest regularly puts flights on sale. Pretty much every Tuesday, in fact. The sales typically apply to cash bookings as well as redeeming Southwest points.