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The best time to buy flights for your summer vacation, the holidays, and more
The best time to buy flights for your summer vacation, the holidays, and more
Kelly LaffeyApr 8, 2018, 18:44 IST
Maridav/Shutterstock
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The best time to buy a flight can vary based on when you're trying to travel.
Travel websites like CheapAir and Skyscanner research the best times to buy flights for every type of trip.
A good rule of thumb is 70 days before you leave, but that can change based on whether you're booking holiday travel or have flexible dates.
Snagging a great flight deal can feel like playing the lottery. But getting the best possible airfare for a flight doesn't have to be just "plane" difficult - in some ways, there is a method to the madness.
CheapAir.com recently released their 2018 Airfare Study - an annual report on the best time to buy flights. They crunched the numbers on over 900 million airfares to determine that in 2017, the best time to buy a flight within the continental U.S. was 70 days in advance.
The key when booking a flight is to know your priorities - is it important that you go to a specific place? That you get away at a specific time? Once you have your non-negotiable factors set, finding the most economical flight comes down to putting in the time to research.
The report found that flights booked between 21 and 121 days before you leave are within the "prime booking window," where you’re likely to find flights within 5% of their lowest possible fare.
If you book within 2-3 weeks of your trip, you can still find decent prices, but may sacrifice perks like preferred seat selection, CheapAir found. If at all possible, avoid purchasing a flight less than one week in advance. You'll pay, on average, $208 more if you book a flight between 0 and 6 days in advance.
For your summer/fall/winter/spring vacation
CheapAir's survey notes that the best time to buy flights for your summer vacation is 47 days in advance. But, consider when you want to take your summer vacation. As Business Insider previously reported, August 23 is known as "cheap flight day" — some experts claim that it’s the cheapest time to fly, while others say that it’s the cheapest time to buy a flight.
In actuality, there is some truth to both. Fares tend to drop for late summer travel, and the end of August is also a great time to purchase tickets for fall flights, as many destinations enter their off season, Business Insider reports.
The best time to buy flights for your winter vacation (excluding the holidays, which we'll tackle next) is 62 days in advance, according to the CheapAir report. For fall travel, it's 69 days in advance, and for spring travel, it’s 90 days in advance.
For the holidays
According to a 2018 report by Skyscanner, a flight search engine, the best time to book flights for Christmas and New Year’s Eve is 11 weeks out—the week of October 22 for Christmas, and the week of October 29 for New Year's.
CheapAir has a holiday trend report where you can track prices for Thanksgiving and winter holiday travel.
For when you're flexible
One of the best ways to find deals is to be flexible with your travel plans. A number of airfare search engines, including Kayak,Skyscanner and Google Flights let you search by date or location only.
For example, If your dates are set but you’re flexible on the place, both Kayak and Skyscanner have "anywhere/everywhere" options in their search functions. Both sites will show you the cheapest locales for your preferred days.
If you have your heart set on a specific destination, all three of these search engines will also allow you to compare the cheapest times to visit, set price alerts for when the cost increases or decreases, and allow you to search for nearby airports that may offer better flights.
Social media can also be very useful in helping you to find the best airfare. JetBlue, for example, tweets about flash sales — I once purchased a $29 one-way ticket from New York City to Washington, D.C. because the airline was having a Leap Year sale. If you have a destination in mind, research the airlines that fly into that airport, join their newsletters, and keep an eye out on their social platforms.
