What day of the week is the cheapest to book flights?
What day of the week is the cheapest to book flights?
There arecertain patterns if you look at the cost of airline tickets over a long period of time
Airfares vary depending on the day you book and the period you plan to travel. Not to mention that prices will vary throughout the year or on any particular day of the month.
Nevertheless, there are certain patterns and some organizations have conducted research to find out the cheapest day of the week to book airline tickets. Such studies include Expedia's 2024 Air Travel Hacks Report, which used actual flight data to help consumers choose the most affordable time to book airline tickets or flights in the friendly skies within the United States or abroad, The Epoch Times writes.
So, what's the cheapest day to book flights? To find out, Expedia used data collected by the Airlines Reporting Corporation, which has information on 15 billion flights from 490 airlines.
While the cheapest day to actually pay for airfare can vary from week to week, Expedia's data shows that consumers who book on Sunday instead of Friday tend to save about five percent on domestic and international economy class flights. On domestic business class flights, consumers can expect to save about seven percent, and on international business class flights, about 24 percent.
Expedia also notes that Sunday was the cheapest day to book flights in 2021, 2022, and 2023, but the level of savings varied from year to year.
If you want to save more, Expedia's report data shows that you should book domestic flights at least a month in advance to save an average of 24 percent compared to those who book at the last minute.
Meanwhile, booking international flights about 60 days before departure tends to yield the best results, with Expedia data showing that those who booked at this time saved about 10%. However, since average airfares peak about four months before departure, they also recommend booking no earlier than four months in advance. This is a clear change from Expedia's 2023 report, which recommended booking international flights about six months in advance.
While booking your airfare on a Sunday will help you get the lowest price, flying on a Thursday can actually help you save an average of 16 percent on airfare. The data shows that in almost all cases, travelers who flew on a Thursday rather than a Sunday saved the same amount on both domestic and international flights. However, consumers traveling on domestic flights can also save about 13% if they fly on Saturday instead of Sunday.