Last Updated on February 12, 2024 by Travelationship
Getting a good deal on airfare can make or break a vacation. Airfare and lodgings typically account for the two most significant expenses when you sit down and map out your trip. There has been a lot of talk about when is the right time to buy a ticket and when is the best time to fly. Questions also pop up, like where should I get these tickets, and should I even bother with a mileage program? We hope to clarify some of that mystery for you, so let’s get started.
What are the cheapest days to fly on?
This one is pretty simple. Wednesday is the cheapest day to fly, followed by Tuesday and Saturday. Friday and Sunday, however, are the most expensive days to fly. If you want to take it to the next level, the cheapest fare will be the first two early morning flights and the last one or red-eye flight. If you are going for the last flight of the day, remember that an airport is much like the doctor’s office. The longer the day, the more likely they will get behind schedule.
When is the best time to buy my airline ticket(s)?
This answer has more moving parts, but we will try to lay it out for you. The standard advice for this one is Tuesday afternoons through Thursday. CheapAir.com did a study last year analyzing over 4 million trips and the booking data of over 1.3 billion fares to answer this question. Much like in “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” they came up with a simple answer, 54. You should buy your ticket 54 days before you plan to fly.
What happens if the 54th day falls on a Friday, and you’re like, you just told me to buy my ticket Tuesday through Thursday? Simple, buy it the Tuesday before. Other things to remember are the first half of January is an excellent time to purchase tickets. Airlines run destination sales then, and available travel dates usually extend into spring. Fares are highest for peak travel seasons like summer, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. If you are flying overseas, you should be buying 60 days out. *There is a caveat to the 54-day rule, which is Thanksgiving and Christmas; as far as that goes, all bets are off.
The full findings of the report:
“According to the data, sometime around 225 days out (seven and a half months), on average, fares started to drop, and by 104 days out (three and a half months), they had fallen to within $10 of their low point. From there, they continued to drop, slowly but steadily, until reaching a low 54 days before departure. After 54 days, fares started to climb again, remaining within $10 of that low until 29 days. Then, the increase began to accelerate, and once you were within 14 days, the fares shot up dramatically.” – CheapAir.com
Are there some airports that are more expensive to use than others?
The short answer on this one is YES. Fly the Big Hubs. Usually, a bigger airport can mean more significant savings. If you’re in a medium to small-sized city, it may pay to drive to the nearest big city and fly there. For example, LAX is usually cheaper than Burbank if you’re in Los Angeles. The competition goes down; the more competition, the better the prices.
This one doesn’t always hold to be accurate, but it’s worth a shot to run a second search on the closest big airport. International Travel can go both ways. Many European low-cost airlines will fly out of the city’s second smaller airport to avoid specific fees. But you can get hit with extra commuter fees if you have to fly from a regional airport to the hub to switch planes; starting from that airport might be worth it.
Should I even bother with a frequent flyer program, and if so, which one?
Yes, you should, and here’s why. YOU CAN EARN A FREE FLIGHT! The typical answer for people not signing up is, “I don’t fly that much.” If you take just one flight every two years, eventually, you will earn a free one. It is a simple concept that coffee houses and sandwich shops have used for years: buy 9 cups of coffee, and the 10th one is on us. Signing up takes about the same amount of info you used to get that grocery store savings card in your wallet, so my question is, why not?
The second half of this question has some factors involved. For the casual user: if you live in Atlanta, your home airport is also home to Delta Airlines, so chances are 9 out of every ten flights you take will be on Delta; that being the case, I would probably sign up for Delta SkyMiles. Another example might be if you fly home to see your parents/family once a year. Which airline offers you the most flights to your destination; look into that airline’s program. Now, if you are ready to take your traveling by the horns and transition to the next level, you will want to consider your choice.
Airlines have partners and not only other airlines. They partner with car rental agencies, hotel chains, and credit card companies. The US has three major airline alliances: OneWorld, SkyTeam, and Star Alliance. That is not to say there aren’t others, but these three have the most significant reach. My favorite place to get information about these alliances is a website called ThePointsGuy.com, and as you can guess, it is a place dedicated to bringing you travel points. This link will take you to his latest breakdown on the alliances, and this one will take you to his section on airline cards.
Star Alliance Hack:
Aegean Airlines, a Greece-based newcomer to Star Alliance, has the easiest path to Gold status with a low threshold of 20,000 miles. (Most other programs require 50,000 miles to be flown before earning this top-tier). So how does this work? First, you must sign up for the Aegean “Miles and Bonus” program. Then, when checking in for any Star Alliance-affiliated airline’s flight, credit your miles to your Aegean membership number rather than the program affiliated with the airline you’re flying.
Is it better to get a ticket from the airline or a discount travel site?
You might have already guessed the answer, and it’s the airline. If price is the only thing that matters, run a few searches, and whoever gives you the best one, go for it. Airlines tickets have all these codes attached to them, and the computers, not which ones were but where and if it was a special sale, and on and on. For things like collecting points to receive free upgrades, tickets booked directly through the airline tend to carry more weight.
The other place this might affect you is, let’s say, your flight gets canceled, and the ticket system automatically adjusts to get you on a new flight. No surprise, the computer will secure seats for the passengers with airline tickets first and then move on to the ones bought through the travel site.
Bringing it all together: Getting Your Airline Ticket
OK, you know when and where you want to go, now let’s get that ticket. The first thing I do is run a search on Kayak.com. Then, whatever airline shows up with the best deal, I head directly to their site and rerun the search. Next, to double-check I am not missing anything, I go to my favorite travel site, Expedia, and rerun it. (Now, this is the point where if there is a second major airport in the area, I would do the whole process again and compare the results.) Finally, I am ready to purchase the ticket, but not before entering my frequent flyer number.
There is an alternative site for travelers who know they want to go somewhere but not where. You set your home airport and then tell it when you want to travel, and it will just give you many results. You can sort them by various factors, but the most interesting one is price; sometimes, you can find crazy deals like flights for $49. AirfaireWatchdog is a great place to run one of these searches; they also help you monitor airline fees. Another option is Google Flights, and they have incorporated their normal maps to make it a visual candy land of possibilities.
It’s Time to Start Saving. Any Tips or Questions, We Would Love to Hear Them.
*A special thanks to all the travel sites used in this article, and of particular notoriety CheapAir.com for taking the time to do the research for all of us.