Hour X - when is the best time to buy cheap flights?

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

What day and time to buy tickets to save as much as possible? Famous journalist Peter Greenberg, who knows a lot about travel, shares his experience. In this article, you will find out the ideal time and day to buy a cheap flight ticket.

CBS News travel editor Peter Greenberg will try to answer this question. Based on his personal experience, he formulated several tips regarding the day and time of buying air tickets, which may help you save a couple of tens of dollars.

When?

Air tickets usually go on sale 330 days before departure. According to many travelers, it is best to book your tickets 8 weeks in advance - 2 months.

Greenberg believes that the optimal time for buying an air ticket is 45 days … Six weeks. And that's why:

The number one mistake many tourists make is booking too early. If your trip does not fall on days of high passenger traffic, for example, Christmas, then the chances of saving much more if you buy tickets 45 days (for domestic flights) and 60 days (for international flights) before departure.

Outside the 45-day window, computer programs of airlines cannot calculate the actual cost, but form it, focusing on the passenger traffic of the last year. If the flight was full a year ago, then this year the price will be high. But this year there may be a collapse in prices (there is excitement in Bangkok - people are not going to Thailand), so by booking tickets more than 45 days in advance, you risk overpaying for last year's forecasts.

In addition, Greenberg notes how important it is to play with departure dates. If you do not have a strict binding to a certain number, then you can save a significant amount of money. Peter advises flying in the middle of the week, when most flights, other than business destinations, are practically empty, which means they are cheap.

At what time?

As for the ideal time and day of the week to buy an air ticket, Greenberg calls - Wednesday 1 am.

If you want to buy cheap flights, then there is an hour X for this. This is Wednesday, 1:00 (one in the morning). But it is important to keep track of the time zone of the place where the airline is located - exactly one hour should pass from the moment the day changes according to their time.

Why is it Tuesday night to Wednesday night? Greenberg explains that most airlines offer discounts on tickets from Sunday evening to Monday evening. This means that passengers have a day to redeem them. At midnight on Tuesday, tickets reserved but not redeemed are re-entered into airline computer systems.

However, Peter Greenberg warns that to take advantage of this trick, you should call the carrier and book your ticket by phone, not online.

You will learn even more about the tricks of airlines, as well as services for booking hotels, in the article by Lifehacker Slava Baransky, editor - "How to buy cheap flights and book a hotel cheaper: tricks of reservation systems."