When Is The Best Time To Book International Flight Tickets?

It is even harder to know when to book international flights because ticket prices keep on fluctuating at all times. But there are some important tips and general trends that can be followed that would help in receiving the optimum fare for the flight journey.

Some of the reasons include booking early, booking tickets in advance, and booking for a fixed time. Generally, it is true that we should plan to booking some months in advance because the prices, in most of the cases, will be lower than if we decide to book a few days before the date. On average, airlines plan their schedules and provide information on seat availability approximately 330 days before the date of travel. Often, the first to be made available are the lower fare products that include economy class seats for a flight. The same is also true with international flights where the business and first class tickets are cheaper and have better availability when the purchase done at even very earlier time than the intended departure date.

However, the best time, to be precise, to get a good deal for international flights are typically one to four months before the date of travel. Therefore, choosing a flight during this period gives you a better chance to secure one of the airline’s pocket-friendly economy class seats before it runs out. Ideally, when a person has booked a flight ticket in advance, it is often found that only the expensive seats are available in the last minute.

Another factor to consider when choosing flights is that they should be booked for international flights with some degree of flexibility when it comes to the date of the flight. Taking flights on an off-peak travel time which include Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Saturday are cheaper compared to the weekends particularly Friday and Sunday. One must be willing to fly a day earlier or on the later date in order to get some real cheap deals. The option of ‘low fare calendar’ on the websites will let you know when the fare can be taken at a lower cost. Another way to secure cheap airfare is by travelling during off-peak tourist seasons such as, do not travel during school holidays for instance, during the holidays, there are many families and children thus leading to high demand for flights and hence the high air fare.

Sales for many international flights occur two and three times a year, in which case ticket prices are slashed or significantly lowered. Airline sales are another type of specials that are usually covered in these emails; you can sign up for airline emails to know when such sales have been posted. The only thing that the reader should bear in mind is that, as soon as the sales are out, he/she should be prepared to grab a seat at the offered reduced rates.

It is also important to note that other mainstream flight search platforms such as search engines like Kayak, Skyscanner offer features to track fares on specific routes over time. When you use those tracking tools, then you will know if the current price you are being shown is one that is more favorable or whether you need to wait longer for a better price offer. Price trends that are displayed from the price graphs they present can tell you a lot about the past on the specific route.

This also means that you can also use booking at the right time of the day to also be saving money. It is common knowledge that many airlines release new seat inventory and new prices during the night between midnight and 6. That way, you will have all the latest on the new seats that have been released or the changes in the fares for the day that is ahead of you.

Purchasing tickets for international flights involves a lot of risk and therefore it’s always advisable to compare the prices of the flights from various travel websites, airline directly, and metasearch websites. These are that there is no fixed website that offers the best prices for every route out there. If a search is run on Priceline, Expedia, Orbitz and the individual airlines websites, travelers might find that prices vary and some are cheaper on the certain sites or booking engine. An example of a metasearch is where you type in Skyscanner or Google Flights, which allows you to compare many sites and airlines at once.

While some pre-planning and date flexibility are of course needed, by following the steps above, you will be more likely to get a good fare for international route. The importance is on understanding the time when one is to book with an airline, the time when one is to travel, and the time when one is to look for promotions. The last but not the least, another important step is to be an informed, savvy airfare consumer with the help of airline sales, notifications, and price comparison. If done appropriately, you will be traveling abroad frequently without necessarily overextending on the fares to the destination.