When Is The Best Time To Buy Airline Tickets?

When should one buy a ticket to have the best chance of grabbing a good discount?

The process of booking a flight can be an exhilarating experience, which is why people do it frequently but it can also be a very stressful exercise. Airline companies may have several rates, flight times, and even stop-over destinations and so it's not very clear as to when the best time to purchase an airline ticket is. It would help to know more about the patterns that airline tickets follow, thus removing a portion of the element of chance in this matter. However, in this case, it is more beneficial to book as early in advance as you can because the prices tend to be less expensive. However, there are some situations where booking in advance is not the same as getting the cheapest possible flight. Do you too want to know the best months to book a domestic or an international flight? Well, read on to know more.

Domestic Flights

In cases of domestic flights within United States, it is realized that the opportune time to buy an airline ticket is about two months in anticipation of the flight. However, it is always important to remember that the timing for booking differs depending on the seasons, routes, and other situations. However, in domestic flights, it is recommended to book at least 1 to 2 months in advance.

Usually, this is 6 to 8 weeks prior to the travel date where you are able to book sufficiently early so that you get a good price increase but also not too early that the flight is already full. Full flights enable an airline begin gradually implementing the price increase strategy. Booking early also becomes a challenge if you book at short notice, which is usually costly anyway.

However, there are some circumstances that can make the booking of domestic flights before 6 to 8 weeks before your travel date advisable. The fares offered for last-minute or last few weeks bookings vary depending on travel seasons; however, for the spring break, summer holidays, as well as the December holidays, booking 9 to 12 weeks in advance can lock in the lowest possible fares before the prices are hiked up. Further, when booking travel for holidays, weekends after long weekends or visiting famous sites, buying tickets 3 or even 4 months to such events ensures one buys tickets before prices skyrocket.

On the other hand, if one books a place for domestic flights at least 4 months in advance, they are most likely to overpay. Airline companies have not yet developed their price optimization formulas that far out. There would be one exception, specifically during the December holiday season; while booking a flight for Thanksgiving or Christmas months in advance would be a good strategy, booking 5 to 6 months before your desired date of travel will give you an excellent deal.

International Flights

It is worth noting that the favorable booking period is more extended for intercontinental flights originating from the United States; it ranges between 3 and 8 months prior to the flight. The major factors include more variability and variability of prices compared to domestic flights. Costs of goods and services can literally change by hundreds of thousands within a few months due to external factors such as exchange rates, price changes from competitors, and changes in the price of oil. This means that it is always wise to book early before the prices are subjected to a steep increase.

In most parts of the globe, airlines bring out their schedules for sale about eleven months before the flights are available for take offs. Flexible consumers can take advantage of competitive prices mostly available during the initial period of the year. Prices will still remain low 3–8 months from now, while 1-2 months prior, some factors could have contributed to high prices being placed on the same goods.

But for some destinations, such as Europe, the flexibility is still there and you can even book your flight at 6 to 8 weeks to your travel dates, depending on the time of the year. For summer holidays, you should be planning at least 4 to 5 months in advance if you want to book the accommodation. However, there are always 60 days before the fall, winter, and spring flights that can be booked to Europe at nearly the same price difference as compared to the last-minute bookings. Of course, do be aware that hunting for excellent last point out cheap flights does come with added risk.

At the same time, no matter where a person aims to travel internationally, it is unwise to purchase the tickets with less than 4 weeks to spare. Doing it this late will give you a chance of paying the highest price possible. It also accepts no flexibility in case of flight changes or plans.

Using Booking Strategies

You may be interested to know if there are other factors that can help one get a better airline ticket despite of the timing of the booking. The answer is yes! Here are some key booking hacks to employ in addition to keeping the best booking windows in mind:Here are some key booking hacks to employ in addition to keeping the best booking windows in mind:

• Be willing to travel at less popular times and bend your dates and times to fit the airline schedules. Usually, the flights which are on less busy days or any bad timings have very cheaper fare rates.

• Prices on products and services may vary in normal browser mode and in incognito/private browsing mode. This is to obscure cookies that otherwise enable the display of your search history to airlines and the gradual raising of quoted prices.

• Try alternate airports. One should try to book his/her flight at the nearby airports that can even offer cheaper flights as compared to the main airport.

• It is necessary to follow airlines™ accounts on the popular social networks. There are many different types of sales and promo codes that are released for only a short period of time, and you can find them on such social networks as Facebook and Twitter.

• It is recommended to subscribe to price movements. Other third-party services that can be used for tracking the prices and getting to know when certain rates for flights are reduced are Kayak and Google Flights.

• It is always wise to book one-way flights individually. This way, you can exploit the directional prices differences that could be amounting to hundreds of differences.

  The least effort and money are expended and the most tickets are cheapest when one buys them in the optimal timing several weeks or months before the event. And if these are added as additional strategies, well, they add more to savings!

  Summing It All Up

  There is a mystique about the long-sought-for mistake fares or the last-minute bargain that is unbelievably cheaper. Overall, the general rule of thumb is that the earlier in advance that one buys an airline ticket, the better the chance one has to get a rate lower than the regular rate. When it comes to domestic US flights, opt for booking your flights between 6 and 8 weeks in advance. However, for international travel, the best time range is much broader and it can be from 3 months to 8 months prior to the trip date. On a side note, incorporating some of the smart booking tactics into the equation piles on some more savings as well. Now that you know the particular window periods for getting the cheapest flights, the journey of searching for flights is made easy.