How Far In Advance Should You Book A Flight?

Planning a well-deserved getaway trip and trying to find the cheapest day to buy airline tickets can turn into a costly and frustrating game of hit and miss, for even the most experienced of travellers.

There are also important factors to consider that determine the best day of the week to buy flights. Your destination, when you plan to travel and whether you are booking a domestic or international flight!

So is there a magic number to consider when locating the prime booking window to buy tickets for your dream trip?

There are 3 things you need to look into:

How Far in Advance Should You Book a Domestic Flight?

Flying within the country? That’s good news in terms of how much time you’ll have to buy tickets.

When you’re booking a domestic flight, book your tickets between one and three months prior to your trip.

According to Travel & Leisure, Kayak compiled one year of flight data and discovered the following:

“Six months before departure, domestic ticket prices were about 20 percent higher than the lowest fares. They started dropping three months out and hit a low to seven weeks before departure”

It’s important to remember that these numbers aren’t written in stone, but rather, are to be used as a guideline on what to consider when searching for the most affordable booking window.

Whatever you do, don’t wait until the last week because on an average, prices shoot up by 25 percent.

When Is The Best Time To Buy International Flight Tickets?

It takes a lot more preparation to plan an international trip, and that includes booking your tickets further in advance.

International flights don’t see the same kind of fluctuation domestic flights do, so more often than not what you see is what you’re going to get.

According to “CheapAir”, international flights stay fairly flat for a few months, then start to creep up slowly, until about 90 days before departure when the place of increase starts to accelerate.

“FareCompare” says that the cheapest days to fly international are between five and a half months and one and a half months from departure.

Put simply, three months out is when you want to start thinking of booking domestic flights – whereas for booking international flights, three months out is the last minute you want to be thinking of booking.

Have more than 3-5 months to book tickets for international flights to ensure that you’re getting the best deal possible.

When to Book Flights to Popular Destinations & Times?

Airline ticket sales operate on complex formulas, but one thing that remains fairly simple is the concept of supply and demand.

When there is less supply, there will be more demand. Understandably, when there is more demand, there will be higher prices.

What that means for your travel plans is that you’ll want to book early when traveling to popular destinations and during peak times.

Going to the beach or to Europe this summer, when everyone else is doing the same thing? Book early!

*To ensure you get the most affordable flight deal, don’t forget to compare flight fares from different airlines, so you can ascertain the best airline to get the cheapest deal.