How long should you wait to book a flight?

How far in advance should you book a flight to get the best deal? The best time to book a flight is one to three months before your departure for domestic airline tickets and two to eight months prior for international flights, according to Scott's Cheap Flights.



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Timing plays an important part. Specifically, plane tickets usually don't get cheaper closer to the departure date. Instead, flights tend to be the most inexpensive when you book between four months and three weeks before your departure date.

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Best Time To Book Domestic Flights The Expedia study found that the sweet spot is 28 to 35 days before departure while the Google study found prices bottomed out 44 days before departure. However, both studies agree that you don't want to wait until the last minute. Book at least 21 days before departure.

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In our experience, while fantastic deals can pop up at any time, the best time to book a flight (what we call the Goldilocks Window) is 1–3 months ahead for domestic travel and 2–8 months ahead for international travel—unless your trip is around a popular holiday or peak travel time, or you have very specific travel ...

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Remember: Don't wait too long to book your flight in hopes that fares will keep dropping. A little over a month before your trip may be the sweet spot for finding the lowest price. But if you haven't booked your flight within three weeks of your travel dates, you're most likely going to wind up paying more.

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Generally, you should book domestic flights one to four months in advance. For international flights, you should book at least six months in advance. You'll want to give yourself more time for research for the latter than when traveling on domestic itineraries.

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Average domestic airfare price by day The cheapest days to depart if you're flying within the U.S. are midweek — generally Tuesday or Wednesday. For economy tickets, Tuesdays are about 24% lower than peak prices on Sundays, which translates to savings of about $85 per ticket.

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More specifically, Tuesday at about 15:00 eastern time. This is because many airlines release weekly sales early on Tuesday, which creates competition between airlines to match prices.

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As we've shown, the price of ticket on any one flight will change – and can even change multiple times a day. You simply do not have the time to mull things over and to shop around the Internet indefinitely to “make sure” you're getting the best deal. The best deal is only the best if you can buy it!

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Tuesday Around Midnight is the Cheapest Time to Book
In general, flights were slightly cheaper at midnight earlier in the week (Monday through Wednesday). However, this is only applicable to about 1.6% of U.S. markets, meaning that it's not likely you'll find the same savings on your specific route.

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Those who buy on Sunday instead of Friday (the most expensive day to shop for plane tickets) will save on average 17% on domestic flights and 24% on international ones.

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Instead, flights tend to be the most inexpensive when you book between four months and three weeks before your departure date. According to CheapAir.com, you can expect rates to go up after that period.1 There may, of course, be some compounding factors that can affect this.

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Generally, Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday are the cheapest days to fly, while Fridays and Sundays are pricier, according to travel deal site FareCompare. Leisure travelers tend to fly on the weekends, either starting their vacations on Friday or taking a long weekend Friday to Sunday.

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You can find deals any day of the week since flight prices fluctuate with demand. Airlines might offer sales, increase the number of seats on a route or even lower prices to match a competitor, so there's no real pattern in what day of the week has the best deals.

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Is there a cheapest month to fly? If you're looking for a bargain month to travel, February is your best bet. Flights in January closely follow February for being most affordable. At the other end of the spectrum, December and July are the first and second most expensive months to travel, on average.

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World's Best Low-Cost Airlines 2023
  • AirAsia.
  • Scoot.
  • IndiGo.
  • Flynas.
  • Volotea.
  • Transavia France.
  • Sun Country Airlines.
  • Southwest Airlines.


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Are Late night Flights Often Cheaper? Yes. Red eye flights are definitely cheaper than flights departing at other times of the day. If you feel that taking a late flight won't be physically draining for you, then settle for a red eye flight.

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Most airlines let you book 11 months or more in advance, meaning you can currently book as far out as June 2024. Plus, flight prices are 19% lower than they were at this time last year, and the lowest we've seen since February 2021, on average.

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It mostly comes down to supply and demand. Demand is contributing to higher prices as travel continues to surge post-pandemic, Berg said. Sustained strong demand in 2023 continues to put additional pressure on prices, especially to and within regions where travel has only recently reopened like parts of Asia.

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Time your booking right
“For domestic flights, if you're talking peak season, it's about three to seven months in advance,” he says. “For international flights — [it's] four to 10 months.”

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