IS THERE A CHEAPEST DAY TO BUY FLIGHTS?

1. IS THERE A CHEAPEST DAY TO BUY FLIGHTS? Cheap flights. We've all Googled it. Whether it's a business trip, you're heading home to             see family or you're off on your summer holidays, you want to know you're getting a good                 deal. And the internet is happy to help. The online world is cluttered with tips for thrifty air                   travellers, Alternative Airlines included. Blogs, articles and YouTube tutorials are all     desperate to answer your questions: Is there a cheapest ​time​ to buy flights? Is there a cheapest ​day​ to buy flights? If I book flights during a solar eclipse while praying to Thor will I save some money on flights????  Let me stop you right there:                                                                                                                                There's no cheapest day to buy flights  The "cheapest day to buy flights" rumours are just the same as the internet's miracle quick               fixes for weight loss. They're lazy shortcuts. Yes they can sometimes get you results. But if               you put time and effort into finding the flight you want, you're more likely to be rewarded                   with a good deal.                                                       

2. That doesn't mean there isn't ​some​ truth to these rumours, however. Here's a few of the biggest cheap flight finder myths and some tips that actually will help you air fares to             boast about, rather than aimlessly searching for the best day to buy flights.                                                  The top cheapest flight buying myths on the internet:  The cheapest day to buy flights is 6 weeks before you go  Passengers pay the lowest price, around 6% below the average fare, if they buy their             tickets six weeks before their flight. That's the golden rule thousands of travel blogs and               articles swear by. It's taken from a study by the Airlines Reporting Corporation, a company                   that processes ticket transactions. That study was done in 2012. 2012 was the year of           Gangnam Style. Things have changed since then.                                                                    If you don't believe me, the same company repeated the study 2 years later. In this report,                 it stated that the overall lowest average ticket price for domestic flights can be found 57               days in advance of departure. The lowest average ticket price of international flights was               found to be 171 days before departure. In 2 years there had been a massive shift in what                   days were considered the cheapest to buy flights.                                                                        Unfortunately, this cheap flight secret didn't make it into the golden rule of flight finding.             It's not as catchy as the 6 week rule. It does show, however, how quickly these cheapest                       day to buy flight rules go out of fashion. In the world of cheap flight finding, if a study                   hasn't been done in the last 18 months, take it with a pinch of salt.                                                   

3. What this ​does​ prove is that there is such a thing as booking too early, especially for short-haul and domestic flights. So no need to panic buy your weekend breaks to far in             advance!                                                    The cheapest day to buy flights is Tuesday  According to the internet, the best day of the week to buy flights is a Tuesday. Apparently,                 this is due to airlines announcing deals on Monday evenings. By Tuesday at noon, other                 airlines are trying to match those deals. So Tuesday afternoons are the best time to hunt                 for reduced airfare.                                                  The first problem with this is that Tuesday afternoon varies depending where in the world                 you are. Your Tuesday afternoon may be different to the person who's produced this               statistic.                              The second problem is that it really doesn't hold up. While it’s often cheaper to fly on               Tuesdays to Thursdays, airlines do not lower their fares for those who buy tickets on those               days of the week. The window changes dramatically depending on where you are               traveling and when. That said, I was curious with the internet's obsession with buying               cheap flights on Tuesday so I decided to have a look at some Alternative Airlines facts and                 figures to see if there was a best day to buy flights according to our customers:                                                                                    Alternative Airlines' Cheap Flight Facts  As you can see on the chart below, people on average pay less per flight booking on                 Thursdays and Fridays. It would appear that people spend more booking on Saturdays             and Sundays than other times of the week. However, statistics are pretty flexible. For               example, it may be that people just book flights for more passengers at the weekend, or                 are more inspired to book flights to long-haul destinations. There are so many variables to               think about you can't rely on booking flights on a certain day to get the cheapest deal:                                                                               

5. Expert tips for finding the cheapest flights:  Keep looking!  If you know how much flights SHOULD be, You'll know when you're getting a good deal. If                 you keep ​searching for flights​, you'll get an idea of what's a rip-off and what's an absolute               steal. $550 round trip from the UK to Japan? Yes, Please! $550 round trip from the UK to                 India? Hmm, you can probably do better. Once you've done a few searches on a search               engine like ours, you'll start to see how prices change and know when you've stumbled                 across a good deal. Not a quick fix, but an effective one.  Be flexible  you can't expect the cheap flights to appear exactly when you want them. This is where               tools like Alternative Airline's Best Fare Finder comes in. Our Best Fare Finder tells you how           much you could save by slightly altering your dates of travel and allows you to see the               cheapest time to fly across a week from your original search.                                                                                                                                                    Take advantage of a long layover  Often, buying a flight with a very long layover/stopover is cheaper than a regular return.                 Many people avoid these because they think it has to mean wasting time hanging about a             boring airport somewhere but it doesn't have to be that way! You can use them to have a             an extra, bonus holiday. A stopover can simply be an alternative way to grab an extra                                                                                          

6. adventure and visit more countries without the cost of another flight. For some tips on             how to plan the perfect stopover click ​here​.                    The cheapest flight isn't always the best value  Most budget airlines don't include baggage in their initial flight price. If you are in need of               purchasing some baggage, you might want to think about how much different airlines             charge in baggage fees as well as how much they're charging for flights.                                    Another thing you should take into account when you find a cheap flight is what airport               that flight goes to and from. Despite having a £10 return flight from London to Copenhagen                                                  

7. a few years ago, it cost me £40 return to get the train I needed to catch that flight. Would I                       have been better off paying a standard £50 return and walking on the plane from the               Alternative Airlines office (practically located on Gatwick runway), instead of dragging         myself across London? Yes, yes I would. Know your airports, and the prices of getting to               and from those airports, and you may save yourself far more money than if you book your                 flight on a certain day.                                                                                          Hunt for offers  Check travel and airline websites for ​sales and promotional fares​. This may seem obvious             but I often don't bother checking websites for flight discounts because I never find ones               that apply to me. They can be so specific that I don't know how anyone can cash in on the                   deals! But if you look for offers on travel agency and online discount websites, you're more                   likely to find a general "money off your purchase" sale. Our favourites are ​PayPal                 Offers​ because they have loads of travel deals that change regularly. But, then again, we             are a little bit obsessed with ​buying flights with PayPal​. (for good reason!) There are loads               of alternative voucher websites out there though, so if PayPal isn't your thing, you can try             Groupon or other voucher websites. So, the cheapest day to buy flights may just be when               you find the best deal!                                                                                                                                                    While we're talking offers, there's a good chance that the REAL cheapest day to buy flights               is actually a famous "special offers" days. The rest of the world is slowly waking up to the               potentional of such massive discount events like America's Black Friday extravaganza.           Black Friday is the day after Thankdgiving where retailers go mad and slash all their prices.               Keeping an eye on when these kinds of "special offer days" are may help you find some                 excellent deals! Potential days to watch out for include:                                                                                          Potential cheapest days to buy flights  Black Friday​ The day after Thanksgiving   Cyber Monday​ The Monday after Thanksgiving  Boxing Day - 26th December   Small business Saturday - Saturday after Thanksgiving  When you go makes a much bigger difference than when you buy your flights  If you know you have to travel at a busy time of year, book as early as you can. Keep an                     eye on what's going on, at both where you are and where you want to fly to. If you're in                   the UK, you may think you're avoiding the summer holiday rush by booking your holidays                 for early June. The thing is, if you're flying around the USA, American schools are already                   on holiday then, driving up air fares.                                                                         

8. Flight prices don't just depend on where you are, but where you're going. If there's a               sporting event or festival in the country that you wish to travel to, you're going to pay               more to travel there whether you're attending the event or not.                                        If you know you are going to travel off-peak, you can, if you want, relax and leave your                 booking until a month or two before departure. Like I said, if the internet has got one thing               right, it's that cheap flights are not just about how far in advance you book them.                                            Mid-week flights  According to a recent Farecompare.com study, the cheapest day to fly is Wednesday.           According to the Jack's Flight Club quote above, it's Tuesday or Thursday. I think it's safe to               say in general it's cheaper to fly on a weekday or a Saturday. Why? Because it's slightly                   inconvenient.                                                      The early bird catches the worm  Speaking of inconvenience, the pattern continues. Early flights/flights at awkward times           are on average cheaper. Normally, the less convenient something is, the cheaper it is.               That's the true secret to finding the cheapest flights. There's no cheapest day to buy flights,                 and, if there were, it wouldn't stay the cheapest day for long!                                              Source: ​https://www.alternativeairlines.com/blog/cheapest-day-to-buy-flights