The ideal time to buy plane tickets for your next trip
There's a lot of conflicting information about the best times to buy plane tickets, since airline prices can fluctuate for no obvious reasons, but the general guidelines have mostly remained the same for the past few years.
Buying tickets really far ahead of your trip will cost you but provide more selection; buying really close to your trip will get you a last-minute surcharge; and somewhere in between is the airfare that's just right.
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CheapAir.com reaffirmed those guidelines on Thursday, and further identified what the company sees as five distinct booking windows.
"First dibs" is 197 to 335 days out, according to CheapAir.com. While this window gives travelers their pick of flight times, nonstop options and seats, "they pay an average of $50 more than they would during the "Prime Booking Window," which is 21 to 112 days before travel. The company is calling the period in between those two "Peace of Mind," when good options still exist but tickets are an average of $20 more.
"On average, the best time to buy a domestic flight is 54 days in advance."
CheapAir.com calls the final two time periods "Push Your Luck" (14 to 20 days before travel) and "Hail Mary" (0 to 13 days before). The company cautions that while there are occasional deals in these time periods, it's much more likely that travelers will pay more for a limited selection of available seats.
The single day when flights are cheapest, based on average prices, is 54 days before travel. But that's an average, meaning that it could be of little help for your specific travel plans.
“54 days is a good number to start with, but it’s important to know that every trip is different,” said CheapAir.com CEO Jeff Klee. “Generally, a trip price starts off high, slowly drops and then starts to climb a few weeks before the flight."
When it comes to buying tickets for a specific flight, becoming familiar with average prices and watching out for fare alerts will typically be of more help than an average.
If you have a specific destination in mind, and want an idea of when the tickets will be cheapest, you can check out CheapAir's new When to Buy Flights tool.
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