Over the years, people have come up with a “day” for every day of the year. Case in point, this Friday, August 23rd, is:
- Buttered Corn Day
- Daffodil Day (in Australia)
- European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Nazism
- Hug Your Sweetheart Day
- International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition
- Internaut Day
- National Cuban Sandwich Day
- National Sponge Cake Day
- Ride the Wind Day
- Valentino Day
But for travel enthusiasts, August 23rd is also National Cheap Flight Day.
History of National Cheap Flight Day
PC: Cheap Flights by Nick Youngson CC BY-SA 3.0 Alpha Stock Images
National Cheap Flight Day began in 2015. It’s historically known as the day airlines drop their prices, based on the fact that, since kids have either returned to school by late August (or soon will), the autumn travel season, which has lower demand than the summer season, begins at that time. Lower demand equals lower prices, right?
Except it’s not that simple.
Sure, flight prices are partially based on supply and demand. So when kids start heading back to school, prices historically drop because you’d be getting into “lower demand” season.
But it’s not as if prices suddenly fall like a stone. You may start to see some flights drop a little. $10 here. $20 there. But if you’re expecting that flight to Japan to be $100 suddenly, you will be disappointed.
Then when is the best time to buy flights?
“Everyone wants a golden rule for when to book flights for the best price,” Hayley Berg, who works as lead economist at Hopper, a travel app that predicts cost for flights and hotels, told TODAY.com last year.
“The reality is that the best time to book a flight depends on a number of factors, like where you’re flying to, the dates, if you’re flying with stops or without, what cabin class you’re considering, etc.”
Scott Keyes, founder of Going (formerly Scott’s Cheap Flights) suggests that the best time to book flights around what he calls the Goldilocks Window: one to three months ahead of domestic flights, and two to eight months in advance if you’re looking for a long-haul/international flight. “For peak seasons like Christmas or mid-summer, add a few months extra—three to seven months for domestic, four to 10 months for international,” he adds.
Some tips to find the best prices
These ideas are just for finding cheap flights, not necessarily how to get the cushiest first-class seat for the lowest price (because if you’re a travel geek, you probably already know how to do that anyway; you don’t need me to teach you anything, LOL).
- Use all of the tools you have at your disposal. Going. Google Flights. Hopper. Maybe even check out Kayak’s Best Time to Travel feature.
- Add yourself to the email lists of airlines announcing when they have big sales. Southwest, Frontier and jetBlue are big on these.
- If you see a good deal, grab it! Don’t wait until a specific day because it “might” be cheaper. It also might not. Airlines use algorithms to determine prices nowadays.
- Be flexible. If you want to leave MCO on a Sunday, with alllll the other tourists, you won’t find a great price. But if you go on a Monday, you may find a less expensive flight home.
- Traveling on holidays tends to be cheaper than the days before and after. Again, it’s supply and demand. Few people want to travel on the actual holiday days of Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter Sunday, etc., so prices tend to be lower on those days.
- It’s probably a no-brainer but look at ultra-low-cost carriers. If you have a choice between a legacy carrier and the likes of Spirit, Frontier or Allegiant, one of the latter three is probably going to cost less. Just remember to compare everything involved in the flight; if you’re going to include a checked bag, etc., your prices may or may not be pretty similar by the time you’re done.
What other tips are there? What did I miss?
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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
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