Is There Truly One Best Way To Buy Flights?

This blog post was updated on February 16, 2022.

Tuesday, Wednesday, and even weekends have all been deemed by travel experts and sites to be the best days to buy your airline ticket. These magic days are supposed to lend the most favorable and cheap fares for travelers. However, as a New York Times article challenges, booking the cheapest flight is not always so black and white. To clear the air, we’re breaking down some of the theories of scoring the cheapest airline ticket, and figuring out if they’re really true or false.

Booking far in advance = cheap flight?

False.

Many travelers believe if they book well in advance they’ll get the cheapest flight. However, booking 7 months in advance tends to produce the biggest mark-up in cost? Most travel experts recommend booking at least 21 days in advance, and ideally, 7 weeks in advance for domestic travel. Rather than a rule, this can be considered more of a prediction that flight prices will go up the closer you get to your departure date. However, on the flip side to this, quite often last minute deals on cheap flights can be found if you wait.

Tuesday—the best day to book a flight?

Not always.

While you might score a cheap flight by booking on a Tuesday, it’s not the be-all-end-all day to book your travels. Several factors affect a flight cost beyond what day of the week you’re booking. While Tuesday has been praised for the day in which airlines roll out their fare sales, several other factors are driving your flight cost. The popularity of that route, surrounding events and holidays, and the days of the week you plan to fly, all come into play.

Price fluctuates based on time of travel and day of week.

True.

Everyone and their mother wants to fly at ideal times and on the weekend in order to save on vacation days. You can generally conserve a great deal of cash on flights if you choose to fly between Mondays and Thursdays, and in the mornings. Flights are, for the most part, cheaper and in lower demand. Timing can also affect the flight price. Early morning flights or red-eyes aren’t always so desirable. As a result, these flights can often be cheaper than a flight at noon.

Flexibility with airports, layovers, and dates lessen the cost?

True.

Flexibility is the key to scoring the best flight. Searching other airports, considering connecting flights with layovers, and playing with dates can help you save on a ticket. If you are set in stone on a nonstop flight, at a particular airport, and for a certain date and time—the airfare generally won’t budge.

Booking a flight is not so cut and dry anymore. With loads of different rules floating around, the traveler looking for the cheapest flight can be a bit overwhelmed. Rather than getting stuck on these rules, the bottom line should be—just keep searching! Remember, airfares can change by the hour, so when you see that deal pop up, snag it—you don’t necessarily have to wait around for a Tuesday to catch the best deal!

Do you have any other tips for saving on flights? Let us know your suggestions in the comments below!