The pricing of flight tickets is a notoriously complex field, with different strategies between airlines and a host of competing variables determining the cost of a flight. Despite this, there are general strategies and meaningful tips frequent flyers will use to score cheap(er) airline tickets – alongside some pricing myths, hearsay and anecdotal advice.
The ever-shifting world of plane ticket prices is designed to maximise profit from every customer – like some hotels or concert promoters, airlines employ ‘dynamic’ pricing models, where rates are raised to meet demand. These costs can fluctuate wildly among budget providers as well as long-haul airlines. In such an unpredictable field, it can be useful to uncover concrete tips that are proven to save money when booking a flight. We explore some of the major strategies used to secure low-cost flight tickets, as well as noting further ways to save money on international travel, including using a travel eSIM and researching alternate transport methods.
What is the Best Day to Book a Flight?
The commonly-held belief is that Tuesday is the best day to book a flight. The reason behind this is that airlines tend to announce new deals and discounts on Monday, so by Tuesday other airlines will aim to compete by lowering their prices for the same routes.
Unfortunately, this rule is simply too good to be true. In reality, airline price tickets change constantly, based on a series of complex algorithms centred around supply, demand and season. The concept of a cheap flights day is like a proven hangover cure: if it existed, you’d know about it by now. Cheap Tuesdays is a contemporary myth that is sustained by anecdotal evidence. Multiple surveys have failed to establish any relationship between the day of the week a flight ticket is purchased on and the relative price of the ticket.
There is no best day of the week to buy flight tickets.
Shoppers are better off focusing on the two factors that can influence ticket pricing: what day of the week the flight itself is, and how far in advance they book their trip.
When is the Best Time to Book a Flight?
While it is true that day of the flight can sometimes influence the cost, airline ticket prices vary more by season than they do by day of the week. School holidays, summertime and Christmas all see average prices rise across the industry, regardless of weekday. Pricing aside, the chaos of air travel during the holiday season is enough of an incentive for many to avoid flying then altogether.
This same principle informs the other hard-and-fast rule of air travel: book as early as possible. Other than last-minute deals, booking as soon as you can is one of the most effective ways of saving money on plane tickets. In general, airline ticket prices trend upwards the nearer they get to the departure date, with costs climbing week-on-week in the lead-up to the flight. Not only does booking early help with the planning of the trip, but it’s also usually one of the only effective methods to save money on airline tickets. Researchers from the University of Berkley concluded that buying tickets early is one of the only proven, across-the-board methods of obtaining airline tickets at their lowest possible price. The study further observed that airlines commonly bump prices 21, 14 and 7 days before departure.
It’s also worth considering the airline’s cancellation policy. Most non-budget airlines will offer free cancellations within a certain period (usually 24 hours) after buying the tickets, while some, like Spirit or Frontier, don't charge for cancellations made at least sixty days before departure. This allows the customer some freedom to book a ticket and cancel for free if they later find a better deal elsewhere.
What about last-minute tickets?
The exact opposite tactic is waiting until just before departure and purchasing a last-minute ticket, the logic being that an underpriced but occupied seat is better for the airline than an empty one.
Companies will sometimes offer reduced-price tickets at the last minute, though this practice has waned in recent decades. It’s usually more common for seats to soar in cost in the days before departure as airlines seek to extract the maximum possible profit from the customers. Business flyers who book flights at short notice, for example, are happy to charge the costs back to a corporate account.
When is the Cheapest Time to Fly?
With some organisation and research, there are ways of making it more likely to find reduced-cost tickets. One of these is booking on the right day. Fridays and Sundays are statistically more expensive to fly short distances on, as people travel domestically for weekend trips. There’s little significant difference between weekdays on international flights however, and the day the tickets are themselves booked on rarely has an influence.
Sales Events and Error Fares
Finally, airlines will also run sales where discounted flights are made available during quieter times of year. The quality and reliability of these sales varies between airlines, but many major carriers will typically offer discounts during traditional retail sale seasons like January, August and Black Friday (the last Friday of November). The destination options may be limited, but for the open-minded traveller, airline sales are one of the most proven and effective ways to score plane tickets for less.
There’s one more avenue bargain hunters follow to secure cut-price plane tickets: error fares. Very occasionally, an airline will advertise a flight for the incorrect amount, often far below the actual value. These error fares only last as long as the airline remains unaware and are usually swiftly corrected. The obligation for the merchant to honour the purchase also varies between airlines and countries. Nevertheless, eagle-eyed flyers use sites like Twitter and Jack’s Flight Club to routinely scan for error fares and secure bottom-price airline tickets.
Four Flight Comparison Sites to Know
- 1
Skyscanner
The Scottish firm Skyscanner is the first port of call for many canny travellers. The site combs hundreds of airline websites to display every available flight for a given route on a given day, theoretically offering the best deal possible to the user. As a starting point for budgeting a holiday or researching air fares, Skyscanner is indispensable.
- 2
Kayak
Kayak.com is a one-stop-shop holiday planning site that uses the same format as Skyscanner to compare not just flights but accommodation, rental cars and entire packet holidays. The layout and functionality are similar to Skyscanner, with a greater wealth of options.
- 3
Google Flights
Functionally similar to Skyscanner or Kayak, Google Flights is a website that continuously monitors flight prices to show the cheapest travel date, time and airline for any given route. An additional bonus is the ‘track flights’ option: if there’s a flight or flights you’re considering booking, Google Flights can notify you if the price drops. As previously mentioned, ticket prices are more likely to rise than fall as time goes by, but this feature can occasionally yield significant savings.
- 4
Jack’s Flight Club
Jack’s Flight Club is a great way to find cheap flights – provided you’re not too bothered about the destination. This membership-based newsletter sifts through thousands of flights and notifies members when airlines drop prices on specific routes.
The format rewards spontaneity on the part of the members, as it’s unlikely to find reduced-fare flights for a specific destination – but if the goal is just to find a cheap flight to anywhere, Jack’s Flight Club could be the answer. Tellingly, the reduced-fare flights occur on all days of the week, not just Tuesday.
Other Ways to Book Cheap Flights
When booking cheap flights, there’s another major point to consider – the popular maxim that the cheapest flight may not be the cheapest journey. A wealth of other factors and costs can mount up during your travel that may be mitigated by booking a nominally more expensive flight on a different route, time or day. For example, airlines will often advertise cheap tickets on late night or early morning flights – as a customer, it’s important to be wary of the hidden costs these could incur: public transport may not be available to get to the airport in that time window, or a long layover in a connecting airport could prove to be costly.
Reasearch where the departing and destination airports are – are they near your ultimate destination city? Or a $30 1-hour train ride away?
Save money when you travel with an eSIM
One of the quickest methods to save money while flying is downloading an international eSIM. While eSIMs may not reduce the cost of the flight itself, they provide immediate savings the minute you land and throughout any international journey. That’s because a travel eSIM connects your phone to the local data network, meaning you’re free to use mobile internet just like you would at home, without the international roaming charges. A prepaid eSIM from BetterRoaming is one of the easiest and most efficient ways to save money while travelling.
eSIM data plans
Exploring the Alternatives
Is a train or bus more useful? For short-haul flights of less than two hours, the total travel time can still be longer than on a land-based alternative. A flight from Manchester to London Heathrow Airport has an in-air flight time of one hour. However, passengers must arrive at the suburban Manchester airport two hours before departure, collect bags on landing, and take a 45-minute train to reach central London, resulting in a total travel time of around three to four hours. In contrast, a train carries passengers from central Manchester to the heart of London in two hours exactly.
While short-haul domestic flights can perversely be cheaper than their rail or road equivalents, it’s still worth researching the alternatives before committing to a flight. Convenience and price aren’t the only benefit to looking elsewhere – passenger flights alone account for 2% of all total global CO2 emissions, including many short-haul flights with readily available alternate transport methods.
