When should you book your flight in order to get the cheapest deal? Good question, right? We’ve all asked ourselves that and wondered if there were any clear-cut answers. Google is great at giving you answers to the questions you ask, but they’re really smart when it comes to displaying content – in this case the answer to “when to book your flight” isn’t as simple as you’d think. Booking your flight tickets at least 54 days beforehand will give you the best fare. The days of walking into an airline ticket counter are long gone and that’s where the requirement of 54 days ahead comes from. If you want to save money on your flight tickets, always check out today’s special deals as well as avail discounts by booking in advance. You can also get lucky to look for deals that offer free baggage and early check in.
Yes, you read that right. According to a series of studies performed by researchers at Stanford University, booking an airplane ticket exactly 54 days before your trip will save you the most money. In fact, on average, advance searching can save you up to 33%. 54 days for domestic flight and 67 days for international flight is the standard recommendation. It’s 15% discount on average and extra convenience of not having to rush.
Why Book Your Flight Exactly 54 Days In Advance?
If we plot the mean value of airfares vs the number of days you can purchase in advance, we can see that there is an optimum time to buy a ticket. It is 54 days in advance. The option of booking flights in advance is available since air tickets are generally non-refundable. This means that you should book an airline ticket considering both the cost and the timeliness as well as convenience. So book your flight ticket exactly 54 days in advance if you want to get the best deal and also save money on booking charges and fees. Here are some benefits of booking flight tickets in advance.
- End up last minute hassles of flight ticket booking.
- Avail discounts in flight ticket prices.
Finding flights online has simplified the process of finding low-cost plane tickets and comparing fares. You can book your flight tickets online even when you are on the move and have no access to the internet. All you have to do is log onto the airline’s website, fill out your passenger information, pay for your ticket with credit card or avail certain promotional offers, print out your boarding pass and make sure that you carry some ID which will prove helpful at the airport check-in counter. So at the end we conclude that when booking flights, it’s advantageous to book exactly 54 days in advance. That is, you shouldn’t book your ticket more than just a few weeks or less than 3 months ahead of time.
Flight prices tend to get more expensive as you get closer to the departure date. Pre-planning your trip and booking early can save you money.
Contact Your Travel Agent For Advance Flight Booking
Not sure the 54 days thing is a big deal. It’s the lowest fare but always try on the day before too and often you will find a better deal. Also, watch for travel agencies that offer free cancellation up to 24 hours in advance airfare. Then you can email them your itinerary, they book it and then you call or go online to cancel at least 24 hours in advance of your flight and they give you a full refund.
Most airlines will enable you to book a flight ticket, at least one week before the date of travel. There are some, which even permit you to book a ticket in advance of the first or last day of the month. What they cannot do is fill up their airplanes with too many reservations in advance. If tickets are booked and paid for well ahead of the departure date, their reservation system is rendered useless.
