When to buy your airline ticket

In this economy we are all looking to get the best price on our travel tickets.  But most of us are at a loss as to exactly how to do that.  I am not going to say that I have always gotten the best price, but I have found some great guidelines.

Rick Seaney has a great site all about airline tickets called Fare Compare. FareCompare.com is an airline ticket comparison shopping website.  Rick is an air-travel expert and has been on CNN, ABC (with his own weekly news column) & more.  His information is updated continuously and is a great place to start.  It is not a good place for multi-destination trips though.  They don’t currently have that search option.

Some tips:

Don’t buy your ticket on the weekend.  Actually after 3pm (EST) on Tuesday is the cheapest day.   The reason being is that Monday is the day that sales typically get launched and Tuesday all the other airlines try to follow suit.  I have even found them to be cheaper on Wednesday.  But make sure you start looking on Tuesday after 3pm.

If you have any flexibility in you travel schedule, Rick suggests not flying on Friday and Sunday.  Those are the days everyone wants to fly and since the airlines know that, your trip will be more expensive.  The cheapest day to fly is Wednesday followed by Tuesday and Saturday.   I will sometimes change my dates to see how much cheaper it actually is.

Start looking at prices 3-4 months before you want to go.  Watch what your tickets are doing.  A local travel agent here in Manhattan said to me:  If you notice that one airline has gone up or down, the others will start to follow suit.  They will try to match each other.  If you see something has stayed the same for a couple weeks, the tendency will be for it to go down.  She said in her experience when prices remain the same for an extended period it means that they are not selling at that price so the airlines will try to lower prices for more sales.  So watching things for a few weeks can really pay off!

I also have had really good luck with Orbitz.  They usually offer me the cheapest tickets for the shortest distance.  They also have their price guarantee if you buy your ticket at one price and someone else purchases the same ticket for a lower price, they will refund you the difference up to $250.