A question that comes up a lot during online about travel is “When is it the best time to buy airline tickets?”  Well believe it or not, there are times of the month and year where you can really take advantage of deals and pay next to nothing for your airline ticket.

Tuesday is usually the cheapest day

When you’re buying your airline ticket online, you may have already noticed this but Tuesday is generally a great day to fly and purchase your ticket.  Just by research I’ve done, I’ve found that I can save almost up to 50%.  Look at the example below that I used on Travelocity.com –

From Detroit to Phoenix Round Trip:

  • Tuesday in April of 09 — $182 per person
  • Sunday in April o9 – $316 per person

Now, I know this is going to vary city to city and by airline but I’ve found that countless times that if you fly on a Tuesday, you’re going to save money.

Buy at least 4-5 months early

Some people say that if you buy at the last minute, you’re going to save money but I’ve never found this to be true.  In fact, I think it’s a myth.  But again, here’s a perfect example and I’ll use the same cities above.

Detroit to Phoenix Round Trip:

  • Tomorrow — $486 per person
  • 5 months from now — $231 per person

Now again, you’re going to find that this varies but I tried 10 searches on different cities and each city showed at least a 50% difference.

Use the Internet to your advantage

We have a lot of technology in today’s world and this is why it’s important to use it.  Since it’s hard to figure out when you should fly, I’ve noted a few websites you should check out if you plan on flying.

Farecast.com – A website that uses data from the past and determines the best time to fly in the future.   It’s a great tool if you’re looking for the best price.

Kayak.com – Kayak is very simple to use.  Simply input where you want to go and for how long and on the right hand side of the website, it will show you the cheapest flights for each day.

In the end, there really isn’t a “cheap day” to fly.   It’s all up to you to find the best deal.  Use forums online, call the airline, ask friends, use websites.  There are so many resources you can use to find the best deal.