The Best Time to Book a Flight for the Cheapest Airfare

With fluctuating prices and seemingly unpredictable deals, navigating the world of air travel can be daunting. No matter your frequent flier status, figuring out the best time to book a flight can feel less like a skill and more like sheer luck.

“Airfare is the most volatile purchase we regularly make,” says Scott Keyes, founder of Going (formerly Scott’s Cheap Flights) and chief flight expert for the Going travel app. “It’s not like a gallon of milk, where the price yesterday tends to be about the same price today, which tends to be about the same price tomorrow. Airfare has wild swings, seemingly at random.”

For travelers wondering about the best time to book a flight for the cheapest airfare—whether for holiday travel, domestic trips or international getaways—we’ve got answers. Why trust Reader’s Digest? We’ve spoken with three flight-deals experts, and we’ve scoured the latest studies from Expedia, Hopper, Google Flights and more. So read on to learn the best time to buy plane tickets, plus the experts’ tips on when to book a holiday flight.

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What is the best time to book a flight?

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There are many factors that impact how far in advance travelers should secure their flights. According to Google Flights’s recent travel trends report, which is based on four years of aggregated Google Flights data, you should book a flight anywhere from around 21 to 101 days in advance—depending on where and when you’re planning to travel.

“Cheap flights are most likely to pop up during what we call a ‘Goldilocks Window,'” says Keyes. That window varies, so keep reading for specific advice on the best time to buy airline tickets based on the type of flight (domestic or international) and the time of year.

The best time to book domestic flights

For off-peak (non-holiday, non-high-season) domestic flights, Keyes says the Goldilocks Window for the best airfare tends to fall around one to three months before travel.

Google Flights notes that, historically, you’d find the lowest domestic fares between 21 and 52 days before departure, and the recent report found average prices have been lowest 38 days prior to takeoff. According to Expedia, booking 28 days in advance of your flight can save you 24% compared with those who wait until the last minute.

Of course, this window is a guideline and not a guarantee. “Typically, you’ll do best booking flights for domestic travel more than 14 days in advance but not too far in advance either,” says Adam Morvitz, the founder and CEO of Point.me, a travel and rewards search platform. “Pricing varies so much by route that the best advice is to use the customer-friendly tools that help people to understand what a normal price is. Google Flights’s [search tool] shows a price indicator in red, orange and green, showing whether prices are low, standard or high based on that specific route and cabin. With this price indicator, even if you’re looking really early, if you see a low price indicated, it might be worth booking there and then.”

The best time to book international flights

For international trips, Keyes recommends starting your search well in advance, as the window for booking could be anywhere from two to eight months before departure.

Expedia’s findings suggest it’s best to book up to 60 days in advance. That may sound like cutting it close, but the company’s data shows that airfare peaks about four months from departure, and waiting could save you around 10%.

And if you’ve got some flexibility and credit card reward points to play with, you might find last-minute deals. “For international flights, you’ll typically need to book a little bit further in advance than domestic trips to get the best deals, based on how people plan for these bigger journeys. There’s a caveat though,” Morvitz says. “Travelers can often secure unbelievable last-minute international flight deals by using their points. As the days and hours before a flight approach, airlines often dump remaining seats to be made available with points, creating exciting opportunities in every cabin, like 50,000 points for a business class flight to Europe.”

The best time to book holiday flights

According to Google Flights’s recent report, October is the best time to book holiday flights. When it comes to domestic airfare for Thanksgiving, the time frame for low prices is 26 to 59 days ahead of travel, with the lowest prices falling 45 days out, according to the report. If you want to travel for Christmas, Google Flights’s report suggests you’ll find the best fares 36 to 72 days out, with the lowest at 58 days before departure.

In other words, the best time to book a flight for Thanksgiving is early October, while the best time to buy plane tickets for Christmas is around the second half of October.

“Booking during the holidays is always a challenge, but the best advice is, again, learn about typical pricing for a route and then use free flight price trackers,” Morvitz says. “Google Flights and Kayak offer free alerts, so you can be notified when prices change. When they fall into a range that you find acceptable, book it.”

It’s also wise to buy refundable flights or those that offer free changes. That way, if you find a better fare, you can grab it without losing money or incurring extra fees.

The best time to book flights for summer travel

Wondering about the best time to book a flight for 2025 summer travel? Keyes advises starting your search well in advance. “For summer trips—the hardest to find cheap flights for—always book during the opposite season. When you’re at that New Year’s party, that’s when you should be looking into summer flights,” he says. “Think of it like you’re buying a swimsuit. When are those most likely to go on sale? In the winter. Same with summer flights.”

While you’re at it, consider booking other parts of your trip at the same time; well in advance may be the best time to book a hotel too. As Morvitz points out, many of the popular hotels, tours and other activities sell out quickly.

What is the best day to buy airline tickets?

If you’ve been searching for the best days to book flights, you may have heard that the best time to buy plane tickets is at midnight on Tuesdays. While that may have been true in the past, when airlines would release sale fares and others would match them, according to airline deals experts and Google Flights’s report, that’s no longer the case.

“We found that this was only applicable to 1.6% of routes and yielded savings of 6%,” says Hayley Berg, lead economist for travel deals app Hopper. “There are many factors that impact pricing, so there is no golden rule that applies to all flights, nor is there a specific time of day, week [or] month that is better to book in general. It all varies, depending on the route you’re flying, etc.”

Google Flights’s report also found that there are very minor—if any—savings when buying a flight on a specific day of the week, noting that flights purchased on Tuesday were only 1.3% cheaper than those purchased on the most expensive day (Sunday).

What is the cheapest day to fly?

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The experts recommend shifting your focus from which day to buy to which day to fly. “The day of the week that you actually travel can be a more predictable way to save,” Berg says.

Keyes recommends Tuesdays and Wednesdays for cheaper airfare, and Google Flights found that flights on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were indeed 13% cheaper than those on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. When international trips were left out of the equation, the potential savings of opting for flights earlier in the week increased by 20%.

For international bookings, Thursday flights tend to be slightly cheaper. “For international trips, depart on a Thursday to save as much as 6% per round-trip ticket,” she says.

Another option for the cheapest day to fly? “The days before, after or actually on a holiday,” Morvitz says. “Flights departing on Thanksgiving Day, for example, are often a bargain. And a night flight means you can have your turkey and fly too!”

What is the cheapest month to fly?

This can vary based on your destination, but in general, January and February—after people have returned to work following the holiday rush—tend to be the cheapest months to fly.

If you’re planning summer travel and looking at tickets to Europe or another international destination, Expedia data shows that August airfare is cheaper than July, with average ticket prices nearly 10% lower. Skyscanner data also found the cheapest summer airfare in August, with savings, on average, of 29% for U.S. travelers flying the week of Aug. 19 versus the first week of July.

How can you get the best deals?

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“If you have a plane with 200 passengers, they may have paid 200 different prices to be there—sitting next to one another on the same flight,” Keyes says, stressing the importance of using tried-and-true tactics for finding cheap flights. “These help ensure you pay significantly less than the person sitting next to you.”

Knowing the best time to book a flight is one way to travel on the cheap. Flying on a budget airline is another. Here are some other tips to save money on air travel.

1. Scour the best websites for cheap flights

There are a number of sites you can check for cheap flights, including:

• Expedia
• Skyscanner
• Google Flights
• Orbitz
• Momondo
• Kayak
• CheapOair

Make sure you read the fine print, paying attention to any unexpected fees or restrictions, before booking.

Keep in mind that airlines may give priority to passengers who booked directly through them rather than through a third-party site. So weigh your actual savings against the possibility of what might happen if you have an issue with lost baggage, delays or cancelations. A good practice is to search these sites to compare various fares, then go to the airline website directly to book.

2. Book changeable flights

When you find a flight for your desired destination and dates, be sure to book a refundable flight and/or one that offers fee-free changes. That way, if you find a better fare, you can grab it without losing money or incurring extra fees. The airline will usually give you a voucher or credit for the difference in fare, which you can use for future flights.

3. Put the apps to work for you

Given the unpredictable swings in airfare, it can be helpful to use apps that use data, software and experts to find cheaper flights. Here are a few options:

• Airfare alerts: As Morvitz notes, sites like Google Flights and Kayak allow you to create alerts for the flight routes and dates you’re interested in. When the fare changes, you’ll receive an email notification. If you like the price, you can go ahead and book it. These types of alerts save you the time and trouble of revisiting the site multiple times to monitor airfare manually.

• Price-tracking and predictions: The price-tracking and predictions tool on the Expedia app can notify travelers when airfare moves up or down. In addition, it predicts price trends based on historical data. You can also try the Hopper app, which will predict the best time to buy airline tickets for your specific trip. That’s important because the best time to buy flights largely depends on your route and dates.

• Flight deals in your inbox: If you don’t want to search for affordable airfare and want the deals to come to you instead, you can sign up for services like FlightDrop, Dollar Flight Club or the Going travel app. The latter uses a combination of software and flight experts to find flight deals from your home airport and then sends the deals directly to members.

4. Be flexible in price, destination and timing

If you’ve got some flexibility, you can cast a wide net by searching an entire month (rather than specific dates) or selecting the “explore everywhere” option (rather than a specific destination) on flight-search platforms such as Skyscanner.

Another expert strategy? Keyes’s advice for finding cheap airfare is to reverse your search. “The normal way people search for flights is a three-step process: step one, choose where you want to go; step two, choose when you want to go; step three, check flight prices. But by putting price as the last priority, it’s no surprise that we wind up with expensive fares,” he says.

If cheap flights are your priority, Keyes suggests you “take that same three-step process and flip it on its head.” Here’s his three-step, reverse-your-search trick: 

1. See where flights are currently cheap from your home airport (understanding prices change every day).
2. Of the places with cheap flights, decide which one interests you the most.
3. Pick dates and book your flights.

“By setting price as the top priority, that’s how you can afford to take three vacations for the price you used to pay for one,” he says.

Also, pay attention to layover options. Typically, flight routes with connections will be cheaper than direct flights, and you might even be able to turn your layover into a bonus adventure if you leave the airport.

5. Consider seasonality before booking

Most travelers book their summer vacations for peak May, June and July travel. Lower demand for late summer and early fall travel means you may be able to get lower airfare by traveling in September or October. In fact, according to Berg, you can save an average of $118 on domestic airfare if you wait and travel in late August or early September.

6. Use frequent-flier miles and credit card rewards

If you earn travel points through your credit cards and miles through your airline’s frequent-flier program, you may be able to book flights for free. There’s a learning curve to the points and miles game, but you can study up by reading the advice of reward experts, joining groups like 10xTravel and using the Point.me rewards search platform.

FAQs

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Why do flight prices fluctuate so much?

“Airfare is impacted by several factors, including jet fuel prices, seasonality and seat capacity,” explains Berg. “Large-scale events in a market can alter prices, but on a smaller level, the airfare you see when searching a flight can be impacted by what fare class is currently available on a given flight or how far out you are booking. These factors and more are constantly evolving, creating volatile pricing.”

You might notice that some routes don’t seem to change much, while others frequently do. “Routes with little competition tend to see fewer price changes,” Keyes says. “But on highly competitive routes [Los Angeles to New York City or Los Angeles to Hawaii, for example], fares can change by the day, if not by the hour.”

Keyes notes that the topic of airfare fluctuations is complex, but in general, there are three reasons for flux: “First, tickets are rival goods; if I buy a seat, that seat can’t be sold to someone else. Airlines try to make sure they don’t underprice. Second, spoilage; seats have an expiration date (at takeoff). After that, their value goes to zero. And third, unpredictability; when (or if) travelers will book a seat is highly uncertain,” he says. “Airlines don’t want to sell a seat for $200 that I would’ve paid $2,000 for. But they also don’t want to charge $2,000 a seat if most travelers won’t pay it.” 

As Morvitz puts it, “airlines naturally want to earn as much from each flight as possible.” So for flights that aren’t filling up, you might find good deals because selling the seat for something is better than the airline getting nothing for an empty seat. And with flights that fill up faster, you’ll likely see prices go up.

Another thing affecting airfare? Different price points for various inclusions and exclusions. “We’re seeing an era where people can find savings by trading away flexibility or cancelation rights if they commit and book early,” Morvitz says. “Airlines have a variety of price points in each cabin depending on how much flexibility or extras a traveler wants and needs.”

Can you find cheaper flights in incognito mode?

Let’s put this myth to rest: “Despite what you may read, clearing your cookies or searching in incognito mode won’t do anything to get you cheaper flights,” Keyes says. “People confuse the fact that airfare is extraordinarily volatile—changing far more frequently than many people realize—with airlines being untoward. And in fact, the idea that searching multiple times for a flight without booking will lead an airline to raise prices has it exactly backward. When a consumer shows interest in a product but doesn’t ultimately purchase, the most common practice companies use is to target that consumer with a discount code, not to raise the prices.”

Clearing your cookies or searching in incognito won’t hurt anything, Keyes explains. “But it won’t help you find lower fares,” he says. “So you can save yourself the time and effort.” 

When is the best time of day to travel?

Being a savvy traveler isn’t just about knowing how to find cheap flights. It’s also about choosing the flights that’ll make for the smoothest travel experience.

Early is the way to go, travel experts agree. “Red-eye and early morning flights are usually the least popular flights and therefore cheapest,” Keyes says. “There’s an extra benefit to early morning flights: They have an on-time performance that’s 25 percentage points higher than afternoon flights. That’s for two reasons. First, weather tends to be better in the morning. And second, the aircraft has been parked overnight and is ready to go. For afternoon flights, the plane has to fly in from elsewhere, and if that flight is delayed, your flight will be delayed.”

Early morning flights are typically less crowded too, and they give you more opportunities to get on another flight during the day.

Avoid taking the last flight of the day whenever possible, especially during the winter travel months, to reduce the chances of missed connections or getting stuck for the night in the airport due to bad weather.

When is the worst time to fly?

The holidays are the busiest time to travel because everyone is trying to get somewhere to celebrate. So prices tend to be higher, and flights and airports are jam-packed with travelers. On the Sunday after Thanksgiving in 2023, the TSA screened 2.9 million people, which meant longer lines in many airports and travel hubs.

“The most popular times to fly usually see the most expensive flights—summer flights, midday flights, Monday and Friday flights,” Keyes says. “I wouldn’t say those are the worst per se—they’re popular after all!—but they are the most expensive.”

Additional reporting by Sunny Fitzgerald and Melissa Klurman.

Why trust us

Reader’s Digest has published hundreds of travel stories that help readers explore the world safely, easily and affordably. We regularly cover topics such as the best places to visit (and the best times to visit them), tips and tricks to zoom through airport security, flight-attendant secrets, hotel-room hacks and more. We’re committed to producing high-quality content by writers with expertise and experience in their field in consultation with relevant, qualified experts. We rely on reputable primary sources, including government and professional organizations and academic institutions as well as our writers’ personal experiences where appropriate. We verify all facts and data, back them with credible sourcing and revisit them over time to ensure they remain accurate and up to date. For this piece on the best time to book a flight, Lois Alter Mark tapped her experience as a travel writer and frequent flier who’s been to all seven continents. Read more about our team, our contributors and our editorial policies.

Sources:

• Scott Keyes, founder of Going, chief flight expert for the Going app and author of Take More Vacations; email interview, Oct. 30, 2024
• Adam Morvitz, founder and CEO of Point.me; email interview, Oct. 30, 2024
• Hayley Berg, lead economist at Hopper; interviewed, January 2023
• Tripadvisor: “The Results Are In: Tripadvisor’s Top 2024 Destinations According to Global Travelers”
• Expedia: “New Report Finds Air Travel More Stressful Than Going to the Dentist: Expedia Releases 2024 Air Travel Hacks Report for Smoother Travel”
• Google Flights: “Our 2024 travel trends—right in time for the holidays”
• Skyscanner: “Discover the cheapest week to travel this summer with Skyscanner”
• 10xTravel: “Award Booking Service”

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