For years, travel talk has been full of advice on the best day of the week to book flights, but a recent survey of travel booking sites by USA Today suggests that’s the wrong question, and that the right one is “what’s the best day to depart.”
Many travelers have taken it as an article of faith that Tuesday was the cheapest day and that prices surged on weekends. That may have been true in the days before airlines turned to sophisticated yield management software, but it isn’t now. Hopper and Google Flights found little if any difference for Tuesday, and Google Flights data indicated Sunday might produce the lowest.
Hayley Berg of Hopper told the paper “We tested this out and looked at the best day of the week to book for a number of popular trips and Tuesday was the cheapest day just 1% of the time,” she said. “The best price might be available on Tuesday – but it might be available on another day of the week.”
The report suggests, overall, that the best strategies are planning when to fly (Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday fares are an average 12% below Thursday, Friday and Saturday) and when to book. Berg recommends monitoring prices and then booking 1 to 3 months out for domestic and 3 to 5 months ahead for international.
