A Little Traveler's Trick: When To Buy Plane Tickets

6.02.2009

"Certainly, travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living." - Miriam Beard

Planning a flight soon? The single most fundamental part of planning your travel arrangements is, unequivocably and irrevocably, figuring out how you're going to get there (if you can't get to your travel destination, so much for your vacation). There are as many ways to travel as there are characters in the Chinese alphabet, some more luxurious (and expensive) than others.

Probably the most popular method of travel is to fly. It's very safe, and very fast. The catch, as we all know, with flying is the price. Transatlantic tickets can cost upwards of 1000 USD, depending on where you're going. Fortunately, there's a way to find extremely inexpensive tickets, and it's not necessarily with Expedia.com or Travelocity.com.

We all know prices in plane tickets fluctuate from time to time. A ticket you buy in February for a flight in June may not cost the same as if you had bought it in March. It could be higher or lower depending on a number of things. Availability, demand, competition, among other factors. But there are little secrets to traveling and saving some money, too. The idea is to properly time when to buy plane tickets, and there is actually an optimal moment of the week to buy.

Most people do their plane ticket buying on the weekends when they're at home, when they can confer with whoever they are traveling with, or when they have plenty of time to relax and pick out the best itinerary. This, however, is a HUGE mistake. Wednesday is actually the best day to pick out plane tickets (1 a.m. Wednesday morning, to be more precise, but it's up to you if you want to stay up until then).

Why Wednesday? Why not Friday? Two words: FARE WARS! These fare wars are often instigated by the smaller, up-and-coming airlines. On Friday, a large, well known airline will raise their fares. By Saturday, other airlines may follow suit. Not all of them will, but many will raise their fares to match the larger airline because hey, if they're selling out their tickets at 500 bucks a pop, why are we selling ours at 250? We could be making more! Depending on how the market does over the weekend, this is where the smaller airlines come in.

On Monday, a small airline may offer their tickets at a lower price to entice some new customers. Tuesday rolls around and the other airlines will catch on, and in order to keep customers coming and not lose them to the smaller fish, also lower the prices. This continues on throughout Tuesday and by Wednesday morning the prices should be at their lowest.

But be sure to strike on Wednesday! If you wait past Wednesday the prices will start to rise again because Friday is just around the corner, and so begins the cycle all over again.

It's still entirely up to you when you want to purchase your travel tickets, but keep this little trick in the back of your mind and you can put the money you save towards enjoying your vacation.

Note: Now Microsoft's new search engine, Bing, can advise you on whether you should buy now, or wait to buy later. Just another little tool you can use to buy your plane tickets.