Every traveler has his or her own ideas about when best to buy airline tickets to secure the best prices, with many agreeing that those bought as early as possible will in most cases be the cheapest.
However, according to the latest research of a key market analyst group, the very best cheap tickets for both domestic and international flights are to be found around the six-week mark prior to departure – no more and certainly no less.
According to the group responsible for the study, millions of transactions have been studied over a period of around four years, with a total value estimated at approximately $82 billion. From the data collected, the vast majority of bargain prices and cheap flights were found pretty close to the six-week mark before departure.
Around 100 days or so before departure, many of the initial cheaper seats tend to have been sold, which in turn leads to diminished interest. As such, airlines will in most cases begin to add further offers to remaining seats in order to provoke interest, with prices having been seen to bottom out at around the 42 day mark.
All in all, airline tickets sold six weeks prior to departure in 2011 worked out 5.8% cheaper than the overall annual average price, with the figures for 2009 having shown a massive 26% average price reduction for those booking six weeks ahead.
Of course, early-bird bargains will still take the proverbial cake in some instance, but for those who feel they may have allowed such a deal to slip them by, a second look at the six-week mark would be far from a bad idea.
