Let me put on my myth-busting hat: I just saw this AP article in The San Jose Mercury News, called “When is the best time to book airfare?” Good question; bad answer. According to the article, late Thursday is the best time to check. WRONG. The article goes on to quotea source as saying “Our experience with airlines has shown us that they update available seats around 12 a.m. Eastern time every day.” WRONG AGAIN. So when IS the best time to book? Click “more” to find out… Liked this? Then check out “How to Buy Intelligently”

Actually, I answered this question once before, after one of my favorite sites, Consumerist, posted a story saying Wednesday at midnight was the time to buy. They quickly corrected themselves, and published my response to that myth: not true!

So, when to buy?

The best time to book is when you FIND the best airfare, and that can be ANYTIME.

That said, I will also acknowledge that sales often begin early in the week, BUT, and this is a big “but”: generally, it’s completely random.

So, how to “find” the best airfare is a little tricky, but that’s why you have FareCompare: we do the work for you. But you have to educate yourself (and FareCompare has all the resources you’ll need), so you know what price is actually a good deal.

Now, regarding this statement: “Our experience with airlines has shown us that they update available seats around 12 a.m. Eastern time every day.” As I said, that’s wrong. Airlines file their airfares continuously during the day, which are distributed multiple times a day (see my detailed post on that in my “Ask Rick” pages, which you can read here.)

The following 2-paragraphs come from another post (in our Travel Tips/Top 10 Lists page; you can read the full story here); these graphs capture the essence of when prices are distributed, and what goes into pricing decisions:

“First of all, each airline files their air fares continuously during the day to ATPCO, where those fares are aggregated and distributed to all “subscribers” at specific times (subscribers include the airlines and global distribution systems which power online agencies such as Expedia, Travelocity and Orbitz). This fare distribution occurs on weekdays at 10am, 12:30pm and 8pm Eastern Time; on weekends, it occurs just once, at 5pm.”

“There are normally several dozen airfare price-points in a particular city pair. The fares include 20+ rules which also allow the airline flexibility on restricting the lowest price seats. These rule restrictions include: passenger type, day/time, seasons, flight restrictions, advance purchase, minimum stay, maximum stay, fare combinations, surcharges, travel periods and sales restrictions. This means a particular seat can be sold at dozens of different prices each day!”

The best way to find the cheapest airfare? Use FareCompare to educate yourself; use FareCompare’s sophisticated (but easy-to-use) technology on My Trips; be flexible, and use FareCompare’s Free Email Alerts. They really work; see what Email Alert users have to say, here.

Finally, I’ve assembled a handy “Top 7-Tips” on when to buy; definitely worth checking out.

Liked this? Then check out “How to Buy Intelligently”