Is there a "best time" in the week to get the best price for air tickets?
#1
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Is there a "best time" in the week to get the best price for air tickets?
Just wondering: is there a best time in the week to check and maybe purchase airline tickets. When do the fares change? though I know that this is a closely guarded secret!
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I have heard a lot of people mentioning about that Tuesday night thing, but my own experience is that prices change all the time, and personally I have not found prices to be significantly lower on Wednesday morning compared to other mornings.
#5
It may be that some airlines start fare sales at a given time (and I am not sure the Tuesday night thing is anything but an urban legend.) However, present YM technology operates in real time; some fare buckets will open up or close out on given flights according to the status of sales on that particular flight, from minute to minute. Remember that the "price" of any flight has to do with the fare categories remaining available on that plane on that day.
Fares for particular city pairs will move around from day to day, or hour to hour. A much better indicator of what airlines will do is what other airlines are doing - if one airline reduces prices for a given city pair in a given time period, all will follow suit immediately, whether it's Tuesday night or Sunday brunch. Because they all post fares to the same GDSs, they know of each others' prices within seconds, and their software can alter their prices just like that. Software never sleeps.
Fares for particular city pairs will move around from day to day, or hour to hour. A much better indicator of what airlines will do is what other airlines are doing - if one airline reduces prices for a given city pair in a given time period, all will follow suit immediately, whether it's Tuesday night or Sunday brunch. Because they all post fares to the same GDSs, they know of each others' prices within seconds, and their software can alter their prices just like that. Software never sleeps.
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I was curious about this and found this old thread. I have seen several feature items on news shows recently. I think the last one was Peter Greenberg, travel guy on the today show, and he again stated the theory that the best prices are available on Tuesday night/Wednesday early AM. Any new thoughts on this?
#7
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any time you find the fare you like is the best time. The Tuesday night/Wednesday morning stuff is long gone. It was probably true before the advent of travel reservations systems, or GDS the Global Distribution Systems. Today the airlines load up fares about every 4-6 hours, daily.
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Kappy
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Mar 23rd, 2008 10:09 AM