Best Day to Purchase Plane Tickets

I don't know that I've ever been able to pinpoint a best day - booking for me has always been about frequent checking of the fares. I've come to know (at least in pre-Covid times) when a particular fare is likely to be the "best" that will be offered for that destination and I make the go / no go decision, from there.

Over the last 5-6 years my ticket purchasing has been 2-stage. If the price is "right", I'll purchase a Premium Economy seat to guarantee a certain level of comfort, then I watch the Business Class pricing for my "pounce" moment - there are no change fees when upgrading the fare.

I don’t think there is a magic “day”. Your trip is coming up quickly and airfare only seems to be going up. I would be tracking prices daily and acting soon. I would also check nearby departure airport option in case there is a price difference there.

There is no way to know. Medium sized airports, the ones with 8 or fewer flights to Europe/day, the better fares are a ways out, say 10 months to 4 months. For large international airports like Newark where there is a lot of competition anything can happen, and there can be good fares up to the last month.

With dynamic pricing (via airline algorithms that can change multiple times a day based on demand, competitor prices, anticipated fuel prices, staffing, and a host of other variables), there is no such thing as a "best day" to purchase tickets. The only thing you can do is track prices over time (several weeks or months) to get a decent perspective of the potential range, and to bite when the price and itinerary are to your liking. Even then, the itinerary can change or your flight can get cancelled (that's happening all over the place now due to the supply shortages like airline, maintenance, and other airport staff), but you will still have the leverage of having purchased a ticket and can negotiate a "second best" option.

I'd suggest using Google Flights to check price history, and set up alerts on the flights in which you are interested . As far as Business Class, prices have been consistently awful for the past several months. I'm sure high fuel prices are part of the problem, along with staffing problems. It's not " business as usual" yet for the airline industry. Also be prepared for flight cancelations and delays.
Still- traveling is SO worth it!

To echo all the others, there is no best day to buy plane tickets. Use Google flights and start tracking flight prices. You might find this helpful: https://thriftytraveler.com/guides/cheapest-days-to-fly/

By "best day" do you mean how far ahead of departure or a certain day of the week? I agree with all the others that you just keep checking the prices then you grab the one that you feel is the best price. As far as which week day to leave and return on I have found that flying on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Saturdays have lower fares than the other days of the week when I book with Delta.

A note that Google flights does not list all the discount airlines like Condor. I think skyscanner should also be used to pick up every airline, but I would never buy from a skyscanner link even to an airline website, whereas I would click through to buy from an airline from Google flights.

Thank you for all the suggestions. I just signed up for the Google Flights to track the prices. My wife and I will also start checking each day. Our travel plans are to fly to Paris for a few days after the Berlin Marathon. We are then planning to take the Chunnel to London and fly back home from London.
Thanks.

Don’t forget to clear your history every night. Also, for domestic flights my sister swears it’s Tuesday night.

I don't know if there is a magic day, but I have heard Tuesday as well. Supposedly, it is after the weekend when many people sit and talk about trips and make reservations. The load systems then work on Monday and by Tuesday repricing takes place. I can't verify this, but it was something I was told many years ago and it made some sense. Also, use incognito windows. Airline sites track you and do offer you similar fight costs. This I know because you can see saved searches when you go back into the sights.

I don't shop for plane fares any longer. I use an agent. She knows the tricks. We agree I don't always get the best price but I do get connections that involve neither sprints nor naps, my preferred seat (usually), and insurance appropriate for the costs and risks.

And her fee for all of that service is ????????

My last three trips (all after covid- 2 domestic, one international) I waited until Tuesday morning and the price dropped. I also did this for a London trip in 2019. In all cases, I had seen a lower fare when I went to book. I waited until Tuesday morning , and the price dropped back to the lower fair. In all cases, the difference was about $50.

Lots of urban legends about this. It's really up to you to research where the fares have been, decide in your head what "your" number is, and pounce if it appears. Also decide how important refundability and changability is to you, since those cost extra.

FWIW, Peter Greenberg on the radio this morning said that he's seeing that for some reason two one-ways at the moment can be cheaper than a roundtrip. My only hesitation would be, anyone on a one-way ticket gets the body cavity special from the TSA.

The Monday/Tuesday thing is a fallacy! Or a statistical anomaly, at best. Let me explain:

Prior to the round of airline consolidation in the aughts, airlines occasionally offered "fare sales". In a market that was much more competitive, these sales represented a significant amount of inventory. A given airline would usually launch a their sale over a weekend, and the competition would react by matching those prices on Monday or Tuesday. The old "Fare Wars".

This happened 3 or 4 times a year. That meant there were 3-4 Mondays when the average fare dropped more than any other day in the year. Though nuanced, there is statistical fact here. But it somehow became lore that "fares are cheaper" on Mondays and Tuesdays.

In these days of significantly reduced competition, automated, dynamic, algorithm-driven pricing, and 24/7 work culture, even this little old blip has faded away.

Note 1- Modern "fare sales" are marketing tools, not inventory movers. Airlines only put up minimum seats at the cheap advertised prices.
Note 2 - How cute, to think of times when corporate-level action would only happen 9-5, Mon-Fri. I'm picturing brown suits, carpeted walls, and multi-line phones with the clear, light-up line buttons across the bottom.

My only hesitation would be, anyone on a one-way ticket gets the body cavity special from the TSA.

I haven't had this issue, and I often fly one-ways. Pay cash or book last minute and things might be different.

I fly one way all the time. The TSA doesn’t seem to care at all.

So years ago I had a family member who worked for an airline. And he started with the Delta one step from crop dusting. :) . Seriously in the 1940s

And he told me back before computers that Tuesday was the best day to buy flights. That’s because Monday morning the executives would get together and look at the revenue and sales for the week before and decide if that was where they wanted to be etc. and if they needed to offer a sale. They will make that decision on Monday, fares will be loaded Monday night and Tuesday they can start selling them.

However now this is all automated and the revenue management system makes fare decisions constantly based on the algorithms that have been built. So there is no best day anymore

"Don’t forget to clear your history every night." Another piece of Urban Legend. For IF you are using Google Flights or Google Matrix (isa), those are search engines scouring the listed fares for you. They do not care what you have seen before, not here you ahve been. Your history is irrelevant to them, and their searches are not affected by your history00nor anyone else's.

OTOH, it is good practice to clear your cookies and history so websites cannot track what you do elsewhere.

https://thepointsguy.com/guide/best-time-to-book-a-flight/

The best the writer could come up with was a $75 round-trip savings.

@periscope: Also the other day: https://onemileatatime.com/insights/best-time-to-book-flights/

My recent experience was that getting a better price was more about the day(s) you fly than the one you buy.

Use Google Flights and look at the Calendar view for your dates. Across the top and right side will be your departure date and return date. Other dates around those will also be included.

Pick what initially looks good to you. If it doesn't look good enough to click through and buy right away, set up to track the prices for the airline(s) and schedule(s) that work best. You'll be emailed when the price goes up or down.