Your mother (or the Internet, rather) was right: There IS a worst day to buy a plane ticket. And as recent research confirms, that day is Friday.
A new analysis from Expedia and the Airlines Reporting Corporation backs up previous conclusions that airline tickets bought on Fridays are pricier than others. After analyzing hundreds of millions of bookings, researchers found that for domestic economy tickets, travelers paid an average of 11 percent more when they bought tickets on Friday as opposed to Sunday. YIKES.
A number of factors could be to blame: The weekly inventory of cheap plane seats usually dwindles by Friday afternoon, when airlines often introduce price hikes to see if others will match them over the weekend, The Wall Street Journal reports.
Business travelers also tend to book on weekdays, especially Friday, which makes the weekend a highly lucrative time to book your ticket, The Points Guy editor Zach Honig told HuffPost. Indeed, Expedia's analysis shows that Sunday is the cheapest day for domestic economy tickets.
Experts tend to be split on this matter, though, as Tuesday has long been held as the cheapest day to book. Recent research from Hopper, for example, found that travelers saved about six percent when they searched for flights at that time. The discrepancy may occur because some analysts base their conclusions on all the flights available at a given time, while others consider only flights that were actually purchased, ARC spokesperson Katie Murrin told HuffPost.
Though, as airfare expert George Hobica added, there likely is no "magic day" to book. Good deals can come up at any time: Sign up for email alerts to get notified when they do.
We recommend consulting the best of flight-finder sites and hoping for LOTS of flash sales.
Happy travels!
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