Best day and time to book flights: 2026 case study and tips to book flights cheaply

Is there actually the best day and time to book flights?

To quickly answer the question that’s the basis of the article, unfortunately, there isn’t a best day and time to book flights. Airlines price tickets according to many factors, the most important being demand, with more sophisticated pricing and revenue management systems finding their way into carriers’ offices worldwide.

Does this mean that finding cheaper tickets or last-minute deals is impossible? Not necessarily, but you’ll have to exercise patience and flexibility to score them. You’ll need patience to wait for the price to drop and the flexibility to adapt according to when the tickets’ travel days are cheaper, which could save you several hundred dollars.

You can also try hunting down erroneous fares, which is when airlines mistakenly price tickets much cheaper than they were supposed to be. In one widely covered case in April 2023, Japan-based All Nippon Airways (ANA) sold business class tickets, usually priced at or more than US$10,000, for less than US$1,000, in some cases, around US$300. Such cases are rare and are usually fixed quickly, but you can still sometimes spot tickets that are much cheaper than they would usually be.

However, you can save money on travel, even if you do not come across cheaper flights to your desired destination. Use airline miles on award tickets, book cheaper hotels, or if you’re going abroad, download an eSIM app to save on excessive roaming charges and have access to the internet while traveling.

What is the best day of the week to book flights?

Over the years, numerous studies have claimed to identify days when booking flight tickets can result in finding the cheapest fares. In reality, there’s no single best day of the week to book flights due to airline revenue management — the way that airlines price tickets and try to maximize their profits — evolving from updating the prices every few hours or even days to much narrower timeframes. This has allowed airlines to respond to demand quickly and adjust ticket prices according to demand, better protecting their profit margins.

For example, Expedia, an online travel agency, published a study in February 2026 that claimed that Fridays are the best days to book flights in the United States. The problem with the study is that the data was taken from bookings made on Expedia. However, not every airline might list their tickets with the agency’s, which means that the data or the conclusions made from the data might not paint a realistic picture.

Not to discredit Expedia’s data, but such studies can be skewed. Airline revenue management is incredibly complex, and concluding that a single weekday to book flights will result in you finding the best price might be a pie in the sky.

Best day of the week to book international flights

As mentioned above, Expedia found that the cheapest day to book a flight is on a Friday, without determining whether that applies to domestic or international flights, or both. While there is no silver bullet-like day when to buy plane tickets for international flights, you should consider the following when trying to find cheaper tickets on cross-border flights.

First, think about your booking window. You might come across cheaper fares just as airlines open flights for bookings for the next summer or winter season, or as the departure date approaches. Buying tickets just as airlines fill their forward-looking schedules can also show some of the highest fares, and while it might sound like we’re contradicting ourselves, that’s just the complex nature of airline revenue management.

Per Expedia’s research, booking 31 to 45 days before your international flight usually results in the cheapest fare compared to when you’re purchasing a ticket 180 or more days in advance.

But the study fails to answer numerous questions. Does the data include international short-haul flights, to, for example, Canada or Mexico? Or does it also include long-haul flights from New York John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) to London Heathrow (LHR), which is one of the busiest but also one of the more premium international travel corridors from the US?

Looking at when to grab the cheapest international airfares in a vacuum won’t yield tangible conclusions. A flight from Vancouver International Airport (YVR) to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA), for example, will be inherently cheaper since the operating costs of the route — quite short at 110 nautical miles (205 kilometers), and usually operated with smaller narrowbody aircraft — are much lower than on a flight from JFK to LHR, where distances are greater, the type of customer is different, and the flight’s operating costs are higher.

The second factor you should consider when looking for international flight tickets is that prices will depend on the route you’re looking to fly. As US-based airlines continue expanding, they have to look for blue oceans — a term that describes new markets with little to no competition. One example is United Airlines’ flights from Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) to Santiago de Compostela Airport (SCQ) in Spain, which began on May 27, 2026. Perhaps, in a bid to promote the route, United Airlines offered discounted tickets across its network of travel agency partners and on its website. In addition, since the route caters to leisure travelers — being a summer seasonal and to a destination where few, if any, major corporations are headquartered — the prices might be friendlier since businesses aren’t going to send their colleagues on a business trip where no business interactions can happen.

Third, and perhaps most importantly, consider the potential demand that could affect flights to your holiday destination. In essence, if a flight is not selling out, airlines have two choices. Carriers can either pursue a high load factor — or how full the cabin is on the flight — and lower yield strategy, meaning potentially lower profit margins but cheaper fares for passengers. Alternatively, they can keep prices high and gamble that demand will pick up and they will be able to recoup some of the losses of the flight or even have a profitable departure.

Fourth, and this does correlate with the point above, be flexible when it comes to the day of the week of your flight(s). In July 2026, the most daily flights from the US to Europe were scheduled for Saturday (629 departures), Sunday (622 departures), and Friday (621 departures), according to data from Cirium’s Diio Mi. Other days of the week see fewer departures, like on Tuesdays, with only 603. On these weekdays, supply is lower, indicating lower demand for transatlantic flights. However, if demand spikes, a reduced supply will give even more pricing power to airlines and result in higher fares. If demand stays low, that midweek departure could come with lower fares. Or if airlines are okay with lower load factors, the prices will still stay high. We told you that the airline business is incredibly complex!

Best day of the week to book domestic flights

Similarly, while no one best day to book flights on domestic legs can be identified, you might still find opportunities to save money when buying a ticket. For one, low-cost competition for domestic travel, unlike for many international routes, is still alive and well.

In the US, airlines like Allegiant Air, Breeze Airways, or Frontier Airlines drive down fares by offering bare-bones services that you usually get when booking economy class tickets on full-service airlines. The mainline carriers like American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, and United Airlines responded to budget airlines’ pricing with basic economy fares that matched the low-cost carriers’ offering. Direct competition between the two types of airlines resulted in lower fares.

So if you want to find cheap domestic flights, you can either look for routes that have low-cost competition or for specific routes where low-cost carriers are dominant. Whatever the case, more competition will always be beneficial to consumers.

To point to example, according to US Department of Transportation (DOT) data compiled by Cirium’s Diio Mi, during the first four months of 2025, the average net fare on a flight between John Glenn Columbus International Airport (CMH) and Fort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport (FLL) was US$119.55. During the same four-month period in 2026, the average net fares fell to US$93.30.

What changed? Frontier Airlines, an ultra-low-cost competitor, joined the party of airlines flying the route in March 2026. While correlation doesn’t necessarily mean causation, multiple studies have confirmed that a low-cost carrier entering a market will drive down fares for passengers.

On the contrary, when a low-cost competitor leaves a route, fares go up. Case in point are flights between JFK and Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), where, again, Frontier Airlines entered as a competitor. The low-cost carrier eventually left the route due to numerous reasons, including high operating costs at JFK, but a quick look at the DOT’s data shows that when Frontier Airlines was flying the route, passengers had access to cheaper fares. In January 2026, the airline’s net average fare on flights from JFK to LAX was US$157.54, which was the cheapest option. When it left the market, the cheapest net fare on the route was JetBlue’s at US$316.38 in February 2026.

Again, looking at fare data is just scratching the surface of how to look for good deals, how revenue management in the airline industry works, or how other factors, rather than days when you book your flight, affect the price of your ticket.

Note that if you want to book holiday flights, whether for Christmas, Memorial Day, or Labor Day, you’d better book the flight in advance. Last-minute tickets can get costly as demand peaks for flights during the holidays or long weekends.

But if there’s one thing to take away from this section of the article — low-cost carriers are your best friends when it comes to booking cheaper flights.

What is the best time of the day to book flights?

If we now know that no single day of the week is the best to book flights, then most likely, you won’t come across the best time of the day to purchase your ticket. You can try working around when airlines change pricing during the day according to demand, but if the process is automated, can you actually beat out the complex algorithms and the vast troves of data that airlines have access to?

Probably not.

Best time of the day to book international flights

Indeed, airline revenue management has become too advanced for a single day to be the best day to book a flight, but you can still find deals on international trips. The exact hour of the day when you book won’t matter, but if you book a flight that departs within specific hours, you might get a better deal.

Some business or leisure travelers might prefer to land at their destination in the early morning hours, leaving them with plenty of time to begin their vacation or hop into a meeting in the afternoon. However, if you’re okay with flying from JFK to LHR in the early morning or around noon to land to arrive later in the evening, you might find that flights are cheaper for those departure and arrival times.

At the same time, be wary that this scenario can change if demand, even for flights with uncomfortable departure or arrival times, is high or you’re looking for a ticket on short notice.

Alternatively, you can look for cheap places to travel to, like Lisbon, Portugal, where lower airport costs can drive down the overall price of a ticket. In theory, at least.

Best time of the day to book domestic flights

Much like with international flights, cheap domestic flights don’t go on sale at a specific time of day. Instead, demand dictates the terms, namely price and seat availability. Still, passengers booking domestic flights may be able to be more flexible regarding their departure dates.

That flexibility can be used to your advantage, especially if you don’t mind traveling to your destination a day or two later or even taking a detour with a layover flight. If a flight doesn’t sell out as it approaches the departure date, airlines might look to sell seats at a cheaper price just to fill the cabin, which will be your opportunity to grab a great deal on a flight ticket.

Mid-week departures (Tuesdays and Wednesdays) may be cheaper because fewer passengers choose to fly on those days.

Per Cirium’s Diio Mi, the days with the fewest domestic departures in the US in July are Saturday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, respectively, which can point to when you can find the best deals.

Best time and day to book flights: Case study summary

To summarize, no one day is best to book flights. Customers play the guessing game because they don’t have access to airlines’ pricing management practices. The pull and push of supply and demand dictate a lot of the decisions — automated or not — on how prices change day to day, even hour to hour.

What is the worst day and time to book flights?

No worst day or time exists to book flights, but you may consider when it’s slightly less favorable to do so. If you’re buying a ticket far in advance, just as an airline opens up bookings for an upcoming season, you might be categorized as willing to pay more to secure specific travel dates.

Following that initial seasonal bump, prices can drop. Booking early isn’t always a bad thing, but don’t panic if the initial prices for your specific route are steep, since prices change as demand fluctuates closer to the departure date.

Tips to book cheap flights

Whether you’re looking for tips as a first-time flier or a seasoned veteran when it comes to air travel, one of the best tools to use when looking for flights is Google Flights. Yes, it has a drawback that, according to the tool’s site, not “all airlines or available flights are included, as a partnership with Google is required” to display their inventories, but with data from over 300 partners, you will have the means to spot good deals.

Another thing to be aware of is that layover flights can sometimes be cheaper. A cheaper layover flight can sound contradictory, considering that you travel via multiple aircraft. But remember that airlines monetize convenience, so a faster arrival often means higher cost.

The third tip is to research some of the best travel apps available. While you might be tempted to book your flight through an online travel agency, our recommendation is to book directly with an airline. Your trip might have no issues, but if you do face an obstacle like a canceled flight or delays, airline customer support generally offers better solutions. Airlines are not exactly known for their excellent customer support either, but at least you can use their apps or websites to reschedule your flight yourself in case of any disruptions.

Another recommendation is to use an eSIM app, like Saily, especially if you’re traveling internationally. With Saily’s eSIM plans, you’ll be able to avoid roaming fees and potentially save on your mobile data needs.This option is easier than toying around with a physical SIM card at the airport once you arrive, since Saily’s eSIM plans activate automatically once you land at your destination. In addition, the Saily Ultra plan offers mobile data as well as additional travel perks like fast-track services and lounge access at select airports throughout the world.