Best Time to Book Flights

Posted by kim on November 14, 2007

I rarely watch television anymore, but I usually keep it turned on to the NBC channel and listen while I work. A couple of weeks ago on the TODAY show, I heard that the best time to purchase airline tickets is early Wednesday mornings, around 2 am, as there is usually a price decline then.

Well, I’ve been procrastinating booking my flight to Denver for Thanksgiving as I’ve been trying to work out schedules with the kids and trying to decide if I should fly out of Sioux City or Omaha. Yesterday I decided which flight out of Omaha I wanted, but I decided to wait until today just to see if the price would decline.

No, I didn’t set my alarm for 2 am, and I didn’t know what time zone they were referring to anyway, so I waited until my usual alarm of 6:30 am went off to recheck prices. Lo and behold, the price was $40 less than last night! Of course, it would have been one hundred dollars less if I would have booked a month ago. Oh, well, it’s booked.

I always use Kayak.com to compare airline prices. It actually compares prices of other online travel sites (ie Orbitz, CheapTickets), then I find it actually cheaper to book directly through the airline carrier website (ie United.com, FrontierAirlines.com) to save booking fees. And, of course, I sign up for all the Frequent Flyer Programs in hopes of earning a free ticket!

Speaking of listening to the news on TV, they said not to take dogs under 4 lbs. outside for walks today because it is so windy outside! I agree – living up on a hill with no trees, it is quite breezy!!