Does trying to book a flight on an airline sometimes feel like witchcraft? That is, you poke around on dozens of travel sites, pull out your calculator, plug the figures into your spreadsheet, compare with other sites and then end up with different costs as you go from site to site? (Don’t blame the sites!) As you’ll suspect, these vagaries of simply try to book a ticket are are all down to the “clever” algorithms of the airlines, primarily. Admittedly, theirs is not an easy job: in the USA alone, 45,000 average daily flights are handled by the FAA with 10,000,000+ scheduled passenger flights yearly 5,400 aircraft in the sky. And then think of how many passengers are on each flight. Mind-numbing.
However, the FAA is not the only one keeping track of flights. CheapFlights (one of our affiliate friends) has been – for decades – monitoring flight patterns: dates, times, airlines, airports and – most importantly – when is the best time to buy.
Statistics
They also offer helpful statistics that guide your decision-making: for example –
- In 2022, travelers paid on average $310 for roundtrip flights between Seattle and Cleveland. This is higher than the lowest fares represented in the chart because many travelers choose to book flights other than the lowest for schedule, convenience, or airline preference. The cheapest airline ticket purchased on CheapAir.com to Cleveland from Seattle was $189 roundtrip, and the most anyone paid was $388.
- Flight prices are generally at their lows between 248 and 320 days before departure. As a general rule, as you get close to departure time there are fewer flights (and possibly less convenient ones) that are available at or around the lowest fare.
As they say on their site, ” We’ve compiled data on 8,000+ popular markets and analyzed over 1.3 billion airfares. The result: unbiased information that helps you learn about the best time to buy.” And the nice thing about it, is that you can dynamically – in real-time – play with dates, times, airlines yourself to find the perfect itinerary for you.
Why not experiment with CheapFlights yourself? Click here to find your best deal.