The Best Time to Book Holiday Travel—and How to Save

11.10.2023 - 01:23 / afar.com / Scott Keyes / Katy Nastro / Christmas Eve

While the current prices of airline tickets are down from their peak earlier this year—thanks to pent-up travel demand being released and more flights being added—they likely won’t stay that way for long. The holidays are coming and, with them, an increase in flight prices.

If you want a good deal on holiday airfare, now is the time to book.

According to a recent report from Google Flights, the average price of airline tickets tends to be at its lowest 71 days before departure. That would mean if you’re looking to travel on Christmas Eve, the best day to purchase tickets is Saturday, October 14.

That number more or less jives with Going’s (formerly Scott’s Cheap Flights) “goldilocks window”—the period during which cheap fares are most likely to crop up. Founder Scott Keyes has previously said that for domestic flights, the best time to book a flight is one to three months before your travel date, and for international flights, it’s two to eight months prior. However, it’s better to book earlier than later for the peak holiday season.

During the pandemic, people were able to score cheap last-minute flights, namely because fewer people were flying and business travelers weren’t buying eleventh-hour fares that drove prices up. But, according to Katy Nastro, a travel expert at Going, fliers shouldn’t count on that happening in 2023, as travel has returned to “normal.”

“The good news though is that average airfare is down 13 percent year over year and has been trending downward since May of 2022, so we don’t anticipate average prices to far exceed last year,” says Nastro. “Yet that doesn’t change the fact that the winter holidays are the busiest time of the year to travel, which can mean you might be left with extremely high prices if you book last minute.”

She added, “The closer it gets to your travel date, the more the odds of snagging a good deal decrease—especially if your dates and destination aren’t flexible, as is the case for most holiday travelers. If you haven’t already booked, do it soon.”

Still need to book your flights? Let this information guide you to nabbing a deal during the 2023 holiday season.

Flight aggregators, like Google Flights, will only display round-trip flights from a single airline or two one-way flights from partner airlines. For example, it might suggest an itinerary where the outbound flight is on Alaska Airlines and the return is on American Airlines because they are both part of the oneworld Alliance. However, Google Flights won’t provide an itinerary that combines Delta and United because they are competitors. Try booking your trip separately on different airlines to see if you can find a cheaper overall price.

Sometimes, going to a more distant airport is worth the