Timing Key To Finding Cheap Travel Deals

By Author: Steve Robinson
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Finding cheap travel, whether cheap airplane tickets, discount hotel rooms, or cheap vacation packages is often a matter of timing. You will also be well served by figuring out how flexible your plans are and being ready to buy when the time is right.

The Internet has made cheap travel deals vastly more accessible to the average traveler. Unfortunately waiting to purchase a cheap travel deal is analogous to playing a high stakes game of poker. Within days, and often hours, prices can drop or jump up significantly.

The airlines are constantly monitoring and adjusting their prices based on seat availability, resulting in higher prices when fewer seats are available.

The two best strategies when it comes to buying cheap airplane tickets or cheap vacation pages are ironically dramatically different: either you should buy tickets in advance or wait until the very last minute.

Buying tickets well in advance, generally defined as between one and three months, is usually wise when traveling during busy travel periods, such as around Thanksgiving, Christmas, July 4th, Labor Day and President’s ...
... Day. The same is true when visiting popular destinations during peak vacation times, such as the Caribbean or Hawaii during the winter.

The best deals for such destinations during their peak seasons usually can be found about three months ahead of time. Transatlantic airlines typically offer sales in March and April for summer trips to Europe.
Buying tickets early is also smart if you are inflexible regarding your travel dates or destinations. Given that business travelers often reserve flights to major cities, such as Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco at the last minute, leisure travelers often find the best deals by booking a month or more ahead.

Generally speaking as airlines fill their planes they increase their prices for remaining seats. It is often better to buy tickets 60 to 90 days in advance if you know your travel dates. Otherwise it is often smarter to wait and buy them two to three weeks prior to departure.

Often the cheapest deals are at the last minute other than during a holiday period or other times when everything is sold out. If you are flexible in your travel dates, you can realize significant savings.

Flexibility as to your destination is another way good way to save. For example, Hawaii is primarily a leisure destination to which travelers tend to purchase tickets well in advance. As departure dates approach, often within 7 days of the scheduled flight date, airfares frequently fall dramatically. Other popular vacation destinations that offer many flights, such as Cancun and Las Vegas, sometimes have very cheap last minute tickets, particularly during low traffic times such as the beginning of December.

The cheapest departure window for last minute deals is usually between September and the first three weeks of December, historically slow times of travel. Experts recommend paying particular attention to airfares on Tuesdays, when airlines often release sale fares.
www.cheapfares.com