Money Hack: The best times to book and fly revealed
Your cheat sheet on when to book your next holiday to score the cheapest flights.
When it comes to booking flights timing is everything. From the day of the week that you book your trip to the day of the week you fly, if you choose them carefully you could find yourself sitting pretty with a matzah of extra cash to spend on your holiday instead of getting to your holiday.
Want to know the secret to scoring the cheapest flight, particularly when there's no sale going on? We know a trick or two.
The hack:
We can't claim all the credit for this one. While in the past I've personally scouted out the best times of the day and the best days of the week to fly, Expedia has gone that much further, providing us with a cheat sheet on when to book and when to fly to certain locations on the cheap.
In short, the weekend is the ideal time to make your bookings for international flights. While it can be tempting to fly out on the weekend to cap in on a full week of work, everybody else is thinking the same and driving the price of Friday to Sunday trips up astronomically.
Instead, you can save costs by opting to fly on off-peak dates from Tuesday to Thursday.
Domestic travel trends follow a similar pattern with the best days to book being Saturday or Sunday. Travel however is a different ball game with Saturday generally being the cheapest day to fly out and Sunday and Monday being the priciest. This is likely because weekend holidaymakers make their way home on these dates, again driving price and demand up.
Planning your next holiday? Check out the best times to book below first to get the most bang out of your travelling buck and then test it out for yourself on Expedia.
Best time to book international flights:
Origin | Destination | Best day of the week to book | Most expensive day of the week to book | Best day of the week to fly | Most expensive day of the week to fly |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Australia | Auckland | Sunday | Friday | Thursday | Sunday |
Australia | Singapore | Sunday | Friday | Thursday | Sunday |
Australia | London | Saturday | Thursday | Tuesday | Saturday |
Australia | Hong Kong | Sunday | Friday | Wednesday | Sunday |
Australia | Denpasar (Bali) | Sunday | Wednesday | Wednesday | Monday |
Australia | Shanghai | Saturday | Friday | Thursday | Sunday |
Australia | Los Angeles | Sunday | Thursday | Thursday | Friday |
Australia | Dubai | Saturday | Sunday | Tuesday | Friday |
Best time to book domestic flights:
Origin | Destination | Best day of the week to book | Most expensive day of the week to book | Best day of the week to fly | Most expensive day of the week to fly |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Melbourne | Sydney | Saturday | Friday | Saturday | Tuesday |
Brisbane | Sydney | Saturday | Friday | Saturday | Monday |
Brisbane | Melbourne | Sunday | Friday | Saturday | Monday |
Melbourne | Perth | Sunday | Friday | Friday | Sunday |
Adelaide | Melbourne | Sat/Sun | Friday | Saturday | Monday |
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