What Is The Cheapest Day To Fly? MONEY SAVING TIPS

If the exact day of your arrival is flexible, picking a day that saves the most money is a no-brainer. A little extra planning will save you HUGE bucks. So, what is the cheapest day to fly?

Answer: Wednesday is usually the cheapest day to fly, followed by Tuesday and Saturday for both domestic and international flights. This is from my personal experience flying around the world and extensive research on the topic. 

Just remember, every destination is different so thorough research is needed before making the final purchase. 

Also, the cheapest flights aren’t always the best deals. Layovers, awkward travel times, and extra baggage all add to the value of a plane ticket. I will dive into the details more below. 

	Sun	Mon	Tues	Wed	Thurs	Fri	Sat
New York	$126	$126	$107	$107	$126	$130	$126
Los Angeles	$178	$176	$154	$146	$162	$198	$159
Paris	$868	$868	$1,083	$828	$858	$901	$898
Tokyo	$1,155	$1,132	$1,110	$1,115	$1,105	$1,132	$1,155
Buenos Aires	$1,163	$1,221	$1,056	$1,256	$1,294	$1,213	$1,011
Istanbul	$1,239	$1,126	$1,110	$1,087	$1,131	$1,126	$1,239

The above table shows flights from various cities leaving Dallas, Texas’ International Airport. I looked 60 days away from departure using the Google Flights tool and found these results. The green shows the cheapest day to fly that week.

Notice any correlation? Wednesday usually shows the lowest price, but the second lowest price that week varies. Other weeks show Tuesday and Saturday as the lowest prices.

Rule of thumb: if you need to block out travel time, but can’t look up prices for flights, Wednesday is your best bet.

Budget Travel And The Cheapest Day To Fly

If you are reading this article, it’s safe to assume you are a budget traveler too. What’s wrong with finding the best deals and saving money when necessary? Who cares if I look months in advance and slowly obsess over the best flight prices?

I always look for the cheapest day to fly. Always.

After 30 countries traveled and hundreds of flights later, my experience booking travel demands a trophy of commendation. 

I’ve made every mistake imaginable, but I learned a few tricks of the trade that I want to share. 

Use Google Flights To Find The Cheapest Day To Fly

Google Flights is an amazing tool to use to quickly explore flight options. Plug in your airports and travel days, and Google will list prices in seconds. 

The most useful feature is clicking on the dates and seeing a calendar pop up showing the cheapest day to fly. From there, look at your options and take a few screenshots and save them to a folder on your desktop. 

Over the next few weeks check back and compare prices. If the prices are going up, consider booking soon. 

You can automate this step by setting up Google price tracking so you will receive an email when prices go up or down for your trip. 

From looking through different dates, Wednesday will usually have the lowest prices. Sometimes, however, a Monday, Friday or Saturday show the cheapest day to fly. There are no concrete rules. 

Google Flights is by far the simplest and easiest tool to use for checking prices, and I recommend all price conscious travelers use it extensively when making travel plans. 

When Are The Cheapest Times To Fly?

Answer: The cheapest times to fly are early morning, mid-afternoon, and overnights. Look through your travel dates and compare your optimal travel times. Before making a decision, here are a few details to keep in mind.

Red Eyes Are Cheap, But At What Cost?

How much do you need sleep? Overnight (red eye) flights are usually the cheapest, but will greatly affect your sleep schedule, especially if there is a time zone change. 

Jet lag will crash your plans worse than you could imagine. When I was younger, red eyes were the way to go. 

I flew overnight for a four day stint in New York City and adjusted perfectly. Now, I will pay the extra money for a better departure time because my drowsiness will last for days, leaving me incoherent for most of a week-long trip. 

You Need To Wake Up REALY Early For Those Morning Flights

If your flight leaves at 6:00 am, what time do you need to wake up? 

Think about it. For me, I am 30 minutes from the airport. It will take me at least 15 minutes to get ready and make sure I have everything in order, and I always arrive two hours early before my flight. 

So, a 6:00 am flight means I need to wake up at the latest 3:15 am. 

How does a 3:00 am wake up call fit into your travel schedule? Expect your first day of travel to be quite drowsy or plan a nap in the afternoon. Also, most hotel check-ins aren’t until after 2:00 pm, so where will you spend those early hours after you land?

Mid Afternoon Is The Best Time To Fly

For me, a mid-afternoon is the best time to fly because the price is cheap, but little is sacrificed on sleep and time. The only caveat is depending on your destination, you could lose the whole day. 

A 3:20 pm flight from Denver nonstop to New York will land at 9:09 pm. A whole day was lost. If you can sacrifice the time, I believe it’s better to pick a later flight. 

Find The Cheapest Day To Fly Before Requesting PTO

After finding the cheapest flights and the best time to leave, put in your request for paid time off at your job. If you have the flexibility, this will ensure your time off coincides with the cheapest day to fly.

Submitting your PTO blind could leave you paying hundreds of dollars extra because your first day off could be the most expensive day to travel. Make a tentative plan with several days and options then submit your PTO. You will thank me later. 

Book Directly With The Airlines For The Best Flight Deals

Looking back five years ago, booking with airlines was unnecessary and expensive. Booking through third party sights like Kayak and Expedia was superior in price, convenience, and customer service. 

Times have most certainly changed and for the past two years, I booked the cheapest day to fly directly on the airline’s website. Although I may search with Google Flights, they link me directly to the airline’s website with the flight ready for booking. 

Although flights may look cheaper on eDreams, Gotogate, or MyTrip, the customer service end may be difficult to handle if anything changes with your trip. Plus third party sites always charge a HUGE fee for baggage.

If you need to cancel, change the departure time, book seats, or buy baggage, everything is at a premium with third party sights and often creates more problems than isn’t worth.

For peace of mind, book directly with the airlines because they are the ones flying you and can best help with any unexpected circumstance. 

Prepay For Baggage Ahead Of Time

If you took my advice with booking directly with the airline, then you have the option to prepay for your baggage if it’s not already included. 

Super important. Buy baggage when you buy the ticket. Baggage always costs more at the airport. 

Be careful with those carry on bags, budget airlines outside of the United States have weight limits for carry on bags to around 7-10 kilos (15- 20lbs). Know your baggage restrictions before the money you saved finding the cheapest day to fly goes to waste when you pay extra for baggage. 

Use A Private Browser…

I believe the private browser method still holds water. My own personal experiences booking flights, looking at hotels, and searching the web for travel deals revealed increased flight prices over time. 

I have tested this method using separate computers, one with a private browser and one without, and the nonprivate browser always pulled higher prices. 

Now, I use browsers that protect my privacy, such as Brave, and utilize a VPN to mask my IP address. Sounds overkill, I know, but I am tired of prices skyrocketing on me to forego these precautions. 

When Do Flight Prices Go Up?

Flight prices go up based on demand with prices really skyrocketing within the last three weeks from departure. The tickets that sell, the higher the prices reach with each subsequent sale. The airlines’ algorithms know based on years of data, how often and how much to increase prices. 

Also, I believe that if you search multiple inquiries on a nonprivate browser without clearing your web data, flight prices usually go up. This is my personal experience talking here. 

British Airlines pulled this trick on me last year when I searched for flights and decided to search different days to compare prices. 

I made the mistake of doing this on their website without my privacy browser and the prices shot up by $50 per ticket when I resubmitted the same search for the same days only a few minutes later. Call me paranoid, but I hate needless spending. 

How Far In Advance Is Best To Purchase Airline Tickets?

Typically, 45- 60 days out from your scheduled trip will yield the cheapest plane ticket prices. This is more of a guideline than a definitive rule. 

I start looking for flights as soon as I have a rough idea of when and where I want to go. From there, I pinpoint a week that shows the cheapest day to fly. If I am two months out and the prices look fair while fitting my budget, I buy the plane tickets. 

If I am further than two months from traveling, I will check back every week to see the new prices or I await an email from Google Flights’ price tracking feature. 

Be WARNED: waiting past 45 days results in significantly higher plane ticket prices, even if you find the cheapest day to fly. As time draws closer to departure, more tickets sell which drives up the price. 

You can find last-minute flight deals, but these are open-ended plans for spontaneous travelers. Flights to popular routes are usually booked solid, and I wouldn’t leave my travel plans to chance.

Avoid Holidays and Peak Season For The Cheapest Travel Days

National Holidays are wonderful with extra days off work, freeing up schedules for much-needed travel. The main problem: this is the same for everyone else. When more people travel, the more plane tickets sell. When plane tickets sell… the prices go up.

For Americans, summer is the peak vacation season with families traveling to national sights, beaches, and popular cities. The spike in travel means more flight sales, and when more plane tickets sell… the prices go up.

For the cheapest day to fly, shoot for a low season or off-peak season. My favorite times to travel are in the spring and fall, which gives better weather, fewer tourists, and lower prices. 

Final Thoughts On The Cheapest Day To Fly

Hopefully, some of your budget related questions were answered to find the cheapest day to fly. The other tips provided are opinions and personal experiences from over a decade of travel. 

A little planning will go a long way in protecting your money from unnecessarily high plane ticket prices. Follow these tips and continue researching to save the most money on traveling and use the extra money for eating!