Why Sunday Is The Best Day To Buy Plane Tickets

Louis Magnotti

Traditionally, bargain hunters and travel fiends alike have claimed that Tuesday is the cheapest day of the week to book a flight — until it came out that Wednesday at 1am, one hour after midnight on Tuesday, is when the best deals really show up. But is midweek really the best time to commit to an airfare price? Not anymore.

There are several factors to consider when booking flights, which also go beyond the idea that the optimal time is 54 or 57 days before the trip — though it’s true that earlier is always better. Today, Google Flights and other fare trackers make it so much easier to keep an eye on good deals that a particular day of the week isn’t necessarily going to matter.

That said, the most recent research show that there is one weekday that offers the best ticket prices and that’s Sunday, especially if you’re able to book more than three weeks in advance.

In a study conducted by Expedia and the Airlines Reporting Corporation (ATP), which looked at billions of flights between January 1 and October 24, 2016, the data pointed to Sunday as the day of the best deals. According to ATP, booking a flight on a Sunday, 21 days in advance, can yield savings of 17 percent for domestic flights, 30 percent for flights to Europe, and 38 percent for flights to Asia. When booking within that three-week window, savings fall to 11 percent, 16 percent, and 10 percent, respectively.

Conversely, there is also a worst day of the week to book flights and that day is Friday, which ATP attributes to business travelers booking trips at the end of the week. Keep that in mind the next time you’ve got a weekend getaway on the brain.