Airline Tickets - What is the Right Time to Buy?

A question that will come to your mind every time you think to book an air ticket is that which is the most beneficial time to buy cheap airline tickets in advance?

Make it too late and prices hike along with the danger of the flight getting fully booked. However, book it too early and you carry the risk of plan change and thus, you will need to spend extra from your pocket in case you cancel the trip or want to change the flight.

In fact, statistics state that the best time to book your airline tickets is 56 days prior to the date of flying. This also indicates that airline tickets purchased in afternoons are cheaper than the ones purchased in the mornings prompting speculations that airlines assume that business travelers buy their tickets from their office early in the day while leisure travelers buy from home late in the afternoon.

This 56-day rule stems from the possibility of unpredictable events (natural calamity or political disturbance) or anything that may occur before the date and time of your flight. In order to make flyers take this risk of unpredictability, airlines sell tickets with discounts if purchased in advance. As a result, ticket prices increase with each day approaching the flight date, as they are sure that the chances of flight cancellation due to any unforeseen events are low.

Earlier reports confirm these claims, although there are some variances in prices between airline tickets of long-distance and short-distance flights.

On the contrary, tickets of drama theaters are cheap if purchased at the last minute before the beginning of the show. This is because, while purchasing theater tickets at the last minute, there is a possibility that the tickets for the show might have sold completely in advance. To make the consumers assume this risk, a clearance sale offering late discounts is implemented by the theaters.

Thus, the prices of airline tickets vary on individual requirement, doubtfulness and rationing.