There’s a sweet spot for booking flights, and you’ve come to the right place to find out when to book.
You’ve picked a destination, locked in your travel dates and saved a few restaurant recommendations. Now you’re wondering when is the best time to book your ticket and just how far out to book flights.
Travel is costly and if you can take certain measures to reduce your ticket cost, it’s worth doing. So, let’s look at how far in advance to book a flight for the best deal.
According to PayLater data, you’ll generally score the best deal by buying your tickets 3-6 months before you intend to travel. Although it’s important to note that prices can range quite significantly between routes and if sales are advertised.
However, there is a small difference in how many months in advance to book domestic and international flights.
If you’re looking to travel closer to home, you can typically get away with booking domestic and high-frequency fights a bit later. Aim for 1-4 months before your trip to get the best price.
International flying is a slightly different ballgame and you’re going to want to book at least 3 months in advance. If you’re planning ahead for an international trip, start looking at flights sooner rather than later and try to lock your ticket in over 3 months before you’re due to depart.
If you’re holding out a little longer to save a bit more cash before committing to flights, you might like to consider PayLater.
The beauty of PayLater means you can book your seat today and pay it off over time — with no stress and no interest. Plus, the earlier you book, the smaller your repayments.
By locking in your fare now, you spread the cost of your ticket over more weeks or fortnights, making each payment lighter on your wallet. Book Now, Pay Later allows you to hack how you travel — fly comfortably, without the upfront payment.
Ticket prices are driven by algorithms and dynamic pricing models that adjust fares based on factors like demand, travel dates, seat availability, historical data and competitor pricing. As such, fares regularly fluctuate and when you book your flight makes a difference. As less and less seats are available, the price of tickets will go up.
The price of all flights, whether domestic or international, are generally impacted by seasonality (on-peak vs off-peak), holidays, demand and the particular route you’re flying. This means that travelling during peak seasons, holidays or around special events will usually mean a higher priced ticket.
Even if you have the best of intentions and aim to book your international ticket 6 months in advance, it may still not make a huge difference in cast compared to an off-peak season prices. For example, if you’re travelling around Christmas or New Year’s Eve or to Europe during the summer, it’s expected that it’ll automatically be more expensive due to the time of year and demand for travel during that season. However, as these tickets are in higher demand, if you have to travel on specific dates we still recommend booking at least 4+ months in advance to avoid completely missing out or overpaying for a last minute flight. If you are travelling as part of a group or, we'd recommend looking at flights as early as possible to account for the additional seats you need. This is the same with business class and premium economy flights, particularly on popular long-haul flights as there is a smaller number of these seats available compared to economy, and more people would upgrade for the additional comfort.
You usually can’t book a flight more than a year away, with airlines usually releasing tickets 11-12 months before a flight is due to depart.
There are pitfalls in booking both too early or too late — it’s all about finding the sweet spot.
If you’re booking too early, airlines may not have released the lowest available fares yet, or you may miss out on flight sales that appear later.
Additionally, we generally recommend against purchasing tickets 12 months in advance, as flights are susceptible to schedule changes. You might like to start looking at flights, but wait a little longer before hitting ‘buy’ on your next plane ticket.
Although booking too late often makes fares more expensive, as ticket prices can rise as the departure date gets closer. And, while we all dream of landing a last-minute flight deal for a super low price, these are pretty rare and usually only work for those who can be flexible with their travel dates and plans. If you're travelling solo and can leave anytime this could be an option but for couples or families we would advise against waiting for "last-minute" flight deals in case you miss out entirely.
Ticket prices are fickle and if you’re looking for the cheapest flight possible, there are a few other things to keep in mind, alongside booking in advance.
