Hiking is all well and good, but sometimes you have to fly to get to the best places. Maybe you’ve already exhausted all of the available hike options in your vicinity, or perhaps there’s a particular hike that has always appealed, but whatever your reasons, you’re going to want the cheapest flights you can find.
It turns out that some of the ways that we’ve been taught to find those cheap flights have been wrong for quite some time, and ultimately it comes down to choosing the best time to book flights. The online travel agency Opodo has recently released their annual findings on ticket costs, and the results are quite surprising. Use the handy infographic and remember that Opodo offers a holiday price comparison tool to find the cheapest flights, so that you can use both resources to find the absolute best prices possible. Less time spent stressing over costs is more time hiking a trail you’ve never explored!
Don’t book too early
You may be one of those people who still rely on booking up to six months in advance to try and get those deals, but you should stop that immediately. The fact is, you are paying considerably more than you ought to be if you try and find bargains that way. The data released by Opodo proves that there are two key windows where ticket prices are consistently at their lowest, and that’s the time to click ‘buy.’ It depends on your type of flight, but whether you’re flying short-haul, long-haul, or domestic, your absolute best time to buying a ticket is in the 6-7 weeks before your plane heads down the runway. There are fine-tuning options to go through as well, with short-haul flights very geared towards the seven-week window. This is your biggest and best chance to buy the cheapest flights possible, but if you miss that window, don’t panic too much because there is a slight reprieve.
Last minute is not low cost
The very notion of a last-minute bargain is romantic and carefree, but buying a ticket to an unknown destination is not the cost-saver that it used to be. However, for those that miss the six-week or seven-week buying window, then there is a chance to make sure that you pay less than expected. The fortnight before departure always shows a dip in the price growth, so if you are making rather late plans, you can still grab yourself some reduced prices by waiting until that point. You can even take advantage of the key days as well, with long-haul flights clearly showing cheaper prices on Tuesdays, domestic flights cheaper on a Sunday, and short-haul flights costing less on a Wednesday. Match that with the best months to buy and those low-cost windows, and you could have a lot more money to spend on hiking boots and a new tent.
No matter where you’re planning to fly to, or what time of year you’re planning that next hike, have a look at the infographic and work out how the best time to buy matches your plans. That way, you won’t get stung by those higher prices, and you might even save enough to make planning your next trip much sooner than expected.