If you are looking for the best possible time to buy the cheapest flight ticket, try between 21 and 112 days before departure the “Prime Booking Window,” where prices are at their lowest.
That is the period where you will save the most as airlines dramatically lower their prices the closer it gets to the departure date in an effort to occupy their planes, according to a study by CheapAir.com that analysed 1.3 billion airfares over the last year.
Generally, a trip price starts off high, slowly drops and then starts to climb a few weeks before the flight,” said Jeff Klee, CEO of CheapAir.com. “People ask all the time if it’s true that at the last minute the airlines have unsold seats that they practically ‘give away’, but that’s rarely the case. Fares usually go up dramatically within 14 days of the flight.