While many people assume that booking early will yield the best price on airfare, often, waiting until the last minute can pay huge dividends. When you can score a round-trip, non-stop flight from Chicago to Honolulu for just $500 by waiting until 48 hours before your departure to buy; that’s success in my book.
Of course, if you are flying with multiple family members, including four kids under the age of five, it may not be possible to be so flexible. Still, waiting can produce big rewards, especially if you are booking a flight to a popular vacation destination, such as Hawaii. Since the Aloha State is almost exclusively a leisure destination, like Mexico, most travelers tend to book far in advance. This means that people who are able to jump a flight on a moment’s notice can take advantage of last minute deals offered by airlines in an effort to fill their planes to capacity. Bottom line: When a commercial carrier sees empty seats on flights, it typically reduces fares to bargain-basement prices.
The challenge is trying to figure out when the drop is going to occur, so that you can snatch up the cheap seats. According to travel experts, the ultimate time frame to snag affordable last-minute deals is between September and early December. That window is historically slow for air travel especially the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Since fewer people travel between holidays you can usually score extremely low prices on empty seats. Another tip, according to travel insiders, is to search online travel websites on Tuesdays between 3 and 5 p.m. Eastern Time. That’s when many airlines post deeply discounted fares, though you’ll have to act fast if you want to secure a booking, as most dirt cheap seats are snatched up within five hours of being posted.
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