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Best Days To Fly

If you're going on a trip, is there a particular day, or date, or time that you should book your flight? Well, yes. However, that question can't be answered simply. It's a function of what you are looking for in terms of your flight, whether you want the absolutely cheapest or whether some other consideration is more important. If you're just looking for how to get cheap flights, and it doesn't matter when you go or come back, the best days to fly are in the so-called "dead zone": the time of year when people are less inclined to travel generally or to the place you want to go specifically.

That has other advantages, too, besides the airline cost. You'll find it easier to get lodging, there won't be the same crowds, tickets to performances you want to see will be easier to find, and so on. Overall, the cheapest times to fly are in the first two weeks of December, most of January, and the spring and fall except for academic spring break, but specific destinations also have their own particular dead zones so it's best to look this up ahead of time. The price difference from highest to lowest demand can be as much as fifty percent, so if you're flexible about your dates of travel you can save hundreds of dollars just by flying at an unpopular time of the year.

Statistically, the cheapest day to fly are on Wednesdays, but this should not be trusted blindly. Airlines tend to offer better deals on Wednesdays than other days of the week (and worse ones Thursday - Saturday) because of the patterns of flight that make it harder for them to book full flights and arrange their demand and supply to keep all seats filled on that day than on others. This is, however, a statistical rule not a hard and fast one. You may be able to find cheaper fares on another day of the week. There's no substitute for doing your research before you book your flight. Continued below...

Safest Days To Fly

What about safety in the air? Are there days that, statistically, make for safer flying than others? Start with the fact that flying is actually quite safe as travel modes go. Driving a car is roughly nineteen times more dangerous, for example. You are both more likely to have an accident in a car and more likely to die while driving a car than you are to die while flying. The one thing you are more likely to do in the air is to be killed by an accident IF one occurs. That is, the majority of auto accidents are non-fatal, while if your plane crashes, you are more likely to die in that event. However, an airplane crash is so much less likely to happen than an auto collision that you are still much, much safer flying than driving anyway.

There seems to be no consensus among travel experts about some days being safer for flying than others. Considering how unlikely an airplane accident is, there probably aren't enough hard data to develop any certain answers to this question.

Best Days To Fly To Europe

Traveling to Europe brings up some different rules in terms of air fare than govern travel in North America. Flights to Europe are cheapest in the winter, most expensive in the summer, and in between in spring and fall. Now, for some destinations in Europe that just makes sense; if you want to visit England, northern France, or Germany, going when there's snow everywhere and the weather is just awful doesn't really seem worth it. But suppose you want to visit southern Italy, or Corsica, or Spain? Or hit Switzerland or the French Alps for some kick-ass skiing experience? Winter might be the best time to go in that case, and the cheapest time, too.

As for other parts of Europe where the winter weather sucks, there are still plenty of indoor attractions and the crowds won't be nearly so bad, except of course on Christmas and New Years.

The Cheapest Days To Fly Video