Report reveals cheapest days to book and travel and how to avoid flight delays

New Price Tracking and Predictions feature unlocks savings for Expedia members

Today, Expedia^® released its 2023 Air Travel Hacks Report, providing the latest essential tips to save travelers time and money on flights. Created in partnership with Airlines Reporting Corporation (ARC) and leveraging insights from its global air ticketing database, the annual report has become an authority for eight years running on air travel trends, revealing data-backed hacks for travelers, including:

• Best day of the week to book airfare and catch the lowest prices
• The sweet spot for booking airfare
• How to minimize the risk of being impacted by delays and cancellations
• Tools for finding the best fares

View the full 2023 Air Travel Hacks report on the Expedia blog, including more ways to avoid flight delays, maximize loyalty and rewards programs and save on every trip.

Top tips from the 2023 Air Travel Hacks report include:

• Book airfare on a Sunday to save up to 15%.¹ Travelers who book on Sundays instead of Fridays tend to save, on average, around 5% on domestic flights and 15% on international flights.
• Book at least a month before domestic flights and six months before international flights to save 10%.² Travelers that booked in these periods saved 10% on average compared to those who waited until the last minute.
• Depart before 3 p.m. to reduce chance of cancellations.³ Based on year-to-date flight status data, flights that depart after 3 p.m. have a 50% higher chance, on average, of being delayed than those that depart earlier in the day.
• Depart on a Wednesday to save up to 15%.⁴ Avoid departing Saturday – Monday, which are the priciest days, on average, to start a trip.
• Plan using price alerts. Take the guess work out of deciding when to book with the Price Tracking and Prediction feature on the Expedia app, which uses exclusive data to pinpoint the best time to book and notifies travelers when flight prices change.^*

“This report and Expedia’s new Price Tracking and Predictions feature on the app do more than save people money,” said Jon Gieselman, president of Expedia Brands. “It’s about the time savings and peace of mind that comes with knowing you have machine learning informing your booking decisions and a tool at your fingertips that does the work of price tracking for you.”

“While it has been a volatile recovery, our data indicates travel is beginning to normalize with travelers taking advantage of flying again,” said Chuck Thackston, managing director of data science and research at ARC. “Airlines have improved their performance while both capacity and traveler demand continue to increase. We’re also starting to see business travelers return to the skies following the surge of leisure travel in the first half of 2022.”

About Airlines Reporting Corporation (ARC) 
ARC accelerates the growth of global air travel by delivering forward-looking travel data, flexible distribution services and other innovative industry solutions. We are a leading travel intelligence company that possesses the world’s largest, most comprehensive global airline ticket dataset, including more than 15 billion passenger flights representing 490 airlines and 230 countries and territories. Our solutions and expertise strengthen economies and enrich lives by connecting stakeholders across the travel ecosystem. For more information, visit arccorp.com.

Data sources
¹ Best day of the week to book recommendation is based on average round-trip ticket prices for flights originating in the US for January through August 2022, sourced from ARC’s global airline sales database. Percentages noted are averages.
² Ideal booking window recommendation is based on average round-trip ticket prices for flights originating in the US for January through August for 2022, sourced from ARC’s global airline sales database. Percentages noted are averages.
³ How to avoid flight cancellations based on January through August 2022 flight status data for flights originating in the US sourced from OAG’s global flight data platform. Percentages noted are averages.
⁴ Best day of the week to depart recommendation is based on average round-trip ticket prices for flights originating in the US for January through August for 2022, sourced from ARC’s global airline sales database. Percentages noted are averages.

*Price predictions are not a guarantee. Available to members on select routes.