This is the best time to book your flight for cheaper tickets (2024)

No matter how often you fly, saving money on airfare is always a welcome relief. While there are plenty of travel hacks that can help reduce the cost, some — such as the idea of saving a bundle on airfare by booking it on Tuesday — are slightly misunderstood.

The truth is, booking on a Tuesday for cheaper flights is not accurate. However, it is true that timing impacts the cost of a flight. CNBC Select spoke with Scott Keyes, founder and chief flight expert at flight deal subscription service Going (formerly Scott's Cheap Flights) to understand the origin of the Tuesday misconception and the best approach to booking flights at a cheaper price.

If you're holding off on booking a flight because it's not Tuesday yet, you may want to reconsider this approach.

Booking on a specific date worked back when airlines used to load their fares weekly at a predetermined time, and customers could book a ticket soon after on a first-come, first-served basis, resulting in affordable fares.

However, airlines no longer operate this way.

Instead, Keyes advises people to view fares like the volatility of the stock market. Each year, the stock market has a date where it performs the best but that doesn't mean it will always do well on that exact date.

The same thing applies to cheap flights. While you may find that airfares look slightly different on a given day, it does not have any predictive power for when they'll drop in the future.

Rather than targeting precise dates when hunting for cheap flights, you should instead look for what Keyes calls "the Goldilocks window" — a period of time when cheap fares are most likely to pop up for domestic and international flights.

"If it's an off-peak season — not middle of summer, Christmas or New Year's — then booking about one to three months in advance is typically when cheap flights have the highest likelihood of popping up," he said. "When you're talking about international travel, two to eight months in advance."

If you're traveling during peak season, Keyes suggests booking three to seven months in advance for domestic flights and four to 10 months for international.

He also emphasized that while there's no guarantee you'll get the best deal, the odds are more in your favor during these times.

You may not get cheaper airfare by booking on a specific day, but when you plan on flying can affect the price of the ticket. Generally, Mondays and Fridays are more expensive than Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. Keyes says this is mainly because business travelers tend to avoid traveling in the middle of the week.

Early morning flights are also less popular since people usually prefer waking up later for their flight. Keyes says the other benefit of early flights is that they have what's known as a completion factor — a flight's on-time arrival — which tends to be about 25 percentage points higher than afternoon or evening flights. This is because the aircraft for the first flight of the day has been parked in the airport overnight, whereas other planes are coming in from other locations later in the day.

Subscribe to the CNBC Select Newsletter!

Money matters —so make the most of it. Get expert tips, strategies, news and everything else you need to maximize your money, right to your inbox.Sign up here.

If you're looking to use airline miles for your travels, keep in mind that these function differently than regular airfare as airlines release award seats in increments of time. Keyes says that some airlines will make seats available about 11 months in advance, then again in 6 months and then a couple of weeks before departure.

This means if you have to book last minute, try to use airline miles since many airlines release award seats up until the day of departure. Keyes also recommends using miles when traveling during peak season.

"If you were to search a flight from New York to Paris in July, you'll see that fares are as high as $1,600 round-trip. If you booked it with miles, they were as low as 24,000 miles round-trip."

And if you're looking to earn airline miles to redeem for these last-minute flights, consider some of CNBC Select's favorite travel credit cards. The Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card, for example, currently offers a welcome bonus of 75,000 miles once you spend $4,000 on purchases within the first 3 months of account opening.

When planning for travel and thinking of ways to score the best deals for your travel plans, remember that no fixed date will ensure you the cheapest fare. However, the sooner you book, the better. Be mindful of your departure date and consider Keyes' "Goldilocks window" method to avoid paying more than you have to for your next getaway.

Catch up on CNBC Select's in-depth coverage ofcredit cards,bankingandmoney, and follow us onTikTok,Facebook,InstagramandTwitterto stay up to date

Read more