Could this “Hacks Report” from travel search engine Expedia make booking a holiday cheaper and less stressful? Here are the tips and tricks you can try out for yourself.
The Expedia Travel Hacks Report for 2024 has just been released and it contains some potentially cost-saving suggestions on which days are the cheapest to purchase airline tickets, handy advice on how to best avoid cancellations and the down-low on the best days to fly.
According to the report, the best day to book is Sunday. If booking on this day, travellers can save around 8% on average over booking flights on a Friday, the most expensive day. This breaks down to roughly 6% savings on domestic flights and a huge 13% on international fares. For international business flyers, the saving from Sunday to Friday is a whopping 24%.
Also, the best time to book a domestic flight is about a month before flying, saving passengers up to 24%. International travellers should book 60 days in advance or less in order to get the best deals and save up to 10%.
Flights departing on a Thursday tend to be cheaper; up to 16% cheaper than on a Sunday, which came out as the most expensive day to board.
On the subject of cancellations, picking a morning flights will reduce your likelihood of getting stung by a cancelled flight. Expedia’s research found from year-to-date flight status data that flights departing after 3pm were 50% more likely to be cancelled than those earlier in the day.
TRAVEL STRESS
The report also covered facts and figures on travel-related stress and how it can affect holidaymakers pre- and during a trip.
Based on a survey of a thousand flyers, 39% of passengers find air travel was more overwhelming than a stuffed inbox, visiting the dentist or sleeping through an alarm. Getting a good deal on tickets concerns 43% to the point of worry, while 17% suffer from “fear of missing out” after the checkout and check back regularly to see if the deal they got was the best one.
“In terms of stress levels, booking your next flight shouldn’t be in the same ballpark as getting a cavity filled,” said Melanie Fish, Head of Expedia Group Brands’ public relations department. “The good news is many of the things that contribute to travel stress are getting better, and Expedia is constantly releasing new tools like Price Tracking and Trip Planner, that make the whole booking and flying journey smoother.”
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Photo by Stephanie Horsman of Monaco Life