How Far In Advance to Book International Flights
It’s the dream of every traveler to find cheap international flights. An early or advance booking is one of the best ways to avoid huge airfares when it comes to international flights. However, most travelers still find it quite hard to determine how early they should book international flights. If you have a similar concern, read on for ideas about how far in advance you should buy tickets for international flights.
Recent studies have revealed proper timing is integral to airfares. Most of these studies are conducted by analyzing the trends of various airline operators with regards to airfares. An example is the International Airfare Study by CheapAir. The study reviewed a wide range of airfares for international flights over a period of one year. To determine when international flights have the lowest fares, they studied all the possible days passengers could buy the airline tickets.
Airfares for International Flights Vary Based On Regions
Generally, domestic flights have a Prime Booking Window that requires passengers to buy tickets about 3 weeks or forty five days in advance. Bookings for international flights on the other hand, open about 11 months in advance. Thus, you can opt to buy your flight ticket at any time within that period. However, studies have shown that sometimes, buying international flight tickets very early could be as expensive as buying them at the last minute.
If you want to save money through early bird tickets, the best time to book international flights is at the middle of the 11 months period. But, the airfares are often based on the particular region that you are traveling to.
Here is a breakdown of the best time to buy tickets for international flights by region:
- USA and Canada- about 59 days in advance.
- Mexico and Central America- 61 days after the start of the sale.
- Caribbean- 76 days in advance
- South America- 81 days after the beginning of the sale
- South Pacific- About 3 months or 89 days before the trip
- Asia- about 3 months or 90 days after the sale opens.
- Europe- 99 days before departure.
- Africa and Middle East- about 4 months or 119 days before the takeoff date.
Exceptions for Summer Holidays
During summer holidays, there is a very high demand for international flights that also translate into high airfares. Therefore, you should book a little earlier than the average timings. For off-season international trips, there is no urgency and, it is just fine to wait a bit longer.
Generally, the best time to book international flights is at the middle of the duration of ticket sales.