With the lifting of the COVID restrictions, there has been an increase in travel across the world. But with travel comes a hefty price i.e. high flight ticket prices. On August 31, Google Flights published new data based on five years of data from August 2017 to August 2022, showing the best times to book a flight and other times when airfare deals are at their best. .
Google Flights’ group product manager, James Byers, said in a blog post that between April and August of this year, searches for “cheapest airline tickets” in the US increased by more than 240 percent. During the same period, the most searched related question in air travel is “When is the best time to book a flight?” also includes. and “How to find cheap flights?” They said.
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1. When to fly?: According to Google Flights, it is cheaper to fly in the middle of the week than on the weekend. Flights departing on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday are on average 12 percent cheaper than flights departing on weekends. According to Byers, “if you exclude international destinations, the potential savings increase to 20 percent.”
2. Nonstop Flight Vs Layover Flight: According to the blog post, layover flight is also one of the best bets for saving money. It shows that single non-stop flights are on average about 20 percent higher than connecting flights.
3. Which day to book cheap flight tickets? According to Google Flights, booking a flight on a Tuesday was often considered the best time to book a ticket. However, in an analysis of the past five years, US airfare purchased on a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday has been, on average, only 1.9 percent cheaper than airfare purchased during the weekend.
4. How early to book tickets? For travelers looking for a cheap flight, what matters is how quickly and how quickly you book a flight. “For US domestic flights, prices have typically been the lowest 21-60 days, with average prices down to 44 days before departure. However, this varies from season to season. For example, spring break tickets are 38 days before departure. The day before was the cheapest, it reached its lowest point of 52 days for Thanksgiving. For summer vacation in July or August, the cheapest airfare arrived just 21 days before the travel date.
In addition, Google Flights also suggests turning on price tracking for the destination you wish to travel to. “Toggle on tracking for your destination and travel dates, and we’ll email you if prices change substantially. Or, if you’re more flexible about travel times, over the next 3 to 6 months.” You can enable tracking for ‘any date’ to receive information on drop in prices for departing flights.”
“Use the calendar view, date grid, and price graph to see how the fare changes. The calendar view and date grid let you see how much you can save if you’re flexible with your departure and return dates. The price graph shows you what prices look like for an ‘X day’ long journey based on the date of departure,” it said.
Talking about India, from August 31 the government removed the cap At domestic airfares prices after more than two years. This change is expected to give more freedom to airlines to set their fare.
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“After a review of the current status of scheduled domestic operations, i.e. passenger demand for air travel … it has been decided to remove the fare band notified from time to time in respect of airfares with effect from 31st August, 2022.” Ministry of Civil Aviation said in an order. Since there is no pricing limit, airlines are free to set their own prices. However, airlines can reduce the cost of flight tickets to attract more passengers. Previously, airlines could not offer discounts due to lower and upper price caps on domestic airfares imposed by the government.
Read also: Explained: Will domestic flight tickets become expensive from today?
Regarding the removal of airfare caps, Jyoti Mayal, President, Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) said that the travel business is expected to see a reduction in airfares in the coming months, especially with the festive season approaching, which means that more people are traveling.
“India is a huge market and with continuous development of aviation infrastructure, existing airlines expanding their fleet, and new/old coming into business, we expect increased competition to ultimately benefit the end user. will do.” he told the news agency PTI,
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