12m people miss out on cheap flights by booking in January

cheap flights

While there’s always a rush to buy cheap flights in the January holiday sales, new research shows that some 12.5m Brits might not be getting the best price by booking this month.

The study by travel search site skyscanner.net analysed some 200million searches for cheap flights and found that the cheapest tickets are typically available five weeks before travelling.

The study does show though that price patterns vary significantly between scheduled and budget airlines and between short and long haul travel and is therefore very much destination dependent.

For instance, flights to Spain are at their cheapest just five weeks prior to departure; while holidaymakers booking flights to USA around four months (21 weeks) before departure stand the best chance of getting the cheapest fares.

Customers looking to book flight to Turkey should be able to find the cheapest prices 13 weeks in advance, while the best prices for flights to neighbouring Greece are more likely to be found just three weeks in advance, representing a saving of 16 per cent on flights booked with a 16 weeks lead time.

The Skyscanner study follows research that found that 80 per cent of travellers admitted they did not know, or were not sure, when the optimum time for booking flights was, while a further 79 per cent wouldn’t know on first glance if a flight price offered good value.

The Skyscanner research therefore also looked at the average August flight prices across the top ten summer destinations to give British holidaymakers a clearer idea of what prices to expect to pay and when a good deal is on offer. Average prices range from around £150 – £160 to Spain and France, while further afield Turkey and Cyprus flights cost around £250 and the US is almost £800.

Britain’s leading Summer destinations  (in order or popularity) Average return flight price for summer pp Best time to book (weeks before departure)
Spain £153 5 weeks
USA £764 21 weeks
Italy £185 6 weeks
France £160 6 weeks
Greece £228 3 weeks
Turkey £256 13 weeks
Portugal £195 5 weeks
Germany £185 9 weeks
Cyprus £251 4 weeks
Croatia £195 6 weeks

Skyscanner’s Mary Porter said: “While we may not be able to guarantee that every person booking on every single route to Spain will definitely get the cheapest price if they book five weeks in advance, this robust analysis shows that this is the lead time that gives customers the best chance of getting the cheapest prices.”

Tips for booking a cheap flight

1. Mix and Match: Fares don’t have to be booked as returns, instead you can save money by flying out with one airline and back with another.

2. Be open to flying everywhere:  Costs to different destinations can vary significantly depending on the airlines operating that route. If you know when you want to travel but are flexible on destination, running a search to ‘everywhere’ can help find the countries that offer the best value flights at any time.

3. Compare and contrast: Using a travel comparison site like Skyscanner allows you to compare the widest range of airlines and online travel agents, so you’ll be able to see where you can get the best deal.

4. Track prices: Skyscanner offers price alerts on all routes to enable flights to be monitored by email. The Skyscanner app offers widgets for Android, Live Tiles for Windows Phone and “watch” functionality for IoS, all of which allow customers to track the latest price changes on a chosen route.

See  Skyscanner