Speaker 1: The best time to buy your holiday flights hasn't happened yet.
Speaker 1: What's going on? I'm rich Demiro. This is rich on tech.
Speaker 1: Hopper is a great travel app. The company slices and
Speaker 1: dices historical flight and hotel data to help you figure
Speaker 1: out the best times to buy. I've definitely talked about it. Before.
Speaker 1: You pop in a destination and you'll get a map
Speaker 1: with days in green, yellow, orange, and red, Green being
Speaker 1: the cheapest days to fly, red being the most expensive.
Speaker 1: You can also set up price alerts, and the app
Speaker 1: will even tell you the best time to buy, whether
Speaker 1: it's now or you should wait. And again, it's all
Speaker 1: backed up with data, which I just love. The company
Speaker 1: just released it's Holiday Travel Index for twenty eighteen, and
Speaker 1: the good news is that if you haven't booked your
Speaker 1: holiday travel just yet, you are still okay. Hopper says
Speaker 1: the average flight price will change one hundred and two
Speaker 1: times between now and Thanksgiving. If you're looking at Christmas,
Speaker 1: it will change one hundred and fifty two times now.
Speaker 1: If you're traveling on a super popular route like LA
Speaker 1: to New York, price could fluctuate as many as two
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty times before you get on that plane.
Speaker 1: I know this firsthand as I often travel between LA
Speaker 1: and Newark to go home to New Jersey and I'm
Speaker 1: literally always tracking a flight. It's pretty crazy how much
Speaker 1: they can swing higher or lower in just a few hours. Now. Personally,
Speaker 1: I use a combination of Hopper and then Google Flights
Speaker 1: to keep tabs on my upcoming journeys. I've saved over
Speaker 1: one hundred dollars on a flight just by booking it
Speaker 1: when the price drops for a few hours. And I
Speaker 1: know that might not sound like a ton of cash
Speaker 1: to all of you, but the way I see it,
Speaker 1: that money saved can pay for other things on your trip,
Speaker 1: like those higher baggage fees we all have to pay now. Okay,
Speaker 1: So when are the best times to book your holiday
Speaker 1: travel this year? According to Hopper, when it comes to
Speaker 1: Thanksgiving late September, we'll have some of the best deals.
Speaker 1: Prices will come down about one hundred dollars from August,
Speaker 1: or about a twenty eight percent drop. But Hopper says
Speaker 1: you don't have to jump on your booking just yet.
Speaker 1: They believe that prices will remain pretty stable through October,
Speaker 1: but you have to book before Halloween. That's when prices
Speaker 1: are going to start going up. So if you want
Speaker 1: to save the most money, you have to leave on
Speaker 1: Thursday Day, November twenty second. Yes, I know that's Thanksgiving
Speaker 1: and return on Wednesday, November twenty eighth. And yes, I
Speaker 1: get it, Thanksgiving Day not ideal, but I've definitely done
Speaker 1: that flight before myself, and of course Christmas Day to
Speaker 1: save money. But if you don't want to fly on
Speaker 1: those days because they are the holiday, the next cheapest
Speaker 1: day to depart fear Thanksgiving destination is Monday, November nineteenth. Now,
Speaker 1: when it comes to Christmas, the sweet spot seems to
Speaker 1: be mid October, and the good news is prices this
Speaker 1: year are already trending to be about fifteen percent lower
Speaker 1: than last year in twenty seventeen. Now. I've noticed this
Speaker 1: personally just in keeping tabs on some of the flights
Speaker 1: home during the holidays. And while the lower fares are nice,
Speaker 1: keep in mind airlines are making up the difference with
Speaker 1: all kinds of extra fees. And while I know in
Speaker 1: flight Wi Fi is not a must have, one of
Speaker 1: my recent flights actually wanted a whopping fifty dollars for
Speaker 1: that connectivity. That is just insane to me now. If
Speaker 1: you want to save the most money on your Christmas flight,
Speaker 1: the best dates right now are leaving on Tuesday, December
Speaker 1: eighteenth and returning on Thursday January fourth. Obviously, not everyone
Speaker 1: can take that much time off from work, so your
Speaker 1: next best bet is to return on Thursday December twenty seventh.
Speaker 1: One thing to keep in mind Christmas flight prices are
Speaker 1: more volatile than Thanksgiving flights, so your best bet is
Speaker 1: to start researching now and keep tabs on the flights
Speaker 1: you want. For instance, in the hoper app, you can
Speaker 1: choose to watch specific dates or even an entire month
Speaker 1: to get the absolute best deal. Just be prepared to
Speaker 1: book when you get that notification that tells you it
Speaker 1: is the best time to purchase. On Google Flights, you
Speaker 1: can get very specific. I like to choose my preferred
Speaker 1: airline dates and flight times and then set a tracking notification. Now, remember,
Speaker 1: the more flexible you are with NonStop versus connecting the
Speaker 1: airlines you'll take, the times and even days of the
Speaker 1: week you'll fly, the more you can save on your flights.
Speaker 1: It can be a difference of hundreds of dollars. I've
Speaker 1: flown a lot in my time, and I understand that
Speaker 1: booking flights can be expensive and stressful, but having some
Speaker 1: of these data driven tools at our disposal these days
Speaker 1: is pretty amazing. Personally, I can spend hours, days, or
Speaker 1: even months researching flights, but when it comes time to book,
Speaker 1: I love the feeling of knowing that I had the
Speaker 1: best data possible to back up my choices, even if
Speaker 1: my flight isn't always the absolute cheapest around. Thanks so
Speaker 1: much for listening. If you like this podcast, be sure
Speaker 1: to tell a friend, take a screenshot of your phone
Speaker 1: and share it on social media, and be sure to
Speaker 1: tag me so I can also share and of course
Speaker 1: see the love. Thanks so much for listening. You can
Speaker 1: find links to everything I talk about here. Just go
Speaker 1: to my website. It is Rich on tech dot tv,
Speaker 1: or check the show notes. I'm Rich Demiro. I'll talk
Speaker 1: to you real soon