Cheapest Day to Buy Airline Tickets: The Direct Answer
Those percentages sound small. On a $300 ticket, 2% is only $6. But pair the right booking day with the right booking window and the right travel day, and the savings start to compound. The rest of this guide walks through each layer of timing so you can stack them. As a point of price context, greenspicks observed a one-way fare as low as $63 on Frontier from ORD to DEN, a 169-minute nonstop departing October 24, 2026, when pulling Travelpayouts fares on 2026-08-24.
Check current fares for your dates
Check current fares from Chicago to Denver
Prices change often. Affiliate link – see disclosure above.
US Domestic vs Overall: Which Booking Day Saves More?
greenspicks reviewed Expedia’s 2026 Air Travel Hacks report, which analyzed booking patterns across millions of itineraries. The cheapest booking day differs depending on whether you’re flying domestically within the US or looking at flights overall.
If your trip is a US domestic route, target Saturday. If you’re booking a flight that falls under the overall category (which includes international itineraries), Friday is your day. The difference matters because the most expensive days also shift: Monday is the priciest for US domestic bookings, while Sunday costs the most overall.
| Scope | Cheapest Booking Day | Most Expensive Booking Day | Saving |
|---|---|---|---|
| US Domestic | Saturday | Monday | 2% |
| Overall (all flights) | Friday | Sunday | 3% |
Source: Expedia 2026 Air Travel Hacks. Savings are relative to the most expensive booking day in each scope.
Match the scope to your trip. Flying from Denver to Dallas? That’s US domestic: book on Saturday. Flying from San Francisco to Tokyo? Use the overall figure: book on Friday. Simple rule, but most articles on this topic blur the two together and leave you guessing.
Saturday saves 2% on US domestic bookings (vs Monday). Friday saves 3% on overall bookings (vs Sunday). Both per Expedia’s 2026 report.
Best Booking Window: How Far Ahead to Buy Your Flight
The day of the week you purchase matters, but the number of days before departure matters more. For US domestic economy flights, the sweet spot is 15 to 30 days before departure, per Expedia’s 2026 research. Book more than 180 days out and you’ll pay the most.
International economy flights follow a tighter window: 8 to 15 days before departure, with an average fare of $585. The same 180+ day advance purchase is also the most expensive bracket for international trips.
Our guide on how to find affordable domestic flights covers the 15 to 30 day domestic window in the context of which booking tools to use during that period.
The takeaway is counterintuitive for planners: booking too early actually costs more. You don’t need to pounce the moment your calendar is set. Count backward from your departure date, find where the 15 to 30 day window (or 8 to 15 for international) falls, and that’s when to start watching fares seriously.
Domestic economy: 15 to 30 days out. International economy: 8 to 15 days out ($585 average). Booking 180+ days early is the most expensive window for both, per Expedia 2026.
Cheapest Month to Purchase Your Ticket
July is the cheapest month to buy a flight, coming in 18% cheaper than December, which is the most expensive month to purchase. This is from Expedia’s 2026 report.
Pay attention to the distinction here: this is the month you click “buy,” not the month you board the plane. You could purchase a ticket in July for a flight departing in October. The act of buying in July is what correlates with lower prices. The next section breaks apart why the purchase date and the travel date are two completely different levers.
Day You Buy vs Day You Fly: Why the Distinction Matters
This is where most advice on this topic falls apart. Articles will say “Tuesday is the cheapest day” without telling you whether they mean the day you purchase or the day you depart. Those are different questions with different answers. Our editorial team cross-referenced Expedia’s booking-day and flying-day data to build the comparison below.
For US domestic flights, Tuesday is the cheapest day to fly (14% cheaper than Sunday). But Saturday is the cheapest day to buy (2% cheaper than Monday). If you book on Saturday for a Tuesday departure, you’re stacking both advantages.
The overall figures tell a different story. Friday is the cheapest day to fly overall (8% cheaper than Sunday) and also the cheapest day to buy overall (3% cheaper than Sunday). That overlap is convenient if your trip falls under the overall scope.
| Scope | Cheapest Day to Buy | Cheapest Day to Fly | Cheapest Month to Buy | Cheapest Month to Fly |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US Domestic | Saturday (2% vs Monday) | Tuesday (14% vs Sunday) | July (18% vs December) | January (19% vs December) |
| Overall | Friday (3% vs Sunday) | Friday (8% vs Sunday) | July (18% vs December) | August (29% vs December, ~$120/ticket) |
All figures from Expedia 2026 Air Travel Hacks. “Overall” means across all flights, not exclusively international.
The flying-day savings are significantly larger than the booking-day savings. A 14% gap between Tuesday and Sunday on US domestic flights dwarfs the 2% gap between Saturday and Monday for booking. If you have to choose only one lever, choose your travel day. If you can control both, do.
For US domestic: buy on Saturday, fly on Tuesday. That stacks a 2% booking-day saving with a 14% flying-day saving. All figures per Expedia 2026.
What greenspicks Observed: One-Way Fares Across 5 Routes
greenspicks pulled Travelpayouts fares on 2026-08-24 and observed one-way nonstop fares ranging from $63 (ORD to DEN on Frontier) to $463 (SFO to NRT on Zipair). Across 5 of 7 routes that returned cached fares, every observed itinerary was nonstop. Route research for this guide found domestic one-way fares under $170 on three separate metro pairs checked on 2026-08-24.
Each fare below is an individual observation, not a typical or expected price. These routes all returned limited data (fewer than 8 fares each for the domestic pairs), so treat them as snapshots, not benchmarks. They’re listed to give the timing advice above some concrete price context. For more tactics on finding low fares, see our guide to cheapest possible flights booking hacks.
| Route | Airline | Departure Date | One-Way Fare | Duration | Stops |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD to DEN | Frontier | 2026-10-24 | $63 | 169 min | Nonstop |
| DFW to SFO | Frontier | 2026-10-01 | $94 | 246 min | Nonstop |
| DAL to PHX | Southwest | 2026-12-17 | $124 | 165 min | Nonstop |
| EWR to FLL | United | 2026-12-25 | $168 | 195 min | Nonstop |
| SFO to NRT | Zipair | 2026-10-28 | $463 | 680 min | Nonstop |
Data source: Travelpayouts. Retrieved 2026-08-24. All fares are one-way. These are individual observations across different dates and routes, not an airline-by-airline price ranking. Prices change often; verify before booking.
How to Time Your Ticket Purchase Step by Step
- 1
Pick your travel dates using the cheapest flying days
For US domestic flights, Tuesday departures are 14% cheaper than Sunday departures per Expedia 2026. For overall flights, Friday departures save 8% versus Sunday. If your schedule allows any flexibility, shift your departure to the cheaper day.
- 2
Count backward to find your booking window
From your departure date, count back 15 to 30 days for a US domestic economy flight or 8 to 15 days for international economy. Mark that range on your calendar. That’s when fares tend to bottom out, per Expedia 2026. Booking 180+ days early is the most expensive window.
- 3
Target Saturday (domestic) or Friday (overall) for the actual purchase
Within your booking window, aim to complete the purchase on Saturday for US domestic routes (2% saving vs Monday) or Friday for overall flights (3% saving vs Sunday). If Saturday falls outside your window, buy on the closest day inside it rather than waiting and missing the window entirely.
- 4
Set a fare alert to track prices during your window
Once you know your booking window, set up alerts so you’re notified of price drops without refreshing search pages daily. Our roundup of flight price tracker tools covers what to look for in an alert service.
- 5
Compare fares across booking sources on your target purchase day
Check a meta-search engine, at least one online travel agency, and the airline’s own site. Prices can differ across platforms for the same seat. Run all three searches on your target Saturday or Friday.
Ready to search? Search current fares on your target booking day – check current fares for your dates.
- 6
Book when the fare matches or beats your target
If the price on your target purchase day is at or below the fare your alerts have been tracking, buy it. Don’t hold out for a further drop once you’re inside the 15 to 30 day window. Waiting past it risks prices climbing as the departure date approaches.
Airports That Start Cheaper (and Ones That Cost More)
Your departure airport is another pricing lever that sits outside the day-of-week question entirely. Per Expedia’s 2026 data, Fort Lauderdale, Las Vegas, and Orlando are the most affordable mainstream US departure airports, with average fares roughly 25% below the national average, which works out to over $100 less per ticket.
On the other end, Washington Dulles, San Francisco, and New York JFK are the most expensive airports to fly from, with average ticket prices running about $100 above the national average. If you live near two metro airports and one of them is on the cheaper list, that’s worth checking even before you start optimizing your booking day. A 25% airport-level advantage, roughly $200 a ticket between the cheapest and priciest airports, is far larger than the 2% to 3% you gain from choosing the right day of the week to purchase.
Fort Lauderdale, Las Vegas, and Orlando average roughly 25% below the national fare average, over $100 less per ticket. Washington Dulles, San Francisco, and New York JFK are the priciest departure points at about $100 above average, per Expedia 2026.
Cheapest Months to Fly: The Full Calendar Picture
The comparison table above gives the headline months. The full calendar is worth spelling out, because the answer splits by scope the same way the booking-day answer does. For US domestic flights, January is the cheapest month to fly, 19% cheaper than December, which is the most expensive domestic month. On a $300 fare that gap is roughly $57. Across all flights combined, August is cheapest, 29% cheaper than December, worth roughly $120 per ticket on average. Both figures are from Expedia’s 2026 report.
Deal volume follows a different calendar again. July, October, and November are the travel months with the most flight deals available overall (Expedia 2026, overall scope). That “overall” label covers domestic and international routes together, so the deals distribution may not match US domestic patterns exactly. If January or August don’t fit your schedule, those three months are the next-best window to go looking.
Crowds are a third variable. February is the least busy month to fly overall, and Tuesday is the least busy day of the week to fly (Expedia 2026, overall scope). Fewer passengers doesn’t automatically mean lower fares, though. “Off-peak” isn’t a single month: it means January or August if you’re optimizing for price, February if you want emptier airports, and July, October, or November if you want the widest choice of deals. Pick the variable that matters most for your trip.
January is the cheapest month to fly US domestic (19% vs December). August is cheapest overall (29% vs December, roughly $120 a ticket). July, October, and November carry the most deals overall, and February is the least busy month to fly. All per Expedia 2026.
Where September Falls: Observed Fares Across 6 US Routes
September sits between the June-to-August summer peak and the late-November holiday surge. Expedia’s 2026 report does not rank it among the cheapest months or name it a deals month, so we won’t claim it is one. What greenspicks can show is what the fares looked like. Our editorial team pulled Travelpayouts cached fares on 2026-08-24 across 10 September route searches; 9 returned data. Observed September one-way domestic fares ran from $30 to $120.
Each fare below is a single observation tied to a specific departure date and airline, not a typical or expected price for the route. Every route returned limited data. Verify current prices before booking.
Dallas (DFW) to Denver (DEN)
$30 one-way on Frontier, departing September 7, 2026. Nonstop, 130 minutes. Only one fare was observed for this route. For more on this corridor, see our guide to cheap flights from Dallas to Denver.
Miami (MIA) to Atlanta (ATL)
$42 one-way on Frontier, departing September 21, 2026. Nonstop, 143 minutes. Three fares were observed for this route, with the other two at $65 each (September 1 and September 2 departures).
Denver (DEN) to Phoenix (PHX)
$47 one-way on Frontier, departing September 16, 2026. Nonstop, 122 minutes. Two fares were observed. The other was $94 for a September 2 departure.
Atlanta (ATL) to Orlando (MCO)
$51 one-way on Frontier, departing September 5, 2026. Nonstop, 105 minutes. Three fares were observed, with the others at $55 (September 7) and $70 (September 3).
New York (JFK) to Orlando (MCO)
$116 one-way on JetBlue, departing September 6, 2026. Nonstop, 195 minutes. Six fares were observed for this route, ranging from $116 to $250 across different September dates.
San Francisco (SFO) to Phoenix (PHX)
$120 one-way on American Airlines, departing September 3, 2026. Nonstop, 132 minutes. Only one fare was observed for this route.
On the international side of the same pull, observed September one-way fares from JFK to London Heathrow ranged from $279 to $314 across 19 cached observations, all nonstop. That is a fairly tight band for a transatlantic route, but it is still a set of individual data points rather than a seasonal benchmark. Search your own dates to see what is available now.
All six domestic routes returned at least one September nonstop fare under $125 one-way, and the cheapest observations clustered on mid-South and Mountain West airport pairs. All fares are individual observations from 2026-08-24, not guaranteed prices.
- [1] Expedia, 2026
Verified against the publisher’s own published report and cross-checked against additional coverage. Retrieved 2026-08-24. Fare prices are from Travelpayouts; see methodology.
How We Researched These Prices
The purchase-timing answer in this guide comes from Expedia’s 2026 Air Travel Hacks report, which analyzed booking patterns across millions of itineraries. All booking-day, flying-day, booking-window, booking-month, flying-month, and airport-cost figures are attributed to that report.
Supporting fare observations come from the Travelpayouts /aviasales/v3/prices_for_dates API. Our editorial team searched 7 routes; 5 returned cached fare data. A second pull on the same date covered 10 September route searches, of which 9 returned data; those observations appear in the September section above. All fares were retrieved on 2026-08-24 and are quoted in USD as one-way prices.
What this fare data does not cover: there is no month-by-month price calendar or seasonal trend (fares are scattered cached observations, not a tracked time series), no airline-vs-airline price ranking (fares are individual observations on different dates and routes, not a controlled comparison), and no baggage, seat, parking, taxi, or transfer costs. No savings percentages were calculated from the fare data.
FAQ: Cheapest Day and Time to Book Flights
What is the cheapest day of the week to buy airline tickets?
For US domestic flights, Saturday is the cheapest day to purchase, saving 2% compared to Monday. Across all flights overall, Friday is cheapest, at 3% less than Sunday. Both figures come from Expedia’s 2026 Air Travel Hacks report. The right answer depends on whether your trip is domestic or falls under the overall category.
Is Tuesday really the cheapest day to book flights?
Not for booking. Tuesday is the cheapest day to fly on US domestic routes, at 14% cheaper than Sunday per Expedia 2026. The cheapest day to buy a US domestic ticket is Saturday. This confusion between booking day and travel day is the most common mistake in flight-timing advice. They’re separate questions with separate answers.
How far in advance should I book a domestic flight?
The most affordable booking window for US domestic economy flights is 15 to 30 days before departure, per Expedia’s 2026 research. Booking more than 180 days out is the most expensive window. The sweet spot is narrower than most people expect, so set a fare alert to catch price drops within that range.
What time of day are flights cheapest to book?
Focus on what is proven: the cheapest day of the week to purchase (Saturday for US domestic, Friday overall) and the optimal booking window (15 to 30 days out for domestic, 8 to 15 days for international). Those two factors have documented savings percentages behind them, so they are where your effort pays off.
Does the day you fly affect the price?
Yes, and the impact is larger than the booking-day effect. For US domestic flights, Tuesday departures are 14% cheaper than Sunday departures. Across all flights overall, Friday departures save 8% compared to Sunday. Both per Expedia 2026. If you can only optimize one variable, pick your travel day over your purchase day.
What is the cheapest month to buy a plane ticket?
July is the cheapest month to purchase a ticket, at 18% less than December (the most expensive month to buy), per Expedia’s 2026 report. This refers to the month you make the purchase, not the month you travel. The cheapest month to fly domestically is January (19% cheaper than December), and the cheapest month to fly overall is August (29% cheaper than December).
Are last-minute flights ever cheaper than booking ahead?
International economy flights are cheapest when booked 8 to 15 days out ($585 average), per Expedia 2026. That’s relatively close to departure but not truly last-minute. Domestic economy fares hit their lowest at 15 to 30 days out. Booking inside those windows can beat a six-month advance purchase, but waiting until the final few days is a gamble. Our guide to last-minute flight deals to the USA covers strategies for late bookings in more detail.
