Days for Flights

Since this is the first tip into flight travel, as there are endless amounts, we are going to keep it very basic and easy to start. We think the easiest place to start is a very simple little switch from your preferred Saturday morning flights out and Sunday flights back home to a different day. Why might you ask? Flights on Friday, Sunday, and Monday are usually the most expensive flights due to the convenience and demand of those days. Monday is also a high in demand day due to business travel. So whats the easiest way to get a cheaper flight? Its quite easy actually.

Change your flight dates to a less popular one such as Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday. The simple little switch on average can save you up to 5-30% on average compared to a popular flight date. Below is a table comparing ten domestic flights within the U.S. and then comparing en international flights out of the U.S. For our comparisons, in the outbound flights we will be using Saturday as the reference day and in the return flights using Sunday as our reference. Below is the findings.

Here is a list of the flights used during the testing. Ten outbound flights are chosen in domestic areas and ten outbound flights form the U.S. to Europe are also chosen. Two sets of five flights from each domestic and international flights well be on different weeks. Then those same twenty flights are scheduled one week after the outbound flight to find the cheapest flight back home. Specifically here we are finding the cheapest day to fly out and the cheapest day to return. All flights were found using Kayak.com

Results 

Here is the pricing for flights #1-20 for each day of the week.

Here is the pricing for flights #21-40 for each day of the week.

If we then break summarize all of this data into percent saved by choosing a day other then our reference departure day of Saturday and return day of Sunday, we can see how much we can save on average by choosing a different day.

How to interpret this table:
Domestic Example: If you were to fly out on a Tuesday and return on a Friday, you would save on average 6.82% on the outbound flight and 15.09% on the return flight compared to if you were to fly out on a Saturday and return on Sunday.

In conclusion, the effect of the days of the week affected international travel more than it affected domestic travel.The best days for domestic travel for outbound include Tuesday and Wednesday, while the best days to return is pretty equal except for Sunday. For International travel, stick with Tuesday through Thursday for both outbound and return flights to maximize savings by roughly 20% on average.