By: John Rauser, Farecast Fareologist
In my last post we talked about the duration of price drops, and the fact that about half of all price drops last two days or less. Today I want to talk about the timing of price drops. We have noticed that drops tend to begin early in the week, and that they disappear by the end of the week. The chart below shows that Monday is the most common day for a price drop to begin at 20 percent, while just 8 percent of drops begin on a Saturday.
It’s often best to shop for a ticket earlier in the week as relatively few prices drops happen on the weekend. If you’re busy during the week and think you might forget to check prices every day, using a Farecast Alert gives you the best possible chance to get a deal. To set up a Fare Alert, search for a flight and then click on the “track fares” button. You can then choose Farecast Alerts to receive updates via e-mail, or you can set up a custom RSS feed to track prices.
As I mentioned last time, price drops tend to be short lived, so when you do catch one, it is often best to buy quickly. When a price drop ends, the price can and often does increase beyond the level it was at when the drop started.