When is the best time to book air tickets? (General and Singapore context)

Have you ever experienced that you thought you had bought the cheapest fare but only come to realized that after buying, there is another promotion again from the same airline that offers even lower fare which you thought you had bought it at dirt cheap price? And next thing you will want to do is to COMPLAIN!  WHY IS THE FARE EVEN LOWER NOW, THAT’S UNFAIR!

Rest assure, even if you would complain, the airline would only tell you, no one force you to purchase the seat at that time. You have only yourself left to curse and swear. So often, people would ask when is the best time to grab airline seats!??

In a nut shell, most people would say the earlier you book, the cheaper the seat one would get! But what I would like to drive the message across is that it is certainly not true! Its only a myth just like saying the harder you study, the end result would be better.

With the influx of airlines especially low cost carriers, many of us (travellers) have been shouting: “Yes! Travel is now cheaper! Just like the tagline of Asia first low cost carrier says: Now Everyone Can Fly!” Yep, true as it is, most people find flying now much more affordable.

So now come with the next question? Which airline should I fly with to take advantage of the low fare!? Everyday, we have seen many adverts place by airlines be it on social media, newspaper, magazines, etc all trying to vie for our attention.

Everyday, there seem to be airline promotion. Be it celebrating of airline birthday or even they would like to celebrate birthday for the country, a public holiday special or simply just a promotion to treat yourself better that some airline come up with, the bottom line is that there are seats selling at a low fare.

Their message airline want to put across is: Come and grab these unbelievable seats! Even full fledged airline faces the heat now with the entry of Low Cost Carriers (LCC), therefore coming up with promotions and working with credit cards or agencies.

Basically, airlines need to create a demand for seats and desire among leisure travellers to travel to the said destination. In order to create or rather attract attention to both airline and holiday destination, normally they would put fanciful pictures that set your heart racing and introduce super dirt cheap fares (pardon for the language used).  Airlines commonly uses revenue management system and how this works would be by for the commercial team to key in the desire profit / target sales they would want to rake in. The system may take into account the seasonality, load factor that was targeted together with revenue per kilometer flown (factor in fuel costs for the flight, labour costs, if cabin crew need to layover, more cost involved), airport landing fees, etc) Many other factors that Revenue Management System would needed to factor in and I definitely do not want to bored you out.

Commonly, airline usually introduce low fares or they call it early bird fares to create the base. And to draw people attention that the airline fly to the particular destination. Often, only limited seats are cater for public to snatch it. These seats maybe low, but not necessary the lowest price should the destination be having no high demand. For example, to places like Nepal, Kathmandu. Yes, early bird price maybe cheap, but as these destinations are not that in demand, when airlines realized seats are not moving fast, at a time nearer to departure, they would lower down the price even more simply because seats are perishable products and airline rather minimize the loss (Fuel, labour costs are costs that cannot be cut down no matter the number of passengers flying).

BUT book early is true for destinations that many people are flying to. Cities such as Bangkok where it is true that early bird sales are often very limited and they are a true bargain, grab it first before fares move on to the next level.

Having said all the above, just to summarize for easy sake (applies more to Singaporeans), when would be the best time to buy air ticket.

Best time (regardless of airline): 3pm in the weekday (This is the time where most airline executive have got the approval after meeting with departmental head and will launch the fare to agents and the start of next day at 9am.)

Another ideal time is 12am (Often, airline would set the sales period to start from 0001H for the convenience of controlling and ensuring easy accounting purposes)

Other than that, in Singapore below is the general guideline to grab good fares:

– NATAS travel holiday sales Period (End FEB and End AUG period)

– Tue: Scoot Airline

– Thur: Tiger Air

– Friday: JetStar Asia

So the next time when you fly, don’t be surprised when the guy sitting beside you got a $0 flight! (Exclude fuel surcharges and airport taxes of course I am referring to). You have only yourself to blame.

As usual, the comments above is based solely on individual interpretation. Read at your own pleasure purpose only.

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