My flight to Lisbon cost $200 less just by shifting my dates by two days

I was looking at a trip for late September and the direct flight was showing as $650... I moved my departure from a Friday to the following Tuesday and the price dropped to $450 for the same airline and route. It was a simple date grid search on Google Flights that showed me the pattern. Has anyone else found a specific day-of-week shift that works best for European flights?

3 comments

3 Comments

olivia_moore25d ago

I saw a travel blog say Tuesdays and Wednesdays are usually cheapest for Europe.

murphy.mason25d ago

Yeah, the day of the week thing is real... but what really gets me is the time of day you actually book. I've watched prices jump in the few hours between checking at lunch and after work. Airlines seem to update their systems overnight, so a price that's there at 10 am can be gone by 5 pm. I've had better luck searching early in the morning, before most people start their workday and clog up the booking sites. It's like a hidden layer on top of just picking the right flight day.

andrewreed25d ago

That "hidden layer" idea is spot on. It's not just morning vs. afternoon. I swear the algorithms watch when a route gets a lot of quick searches and nudge the price up. I've left a flight tab open while making coffee, come back 20 minutes later, and watched the fare go up $30. Clearing your cookies or trying in a private browser sometimes shocks it back to the earlier price, but not always.