Change your flight by one day and you could save a fortune

Nobody wants to pay more for their airline ticket than necessary and you might find changing your plans by a single day makes a big difference. It’s all about supply and demand, as anyone who has to travel during school holidays knows.

Avoid Fridays, aim for Tuesdays.Credit: Greg Straight

In almost all cases and everywhere including Australia, most people want to fly on Fridays and Saturdays, so those days will cost you more. The reason is obvious: leisure travellers want to maximise their weekend, while business travellers are keen to head home.

Search aggregator Kayak says international economy fares from Australia are most expensive if you depart on Fridays although interestingly, domestic fares spike on Thursdays.

You’ll save by flying on any other weekday. Monday is cheapest according to Kayak, especially if you fly domestically in the late afternoon or evening.

According to Skyscanner, you’ll save on average 14 per cent on airfares between Melbourne and Bali if you fly on Monday rather than Friday. Another example? The cheapest day to fly from Sydney to Auckland is Thursday.

Overall, Tuesdays and Wednesdays appear to be the cheapest times to fly within and out of Australia. Tuesdays have a slight edge in summer. Skyscanner says Wednesday is cheaper in May, August and September across a basket of 40 most-popular routes for Australians.

Domestic flights in the US are also cheapest on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, costing up to a quarter less than the same flights on Sundays. FareCompare pinned down the cheapest average US domestic flights: they depart around 3pm on Tuesdays.

International flights from the US are cheapest on Wednesdays but the price difference is more modest.

Tuesdays are often best in Asia and Europe. Some of the differences among European budget carriers can be eye-popping. An Easyjet flight between London and Paris can be half the price on Tuesdays compared to any other day.

Meanwhile, if you want an overall international guideline, Expedia crunched information about millions of worldwide flights across 490 airlines and concluded that Thursday flights yielded an average 16 per cent saving.

Such rules of thumb won’t always work of course. A Monday during school holidays won’t be cheap. The rule also fades as you get closer to the departure date, so don’t leave bookings until the last minute. You’re generally better off booking flights at least five months before you fly.

You’ll need to consider flight times as well as day. For example, you’ll bag a cheaper flight on the notorious red-eye overnight between Sydney and Perth any day of the week than you would on a mid-morning Monday flight.

You’d be well advised when searching for a flight online to tick the “flexible” box so you can see the variation in cost over a week, or even a month. The conclusion is that, providing you’re able to choose your times, then what day you fly really can save you money.