If you travel, you have probably noticed that prices are dynamic and can change throughout the day. It is especially noticable if you look at flights today and then go back later to book your flight. The airline system has probably saved a cookie and knows you are interested and will often times jack up the price. So, please avoid that mistake and use third party sites for checking flight schedules and pricing. You can use one of these websites to do your searches, Expedia or Google Flights or Skyscanner. After you have found the perfect routing for your trip, go to the airline directly to book your flights. If there are later scheduling issues, you want to be able to deal directly with the airline rather than the third party site. Of course, if you are using a travel professional, they can do the looking and booking for you and should be there to follow up if there are problems.
The best time to book is generally about 1 month out. If you are shopping, start a month or two before that time and track prices for the best buy.
The best time to book is usually on a Sunday, but that is not the best day to start your trip. In fact, that is often the most expensive.
The best day to start your trip is often on a Thursday since everyone else is probably booking their flights to leave after work on Friday because of their work schedule. You can save some money if you can convince your boss to let you take an extra vacation day on that Friday which will give you 10 vacation and travel days, but only 6 days of vacation time.
Being retired makes your options even better. I almost always book my flights so that I really don’t have a layover along the way. I try to plan out the airports along the route and stay a couple of days at each “layover” so that I can stretch my legs and see a new city. Of course, that does mean that my trip may take 2 weeks or more, but being retired, I don’t have to worry about my boss having a problem with me being gone for an extended vacation. Last year we booked a trip from Sacramento, California to Nairobi, Kenya with a stopover in London. Our connection from London to Nairobi was 10 days after arriving in London and we spent the 10 days in Ireland. Our return connection from Nairobi to London gave us a week in London to see the sights. No layover, hanging out at the airport for 4-5 hours, waiting for our connecting flight.
