There are hidden rules to buying cheap plane tickets too—flights are cheapest from Monday to Wednesday!

▲ Plane ticket (Photo / Dazi / Illustration)

By Rita

The more flexible your schedule, the higher the chance you’ll find cheap airfare. According to statistics, there are specific days of the week when flight prices are generally lower.

According to a report by The Huffington Post in the U.S.,several flight comparison websites such as AirfareWatchdog and CheapAir generally agree that departing on a Tuesday or Wednesday gets you the lowest fares, while Fodor’s suggests Thursdays as well, and other sites add Saturdays to the list.

To address this issue, the 2015 Travel Trends White Paper by 智游网 offers some answers:For long-haul flights, departing on a Thursday and returning on a Monday can be 20% cheaper than departing on a Friday and returning on a Saturday; for short-haul, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday are the cheapest days for both outbound and return trips.

Does the time of booking make a difference? Many people may wonder about this, but surprisingly, there isn’t much research data on this aspect.

Overall, the afternoon is the peak period for flights, so the chances of getting a low-cost ticket for a flight departing at that time are slim. For short-haul trips, the early morning hours are also peak times due to many business travelers making day trips. However, many believe that dinner time is a good period for flying. For domestic routes, red-eye flights are cheaper than daytime ones, but you’ll have to endure sitting in a cramped economy seat in the dark.

The above suggestions aren’t set in stone—after all, airfare prices fluctuate by the minute, so travelers should take them as a reference only!

★ The images are copyrighted and provided exclusively to 《ETtoday东森新闻云》by Dazi Images. No website, newspaper, or TV station may reproduce them in part or in full without permission from Dazi Images.