If you’re planning a trip for Memorial Day Weekend, now is the time to book your flights. Let’s look at the travel landscape and dive into why buying flights now is the best strategy and how you can save on your vacation.
Demand for travel continues to be high.
Demand for travel is at an all-time high as Americans are taking more time off and planning vacations. That’s especially true for the Memorial Day Weekend holiday. High demand equals higher prices – especially as we get closer to travel dates.
The airlines have a limited number of seats to sell over Memorial Day weekend. Once the best value seats are gone – they’re gone for good. And since the summer travel season kicks off over Memorial Day weekend, the data is clear. You should buy your summer flights earlier rather than later.
Holiday weekends are more expensive.
The good news is that May is a less expensive month to fly. It’s still a part of the spring season. But you can see that airfares are trending higher as we get into summer, and a holiday weekend is always more expensive than mid-week dates to fly. Due to this, you’ll want to avoid booking last-minute flights. Airfares will rise 21 days prior to departure and continue to increase the closer we get to the day of travel, so the clock is ticking. Check out our domestic airfare study to read more about the best time to buy flights.
Summer flights are the most expensive flights of the year.
Even though Memorial Day is technically in spring, it does signal the start of summer in most travelers’ minds. This is why we put this popular travel weekend into the summer category rather than spring. To save a few extra dollars, you’ll benefit from booking earlier.
Our annual “when to buy” study tells travelers to book their spring flights about 3 months out (87 days to be exact). Summer flights should be booked double that – 6 months or 182 days in advance. As we’ve said before, we encourage travelers to think of Memorial Day as happening in summer, even though it’s technically a little earlier on the calendar. But even if you make decisions purely on the calendar, we’re well inside of the 87 day window now as well. Book those flights now!
Save on hotels for Memorial Day weekend.
Right now, many hotels on CheapAir.com are selling at a discount for Memorial Day weekend. You can save up to 30% on many top 3-5* hotel properties and resorts in popular Memorial Day weekend destinations like Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Orlando, Chicago, New York and Miami.
The catch is that those deals won’t be available if you wait too long to book. Every hotel property on sale has a finite number of rooms available at that discounted price, so book early to take advantage of these deals. They will not last.
A few more tips for a better value Memorial Day weekend airline ticket
Aside from buying your airline ticket now, we want to share some insider tips for booking flights.
The cheapest days to fly
To save on your flights for the Memorial Day weekend, look for the cheapest days to fly. The lowest fares are found on Tuesday and Wednesday. You’ll see a step up in costs departing Thursday, but try to avoid the peak travel days of Friday and Monday. We found on average, departing on Wednesday could save you up to 22% vs. leaving on Friday.
Use our Best Time to Buy Flights tool to look at specific routes and destinations of your choice.
Leverage Price Drop Payback to protect your price.
One important benefit of booking your flights with CheapAir.com is that we build in price protection to every ticket. If you take our excellent advice and book early, you won’t have buyer’s remorse. We will protect your fare up to $100 per ticket, should the price go down after you buy. Read more about how our Price Drop Payback protection plan can work for you.
Look into some budget Memorial Day destinations for families and get some inspiration going to kick off summer. As always, happy travels!
