Five facts and myths about booking your cheapest holiday

I will get a better deal if I search for airline tickets using my browser in ‘incognito’ mode, and five other facts and myths about booking your cheapest holiday. In the beginning of the new year it is time to look ahead and think about the summer holidays. Is January the best time to book?

Few assumptions about booking a holiday, when is it the best time to book, the usefulness of incognito searching on the internet. Which is True or False?

January is the best time to plan your summer vacation

Not true. Although it depends a bit on where you want to go and when. Bookings will gradually start in the autumn. Travel organizations then put their trips online for next year. “If you know very clearly where you want to go and when, it is wise to book in the autumn. For example, popular campsites or a specific resorts on can fill up quickly. So if you want to be sure of your spot? Then it is better to book as early as possible.

If you are more flexible, it is better to wait a little longer. People who have been continuously monitoring the prices for summer holidays for six years have seen the same trend for these past six years. The closer you get to the summer holidays, the lower the price becomes. Especially for the traveler who is flexible in days and/or destination. FACT The price for individual airline tickets is lowest six to eight weeks in advance.

January is however a traditional an important booking month, it is a natural moment. You start the new year, want to look ahead and think about the summer holidays. This is especially true for families with children who are restricted to a certain period of time.

Package holiday is cheaper than booking airline tickets and accommodation yourself

In general, package holidays are cheaper. This is because tour operators have economies of scale when purchasing their trips. For example, TUI have their own aircrafts and Sunweb has a major deals with airlines.

This allows them to purchase airline tickets at good prices. If you want to buy it separately and also book accommodation, you often won’t beat the prices of a tour operator.

For example a package trip to the Costa del Sol will sell for 599 euros for 9 days. A separate flight ticket via the same airline already costs almost 800 euros and then the accommodation still needs to be added. Moreover, the real stunt prices will disappeared due to new flying taxes. These will , on some airports, triple compared to 2023.

Tuesdays will have the best deals

True and false. For package holidays it doesn’t matter much, those prices are fixed. But for airline tickets, Tuesdays are the best day to book. Promotional campaigns often start on Monday. Competitors respond, but that usually doesn’t happen within a few hours. This means that if you book on a Tuesday, the tickets are often slightly cheaper than if you book on other days.

Conversely: do you want to determine the dates of your holiday? Then Tuesday is also a good departure day. Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday are often the cheapest days to fly. Then there are fewer business passengers. This has a favorable effect on prices. Airlines want to have that plane filled.

Airlines have automated systems that allow them to achieve maximum revenue from the available capacity. There are more and more fintech companies, for example Hopper, where you can set up to receive a notification when a plane ticket is offered cheaply.

You will get a better deal when I search for airline tickets incognito

Not true. Based on 10 year history of ticket prices you will not see a significant difference. The price automation systems are so complicated that prices can change per minute. That’s a pretty technical story. Tickets are sold in so-called ‘buckets’ – baskets – of ten to fifteen tickets. After that, the price changes depending on how full the plane is. That goes extremely fast. And that is the price difference that you sometimes see on airline tickets.

If you book airline tickets for a larger group, you will also see this reflected. Then you still have two or three cheap tickets in a group. But if you need six, the system takes the next more expensive ‘bucket’. Then it is sometimes better to first buy two cheaper ones, and then four separate ones. Then the total amount will ultimately be lower.

The early booking discount gets me the cheapest price

Sometimes yes, sometimes no. All providers will want to gain early insight into bookings. If you want to go away during the high season or you have certain requirements for your accommodation or destination, it may be wise to book on time and take advantage of an early booking discounts.

These early bird discounts are definitely available, it makes sense for holiday providers to provice these offers. They naturally want to trigger consumers to make that booking as quickly as possible. This offers the travel provider certainty.

But does it save a lot of money? That’s just the question. Very popular destinations are going faster than before. They are already full in November or December. But beyond those resorts, holiday parks and campsites, there is a huge selection that is also very good. And if that is still available at a later time, it is better to wait a little bit longer.