The Myth of Buying Airline Tickets Wednesday at Midnight

Upgrade Travel Blog has a detailed explanation about why the myth of buying tickets Wednesday at midnight is wrong.

The myth goes this way:

    What’s the absolute best time to purchase a ticket directly from the airlines? Turns out it’s Wednesday from midnight to 1a.m. in the time zone of the airline’s “home base.”[…] Why? That’s when the computer systems of most airlines get rid of the reserved but unbooked lower fare reservations.

However,

  1. Held reservations don’t all expire Wednesdays

  2. Most fares that are put on hold aren’t that cheap to begin with
  3. Midnight isn’t when new fares are loaded — they’re distributed at 10:00am, 12:30pm, and 8pm EST and loaded about 2-6 hours later in the GDS and airline sites.

Read the whole thing.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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