This Is the Best Day for Airfare Deals, According to Hopper
Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.
Thanksgiving is right around the corner and you know what that means: Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals. But a new report from the farecasting app Hopper points to a different day entirely for savings on airfare.
According to the report, the best time to score travel deals is the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, Nov. 27. It's even been dubbed Travel Deal Tuesday.
"Travel Deal Tuesday has become something of a travel phenomenon, though it was only in 2015 when we first started to see this spike in flight deals falling on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving," Hopper's chief data scientist, Patrick Surry, told TPG in an email. "We were initially exploring Cyber Monday patterns when we stumbled upon this date that offered an even greater volume of sales."
Surry said that last year, Hopper sent more deal alerts on Travel Deal Tuesday than on Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined. He expects that pattern to continue this year, with airlines offering up to 40% off the price of flights to popular destinations such as Paris, Tokyo and Sydney.
Icelandair, Cathay Pacific, South African Airways and Philippine Airlines have already confirmed their participation in Travel Deal Tuesday for this year, and additional airlines are expected to announce their participation leading up to Nov. 27.
By analyzing billions of daily flight prices and patterns, Hopper claims to predict flight prices with 95% accuracy. Their team of data analysts is forecasting fares from US destinations to Paris averaging $403 (32% savings), flights to Tokyo for $538 (40% savings) and trips San Juan, Puerto Rico for $324 (51% savings), among other routes and destinations listed in the tables below.
"While it's hard to say exactly why more deals are available on Travel Deal Tuesday than the other popular shopping holidays, what we do know is that with the growth of Cyber Monday, consumers are increasingly expecting non-physical goods and services available for purchase in the post-Thanksgiving sales," Surry said.
"This could in part contribute to the increase in travel deals in the past few years, as we’re now seeing airlines commit to special prices ... I imagine this trend will only become more prevalent as consumers continue to demonstrate their willingness to purchase travel as part of their holiday savings strategies."
Surry noted that fall and winter are typically slower travel seasons (outside of Thanksgiving and Christmas), so airlines are searching for ways to keep planes full.
At TPG, we're constantly reporting on the best deals, including Cyber Monday and Black Friday specials. But if you have a specific route in mind, you might want to set an airfare alert on Hopper, which will be alerting travelers to price drops on preferred routes or destinations as they happen. (Just be sure to purchase your flights with the right credit card, such as The Platinum Card® from American Express — which will give you 5x points on airfare booked directly with the airline or Amex Travel — or the Chase Sapphire Reserve card for 3x on all travel purchases.)
Hopper will also be giving away a flight to one lucky winner and a friend every Tuesday in November — talk about a Tuesday travel deal.
