It’s National Cheap Flight Day this week. Can you really get a better deal?
Believe it or not, this week marks National Potato Day, National Bacon Lovers Day and, on Aug. 23, National Cheap Flight Day.
Supposedly, it’s one of the best days of the year for airfare deals. But given that it comes alongside a national day for a root vegetable and for lovers of smoked pork, you’d be forgiven for having your doubts.
Here’s everything you need to know about Cheap Flight Day, as well as how to check if you’re actually getting a good deal.
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National Cheap Flight Day falls on Aug. 23 every year. It purportedly marks the point where airfares begin to decline, as family vacation season comes to an end and kids go back to school.
But Gunnar Olson, flight deal analyst at Thrifty Traveler , is skeptical.
“Unfortunately, the best time to book a flight is just when that individual flight, and that individual seat that you’re looking at, might be the cheapest,” he says. “Airlines are constantly changing and evaluating what to charge for each seat on every single flight, so these are complicated, complex technical things.”
Olson adds that fares can drop at any moment, rather than on pre-determined dates, and travellers have to be ready to book deals when they see them.
But while National Cheap Flight Day might not necessarily be the best day of the year to book a trip, there are other ways to grab a great flight deal this week.
As Olson explained, National Cheap Flight Day is unlikely to save you much money. However, a couple of airlines do reliably put on legitimate flight sales towards the end of August.
According to flight deal alert service Jack’s Flight Club , only a handful of airlines run sales that are “the real deal” — as opposed to a price that is just marginally better than usual, or still far more expensive than competitors — and these include summer events from British Airways (BA) and Virgin Atlantic.
5News aggregated this summary from the outlet’s public feed. The full article, with all the context, is on nationalpost.com — the content belongs to National Post.