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05th Sep 2018

If you fancy a family holiday this Christmas, this is the cheapest time to book

Olivia Hayes

Thinking of going away for a family holiday during the Christmas holidays?

Many people choose to up and leave around the Christmas holidays for many reasons. Maybe you don’t want to cook a turkey. Maybe you don’t want the fuss of it. Or maybe you just want to be waited on hand and foot.

All legit reasons.

However, many people end up booking their little festive holiday last minute, which means you could be paying way more for flights than if you booked at another time.

Well, Skyscanner conducted some research looking at the best time to book flights for Christmas… and it turns out it’s 13 weeks in advance.

According to Cosmo, Lisa Tyndall, the senior growth manager at Skyscanner, said: “Looking at our flight data we can see that the best time to book flights for Christmas tends to be 13 weeks in advance… which could save travellers up to 29 percent.”

“Christmas Day has long been believed to be the cheapest day over the festive period [to fly], however, our data is showing the reverse to be true and it is in fact the most expensive day.”

Skyscanner’s research shows that Christmas day is 24 percent more expensive than if you fly between the 16 – 31 December (excluding the 25, obvs).

So, if you want to book a festive holiday, these are the things to note:

  • Be flexible with travel dates (and travel on a weekday rather than a weekend).
  • Mix and match airlines for return flights.
  • Look at other nearby airports to your destination.
  • Setting up e-alerts using flight comparison sites to help maximise the chances for finding cheaper flight deals over the festive period.

Got it? Now go book.