Best and worst times of year to fly

Flying is one of the most expensive ways to travel — but in many cases, it’s the only way to get where you need to go.

That’s why we asked Colleen Kelly, professional globe-trotter and host of the popular PBS series Family Travel With Colleen Kelly, to help us understand the best and worst times of year to fly.

“Prices will always be higher around holidays,” Kelly told us, “and airlines will raise prices when they know people want to travel. If you can go off-season or during a non-holiday month, you have a better chance of saving money.”

Here are some of the best ways to save money on plane travel — as well as what you can do if you’ve already booked your flight.

Save money by traveling in mid-January

What’s one of the best times of year to fly? Mid-January, right after everyone else returns from their holiday travel.

“One of my favorite times to fly is in January,” explains Kelly.  “The first week of January can be good, but the second and third weeks of January tend to be great times to travel.”

There are other good reasons to book your holiday travel for mid-January. If your employer needs a certain number of staff members to remain onsite during Christmas and New Year’s, for example, you can sign up to work the days your coworkers might prefer to take off.

If your parents are retired and willing to accommodate your family’s schedule, you can still enjoy a multigenerational holiday celebration, complete with cookies, gift-giving and long-standing traditions — or you may decide to celebrate the holidays quietly at home, and use your January travel to gather the extended family at a warm-weather, all-inclusive resort.

This, by the way, is one more benefit of mid-January travel. “The hotels are not as full,” Kelly explains, “and so the rates are better for families.” There are so many money-saving reasons to travel in the first month of the year that your family may want to permanently change their holiday plans.

Plan your vacations during shoulder season

Another good time to travel is during shoulder season — the months between peak season and off season travel times, such as June or September. “Shoulder season is always a good time to fly,” says Kelly. “For instance, I am flying with my teens to Paris in November, when the hotels and airfare are a lot less expensive.”

Traveling during shoulder season gives you the money-saving benefits that come with avoiding peak travel times, while keeping your family from having to experience the worst of any unpleasant weather associated with off-season travel. You may have to deal with temperatures that are a little less comfortable than you were hoping for — but for some families, that’s part of the fun.

“It won’t be warm when we get there,” Kelly says, “but it will still be Paris.”

If you must fly during the holidays, book as early as possible

Flying during the busy holiday season can be both stressful and expensive, so it’s worth asking yourself whether you really need to board a plane. “Consider driving over the holidays,” Kelly suggests — or, as we suggested earlier, booking your holiday travel for mid-January, when prices drop and cheap flights are plentiful.

If flying is your only option, start planning your trip as early as possible. “Airlines raise prices when they know people want to travel,” Kelly explains — which means that by getting your ticket booked before everyone else, you might have a better chance of getting the lowest possible fare.

You may also want to set alerts to help you track potential prices. “Set a Google Alert with Google Flights when you start your search,” Kelly advises. “A Google alert will track your flights on the dates you want to fly, and send you emails telling you when a price has gone down or up. You can set it and forget it, as they say.”

Even if you’ve already booked your holiday flights, a Google Alert can still help you save money. “If I’ve booked a flight and paid for it, I still set a Google Alert for that specific flight,” says Kelly. “You can simultaneously set an alert in Skyscanner, as well.”

Why would you want to set alerts on flights you’ve already booked? “Sometimes the cost of your flight will go down,” Kelly explains.

“If it does, contact the airline as soon as possible. They will very likely honor that price and refund the difference. I’ve done this with American, my airline of choice, several times — and sometimes I received a $70 refund per ticket. For a family of four, that’s $280 back in my pocket to use towards something else like a car rental on my vacation!”