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Google recently released ‘Our 2024 travel trends—right in time for the holidays’.
You guessed it—the article covers travel tips for this coming holiday season.
Google is leveraging its data power to uncover helpful insights related to air travel. As one of the best new emerging flight resources, its Google Flights platform has helped drive new air travel insights.
(In case you’re late to the party, I recommend using Google Flights and Booking.com to find great flight deals. It’s the most seamless airfare booking process I’ve encountered in years—and one of the most affordable.)
So, what do you actually need to take away from Google’s new travel trends article?
I’m sugar-picking the most applicable pieces of advice and insights that relate to this upcoming holiday season.
The basics of booking flights—as per Google
First, let me briefly cover the five tips that Google outlines to help you save money while booking through their Google Flights platform.
It’s pretty basic, but it covers the most important elements of flight booking.
Here they are:
- If don’t know where you want to travel, use the Explore map (on Google Flights) to identify the cheapest routes around the world.
- If your travel dates are also flexible, use the Google Flights date grid and price graph to identify when the cheapest flights are available.
- Include multiple airports in your search. That includes airports in a single city or regional options that are close by.
- Set up price tracking alerts so that you’re notified if there’s a sudden price drop.
Best times to book holiday flights according to Google
Now, let’s dig into the nitty-gritty of how you can save by selecting the best times to book holiday flights according to Google.
Keep in mind that these suggestions are based on hard data collection from Google, meaning this advice is based on averages. In other words—its general and is likely to change depending on your location.
Still, these tips should help you save when booking holiday flights:
- Book a domestic flight 38 days before take-off—that’s when flights are the cheapest, according to the data.
- Book an international flight 101 days before departure. If that’s too far out, you can stick to booking 50 days out—they’ll start to rise sharply after that 50-day marker.
- Book Thanksgiving flights 45 days before departure. If that’s too specific, try to book Thanksgiving flights between 26-59 days out. That’s in early October.
- Book Christmas flights 58 days before departure. If that’s too specific, try to book Christmas flights between 36-72 days out. That’s in late October.
