If finding cheap fares, be they cheap airplane tickets and/or cheap vacation packages is a priority and your travel plans are flexible (i.e., you are not limited to flying during the peak of the summer) you can save considerable money by selecting the right time to travel.
The following are cheap travel periods to fly this year identified by Rick Seaney:
January is considered the number one airfare dead zone and thus prices drop for flights during this month. The only obvious exception to this are flights to and from DC on the days immediately prior and after January 20th, the date of the presidential inauguration.
Early February tends to be very inexpensive except for travel to New Orleans at the beginning of the month because of the Super Bowl being played there on February 3rd. Flights to and from Las Vegas around that time also are more expensive because of people traveling there for game day partying. Be aware that later in the month ticket prices start to rise because of Spring Break travel.
Late spring is an excellent time to travel to Europe because the weather is good and the average ticket price is at least a couple of hundred dollars cheaper vs. summer flying. Peak air ticket prices usually commence around May 15th.
Travel on almost any holiday (such as Thanksgiving or Christmas) is a lot cheaper than the dates surrounding a holiday, depending on how flexible your return date is. This is also true of the Memorial Day, the Fourth of July, and Labor Day.
The cheap weeks of November and December are the pre and post holiday periods. The first is the two week period at the beginning of November. The other is after Thanksgiving, beginning around December 3rd and continuing until around December 18th. Given that most people travel during the holidays, these weeks are dead zones and airline tickets are priced accordingly.
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