The best time to buy holiday flights

If you live for finding the best airfare, it's time to pause your leaf-peeping plans and shift your focus to the winter holidays.

In a report from Google Flights,, new data suggests travelers who are looking for cheaper Christmas flights should start shopping earlier than the company recommended in last year's data analysis.

For travel starting in mid-December, "you're most likely to find deals around early October," the report from group product manager James Byers said. "Average prices tend to be lowest 71 days before departure — a big change from our 2022 insights, which found that average prices were lowest just 22 days before departure."

That 2022 report published last summer also said price drops for domestic Christmas travel happened within 20 and 88 days before the holiday. Now, the company is predicting travelers will find the typical low price range 54 to 78 days before takeoff.

Set your calendar for early October

For Christmas 2023, that means the typical low prices for airfare should occur around the first week of October through the end of the month. According to Google, Oct. 12 should have the lowest airfare for those who want to travel the Friday before Christmas (Dec. 22). Oct. 15 is supposed to be the best booking day for those flying on the holiday itself.

71 days out is a recommendation, not a rule

Scott Keyes, founder of the cheap flights booking site Going.com, said he'd need to see Google's methodology to weigh in on their latest data. Still, he cautions travelers not to circle 71 days in advance as the predictably cheapest day. Instead, travelers should view that timeline as the point when cheap flights have their highest odds of popping up.

According to Going's analysis, travelers want to look for the so-called Goldilocks Window (not too early, not too late) to get the cheapest airfare. For domestic flights, Keyes says that's one to three months in advance for off-peak trips and three to six months for peak season travel, like Christmas and New Year's.

Goldilocks cites a few recent round-trip fares on full-service airlines, like a Dallas-to-Chicago nonstop for $158 and Ohio airports to New York City nonstop for $148.

Where travelers are going this winter

In addition to price predictions, Google Flights also dug into winter travel trends based on its most-searched destinations. For trips departing from U.S. airports between Dec. 20 and Jan. 5 you can expect to see crowds heading to Cancun, Miami/Fort Lauderdale, London, New York, Tokyo, San Juan, Honolulu, Orlando, Paris and Los Angeles.

Flights and hotel prices are trending down

Kayla Inserra, a consumer travel trends expert for the online travel agency Kayak, says price outlooks are looking positive for those traveling domestic this winter. Hotel and rental car rates are seeing price drops up to 16% compared to the same time last year, she said, and domestic airfare is down 5%.