If you haven’t booked your plane ticket for Thanksgiving yet, you might be better off waiting until November.
Adobe Analytics released its predictions for holiday travel this week. One of the most interesting things in the report is that waiting to buy that Thanksgiving plane ticket will actually save you money. According to Adobe, you’ll see a savings of nearly 10% if you wait to purchase your flight until the first week of November.
That said, don’t wait too long. After the first week of November, flights will increase in price by 14% a week up until the big day.
“I think people assume that booking now would end up saving them some money, but last year’s data model doesn’t support that,” said Vivek Pandya, managing analyst, ADI. “If you are still in the market to book flights, that first week of November is really the sweet spot.”
While no prediction is foolproof, Adobe analyzed 1 trillion visits to travel websites between 2018-2019 to make its prediction, so it’s making what’s likely a pretty solid guess.
And if you’re traveling for Christmas, they’ve got roughly the same recommendation. That first week of December flights will decrease by 13% from where they are right now. Like Thanksgiving flights, those prices will increase once again shortly after, so if you wait you’ll want to make sure you’re ready to pull the trigger.
And keep in mind that while waiting might have cost benefits, those flights will likely be a lot fuller come travel time than they are right now. Consider that waiting might put you in a middle seat or taking a different flight than you’d prefer. Make sure that extra cash is worth the risk.