Sunday is the new Tuesday when it comes to getting the best deal on plane tickets, a new study reveals.


Airlines Reporting Corporation (ARC), which is responsible for half of all tickets sold, crunched the data on domestic and international ticket sales between January 2013 through July 2014. It found that average ticket prices were lowest on Sunday, challenging previous advice to start shopping for tickets on Tuesday or get out your credit card on Wednesday at 1am.


Here's their chart (domestic prices on the left, international on the right):

The Wall Street Journal theorizes that prices are lowest on the weekend because airline executives come into work on Monday thinking about hiking up the fares rather than discounting them. Also:

The lower Sunday and Saturday prices also result from the ability social media has given airlines to throw discounts in front of consumers at any time. That turns vacation shoppers surfing the Web on weekends into ticketed passengers without discounting tickets business travelers might buy while at work. And the findings reflect the lack of corporate sales over the weekend, since business travelers typically fly on more expensive tickets than vacation buyers.


Despite these findings, however, you might still want to check on Tuesdays, because if the airline is going to offer a discount to sell more seats, Tuesday is the most likely day that'll happen:

Airline pricing executives say the historic pattern has been for airlines to add up sales over the weekend and decide on Monday whether to stimulate purchases with discounts they tout in ads in Tuesday's newspapers.


If you book on Sunday and the price drops on Tuesday (or vice versa), you might be able to get a refund. Either way, these are the two days to keep an eye on if you're planning on flying. ARC's data also confirmed that the booking about 7-8 weeks before your flight is the best for the lowest fares.


ARC Finds Lowest-Priced Domestic Air Tickets Bought 8 Weeks Before Flight, 24 Weeks Before Int'l Flights | ARC via The Wall Street Journal and Business Insider

Photo by Wendy Longo photography .