Best day to buy airline tickets? It isn’t Tuesday
You’ve probably heard that the best day to shop for airline tickets is Tuesday, when fare sales usually are announced. Scratch that, according to new data from the Wall Street Journal. An in-depth analysis of roundtrip ticket purchases through online and traditional agencies found Sunday is best day to nab the lowest price.
The lowest average ticket price in the 19-month period covered, $432, was found on Sunday, veteran airline columnist Scott McCartney reported. Saturday wasn’t far behind, at $439.
The average fare on Tuesdays, according to data from Airlines Reporting Corp., was $497. That’s the lowest point for a weekday. The worst days: Monday, Thursday and Friday. Average fares on those days were $503, $501 and $502, respectively.
ARC processes about half of airline tickets sold. The data excludes tickets purchased directly from airlines.
McCartney notes that one factor that might skew the results in favor of Sunday is the lack of corporate ticket purchases on weekends. Business travelers tend to buy pricier tickets because they book at the last minute or want tickets with fewer restrictions.
Changing consumer behavior is at work, too. A Southwest Airlines executive told McCartney that the use of iPads and other computer tablets has made airfare shopping on weekends more popular.
The analysis of ticket purchases found that 57 days before departure is the magic number for finding the lowest price. That’s up from 42 in 2012.
Sedona spa wins nod
Mii Amo, a luxury destination spa at Enchantment Resort in Sedona, was named the 20th best resort in the world by Conde Nast Traveler.
The spa, whose 16 guest rooms are open only to travelers who book three-, four- or seven-night all-inclusive packages, was recognized as one of the Top 100 Hotels & Resorts in the magazine’s annual Readers’ Choice Awards.
Mii Amo is in good company, with luxury safari camps, beach retreats and decadent getaways filling the list. No. 1: the Londolozi Private Game Reserve in South Africa.
It’s the latest in a spate of accolades for the tucked-away spa. Mii Amo was recently named the readers choice for best all-inclusive resort in Saveur magazine’s Culinary Travel Awards. In July, it was named the No. 2 destination spa in the world by Travel + Leisure.
Mii Amo ranks No. 7 out of 25 U.S. resorts in the Readers’ Choice Awards. Spa packages, which includes accommodations, three daily meals, two daily spa services, lectures and such activities as hikes, range from $2,500 to $10,500 per person.
No other Arizona property made any of the Readers’ Choice lists. The state’s resorts did dominate the Top 10 resorts in Texas and the Southwest, taking four of the five top spots and five of the 10. Those winners, in order: Sanctuary on Camelback Mountain, Enchantment, Ritz-Carlton Dove Mountain, Four Seasons Resort Scottsdale at Troon North and the Phoenician and sister property Canyon Suites.
Hotel Palomar Phoenix at CityScape downtown made the list of Top10 hotels in the United States.
cntraveler.com/rca.
Details: Airline-merger travel confusion
Heads up if you’re traveling on a ticket that includes flights on both US Airways and American Airlines. The airlines have been selling seats on each other’s planes since they merged late last year, but they still have separate operations and use different terminals at some airports. That can lead to confusion, as I found last weekend.
I bought tickets from Virginia Beach to Phoenix on usairways.com. I had to connect in Dallas. The airlines made it clear during booking and online check-in that the flight to Dallas was on American, the flight to Phoenix on US Airways. So we knew to head to American’s ticket counter in Virginia Beach.
The confusion started when the flight attendant announced connecting gate information as the plane approached Dallas. She announced the gate for the Phoenix flight, and we were happy that it was just a few gates away from our arrival gate.
Turns out, the announcement was only for American flights, though that was not stated. When asked, the flight attendant said she didn’t have gate information on the US Airways flight. Our gate was a Skylink train ride and long walk away.
Lesson learned: Pay close attention to your travel documents, boarding announcements and other details when traveling on the airlines as they work their way through this merger.