Lifestyle

The best time to book your flights for Christmas (and the worst)

Save up to 15% on flights by booking at the right time.

Christmas may be four months away, but it’s never too early to start planning for your Christmas holiday

Travel company Skyscanner Australia analysed flight fares paid by travellers for holidays during the festive period in 2016 in a bid to help Aussies find the best time to book for Christmas 2017.

The findings reveal the best weeks for Aussies to bag some fantastic deals where travellers could save up to 15% on flights to 12 top destinations around the world this Christmas.

The best time to book flights for Christmas

Skyscanner found that travellers who booked during the last weeks of August in 2016 saved up to 11% on return flights from Sydney to Bali, and up to 20% on return flights from Perth to Shanghai, for travel during the Christmas week.

Or if you want something more tropical, how about this…

Sydney travellers who booked 15 weeks ahead of Christmas enjoyed a relaxing island vacation in Fiji with return flights 18% cheaper. Travellers from Melbourne also managed to grab flights to Honolulu 21% cheaper.

Looking for an Asian adventure, Sydneysiders who booked flights 12 weeks in advance to Bangkok or Hong Kong found fares to be 15% cheaper, and travellers from Brisbane found flights to Singapore at 28% lower – leaving more cash to splash!

The worst time to book flights for Christmas

For Sydneysiders, flights to Bali were 37% higher for those who booked 11 weeks out from Christmas in 2016. Flights to Kuala Lumpur were also 60% more when booking 5 weeks out. Those who booked flights to Fiji 9 weeks out shelled out 236% more on flights for their Christmas vacay.

For Melbourne based Aussies looking to take the family to Disneyland, flights to Los Angeles 9 weeks were found to be the most expensive with fares 120% higher than the median.

Skyscanner advise anyone thinking about booking a holiday for the festive season to get on it as soon as possible:

“While we strongly recommend Aussies to book flights as early as possible, those who are unsure of where to go and when to book can set up Price Alerts for the routes they are keen on to be notified of when fares rise and fall.”

Now the only question is… where to?

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