禮拜幾買機票最便宜 To Find Cheap Flights the Day (Kind of) Matters

Is there a best day to get the lowest price on a flight?

有沒有買到最便宜機票的最佳辦法？

Many travelers think the magic day is Tuesday, long lauded by travel deal sites and various publications, including this one, for its fare sales. Other travelers may have heard pundits declare Wednesday the ideal day. In December, Expedia and the Airlines Reporting Corporation, which processes ticket transactions for airlines and travel agencies, announced that weekends are the new best time.

很多旅行者認爲週二是購買便宜機票的絕佳日子。長期以來，週二得到了旅行交易網站和各種出版物的讚美（包括本刊）。還有些旅行者可能聽到權威人士宣佈週三是最理想的日子。去年12月，爲航空公司和旅行社處理機票業務的艾派迪(Expedia)和航空報告公司(the Airlines Reporting Corporation)宣佈，週末成爲了新的最佳時機。

But is there really a preferred day to buy?

但是，真有更適合買機票的日子嗎？

“I just want to drive a stake through the heart of that myth,” said George Hobica, the founder of the deal alert site , who has been looking at airfares on popular routes every day for more than 20 years, with the rare exception of a vacation where he doesn’t have Internet access.

交易提醒網站的創始人喬治·霍比卡(George Hobica)說：“我真想戳破這種故弄玄虛的說法。”20多年來，除了極少數時候在度假無法上網，他每天都在關注熱門航線的票價。

There are too many variables at play for there to be a universally ideal day to buy an airline ticket. Price depends on a variety of factors, including the route; the level of competition on the route; surrounding holidays and events (like a convention or the Super Bowl); and the days of the week you plan to fly. During a single week in March, for example, a recent search for a round-trip flight between New York and Miami turned up ticket prices as low as $174 and as high as $314. Besides, nowadays we have fare calendars at our fingertips and websites such as Kayak and Travelzoo that alert us to low fares and sales — and those sales don’t always take place on the same day of the week.

機票價格波動的原因太多，沒有哪天一定是買票的最佳日子。價格取決於很多因素，包括航線；那條航線的競爭水平；是否在假日和賽事前後（比如某個大會或超級碗[Super Bowl]）；你計劃飛行的日子是星期幾。比如，前不久我查的時候發現，在3月的同一周裏，從紐約到邁阿密的往返機票的價格最低174美元，最高314美元。另外，如今我們隨時都能查機票價格日曆，還有Kayak和Travelzoo這樣的網站向我們推送低價票和特價票——特價票不一定總是在一週中的某個日子。

Mr. Hobica pointed out, for instance, that on a recent Thursday, Virgin Atlantic lowered nonstop winter flights to Heathrow Airport in London from John F. Kennedy International Airport or Newark Liberty International Airport to about $504 round-trip. Economy fares had been running $900, Mr. Hobica said, then $800, then they went back up, and after that they dipped to around $680.

比如，霍比卡指出，在前不久的一個週四，維珍大西洋航空(Virgin Atlantic)把從肯尼迪國際機場(John F. Kennedy International Airport)或紐瓦克自由國際機場(Newark Liberty International Airport)到倫敦希思羅機場(Heathrow Airport)的冬季直飛往返航班的價格降至約504美元。霍比卡說，經濟艙的機票本來是900美元，後來降到800美元，後來有所回升，之後跌至約680美元。

Airlines (and the above example is but one of many) are perpetually tweaking prices, making predictions difficult. Expedia said as much in its report. Even though its latest research asserts that weekends have the best fares, consumers who spot a good deal on Thursday shouldn’t wait until Saturday to buy it with the hope that the price will tumble even further. “If you find a fare that looks like a good deal, grab it,” the report said, “regardless of the day of week.”

航空公司（上面講的例子很常見）一直在微調票價，所以預測起來很困難。艾派迪在自己的報告中也是這樣說。儘管它的最新調查表明，週末的票價最優惠，但是如果你在週四發現了很便宜的機票，不要想着週六價格會進一步下跌，等那時候再買。報告說：“如果你找到了一個看起來不錯的價格，那就趕緊買，不管你是在星期幾發現的。”

In addition to recommending the best times of the week to book, Expedia and other sites such as FareCompare publish suggestions about how far in advance of a trip to book to score the lowest fare. For instance, Expedia reported in December that the optimal time to buy an economy ticket for travel in North America is 57 days in advance, resulting in a potential savings of about 10 percent versus the average fare. Recommended lead times for travel to international destinations, including Europe and Asia-Pacific, were even longer.

艾派迪和FareCompare等網站除了在報告中推薦一週中預訂機票的最佳日子，還就提前多久能買到最便宜的機票給出了建議。艾派迪的報告稱，12月份時，在北美旅行買經濟艙機票的最佳時機是提前57天，可能會比平均票價低約10%。報告還建議，前往國際目的地的話——包括前往歐洲和亞太地區——要提前更長時間預訂。

Travelers shouldn’t think of predictions as rules, though. There are flights to Asia, for example, that are $500 cheaper when booked at the last minute as opposed to months in advance, Mr. Hobica said.

不過，旅行者不應該把預測當做規則。霍比卡說，有些前往亞洲的航班，在最後時刻預訂比提前數月預訂便宜500美元。

And talking about the “average fare” isn’t necessarily helpful because that doesn’t take into account the quality of a flight. Is it nonstop or does it have a 34-minute connection in a busy, sprawling airport like Atlanta? Is it an 18-hour layover in Dallas that will require you to spend an additional $300 in hotel bills and meals? Are you flying in an aisle seat in a Dreamliner or in the middle seat in a MD-80? And if that cheap ticket you found is on a discount airline like Spirit or Frontier, chances are you’ll have to budget another $30 to $100 to check a bag. In other words, you probably don’t want the average fare.

另外，談論“平均票價”不一定有幫助，因爲那沒把航班品質計算進去。是直飛航班還是需要在一個繁忙龐大的機場（比如亞特蘭大機場）中轉34分鐘？是否需要在達拉斯中途停留18個小時（這就需要再300美元住店和用餐）？是夢幻客機上一個靠近過道的座位，還是MD-80上的一箇中間座位？如果你找到的便宜機票是精神航空(Spirit)或邊疆航空(Frontier)等廉價航空公司的機票，那麼你很可能需要再花30美元至100美元託運行李。換句話說，你很可能不想要平均價格的機票。

If you want to sit next to your companion, be a safe distance from the bathroom, put your bag in an overhead compartment instead of the belly of the plane, and have enough time to make a connection, what you really want are good fares that may not be the absolute cheapest, but give you the experience you want.

如果你想和同伴坐在一起，離衛生間足夠遠，把行李放在行李架上而非機艙腹部，有足夠的時間轉機，那麼你真正想要的是能給你帶來你想要的體驗的好機票，而不一定是最便宜的機票。

So how do you find these fares?

那麼你該如何找到這些機票呢？

Almost every major airline (Delta, United, JetBlue) has a good flexible date search option on its website that you can use to see which travel dates will get you the lowest prices, along with the time and comforts you need.

幾乎所有的大型航空公司（比如達美航空[Delta]，美國聯合航空公司[United]和捷藍航空[JetBlue]）的網站都提供非常靈活的日期搜索選項，你可以看看在哪些日子旅行機票最便宜並且符合你想要的時間和舒適條件。

To search multiple airlines at once, there’s Google Flights, which has simple calendars that allow users to easily see if they can save by flying a day or two earlier or later. The tool offers tips to that end. During a recent flight search for New York to Cancún, a message appeared saying that if I adjusted the travel dates by a few days, I could save $246. While the site has international and domestic flight information for nearly every airline, you won’t find Southwest there, so be sure to look at the airline’s own fare calendar on its website.

要想同時搜索好幾家航空公司，你可以用Google Flights，它有簡單的日曆，用戶能夠輕鬆看到提前或推遲一兩天旅行能否省錢。這個工具提供這方面的提示。前不久，我在搜索從紐約到坎昆的航班時，彈出一條消息說，如果把旅行日期調整幾天，能省246美元。雖然該網站提供幾乎所有航空公司的國際和國內航班信息，但是不包括西南航空(Southwest)，所以你必須去這家公司自己的網站上查看它的機票價格日曆。

To keep abreast of private sales and low fares (as well as hotel deals), you can search or sign up for alerts on . Email alerts include low fares for a particular route that interests you, or all of the affordable round-trip flights departing from your local airport.

爲了瞭解私人出售和低票價（以及酒店優惠）的最新情況，你可以在網站上搜索或者申請提醒。電子郵件提醒包括你感興趣的某個航線的低價票，或者從你所在地出發的所有的便宜往返機票。

Because prices are constantly fluctuating, keep checking airline websites and Google Flights to see the latest fares. The ticket price you see before lunch may be different a couple of hours later.

因爲價格經常變化，所以你要不斷查看航空公司的網站和Google Flights，以瞭解最新票價。你在午飯前看到的價格可能跟幾個小時後的不一樣。

Even after you buy a ticket, you still have a chance to save. If you go to , you can sign up to receive free notifications if your ticket price drops. (TripIt Pro has a similar service though it’s part of an annual $49 membership.) With Yapta, if the price drop is greater than the cost of your airline’s change fee, you can call the airline and pocket the difference. If the price drops and you booked your ticket within 24-hours, you can simply cancel the ticket free of charge and rebook at the new, lower rate. And if the price on the ticket you purchased goes up? You have something even better: the satisfaction of knowing you nabbed a deal.

即便在買完機票之後，也有機會省錢。你可以去網站申請票價下跌的免費提醒（TripIt Pro也有類似的服務，不過它是49美元年費所含的一項服務）。如果你通過Yapta發現票價下降的錢數比改簽費還多，那麼你可以給航空公司致電改簽，省出差價。如果是在預訂後24小時內發現降價，可以免費退票，重新以較低的價格預訂。那如果你買的機票漲價了呢？那就更好了：爲撿着便宜而偷着樂吧。