It’s no secret that the travel industry is tricky right now. Staffing shortages and supply problems have led to many flight cancelations, and increased demand for travel means that airline prices have shot upwards. The simple solution to just take a road trip instead of a flight is…not so simple anymore, thanks to ever-changing and generally expensive gas prices. So if you’re trying to get to Disney World soon, what’s actually the best way to do it?

We’ve been keeping track of all the flight cancelations, airline changes, and other travel complications that could impact your upcoming vacation. Now, we’re answering the question, “WHEN is actually the BEST time to book your flight and fly to Disney World?” We’ve done the research, and we have the answer.

To fully answer the question of when you should book your flight and when you should actually fly to Disney World, we did a lot of research, looking into current flight options, flight-tracker apps, and studies about past airline fares. While there isn’t necessarily a “one-size-fits-all” answer, we did find some general guidelines to help you out.

We’ll divide our finding up into a few different sections: When you should book your flight, when you should actually fly, and some extra tips to help you find the lowest possible airfare for your Disney trip.

When Should You BOOK Your Flight?

The Myth: Tuesday Is the Best Day to Book

For a long time, travelers believed that Tuesday morning was the best time to book a flight. This might have been true for a while, but now research has shown that there’s not a consistent significant difference in airfare prices between Tuesday and other weekdays.

But it’s still true that flight prices fluctuate all the time, and some days are still better for finding low prices. Let’s take a look at the actual best time to book a flight.

The Truth: It Depends

Airline prices will change from the moment they become available to hours before the flight happens. If you have some flexibility in your schedule, keep an eye on flight prices for about a week to see how the prices change and what the potential lowest price could be. After you’ve seen some of the trends, you can make a more informed decision about booking your flight.

You should definitely book your flight more than 3 weeks out, according to The Points Guy. Airline prices tend to only rise after that point, and they will likely be the highest just a couple of days before a flight happens. Although flight prices could decrease significantly as a flight gets closer (if the airline is trying to get rid of unsold tickets), that is a risky bet.

Demand for flights is still high as many people have put off vacations for a couple of years and are finally ready to travel. Odds aren’t great that a flight will have extra tickets available. It’s more likely that a flight will be sold out and ticket prices for other airlines will be very high if you wait until the last minute to book.

So if one end of the recommendation is to book at least 3 weeks early, when is TOO early to book? Flights are often priced higher right when they’re released (generally about a year before the flight happens) than you’ll see a few months later, so booking as early as possible isn’t necessarily better.

CheapAir.com held a study in 2021 that revealed some ideal timelines for booking trips: “The cheapest flights were found 67 days prior to a summer trip, 94 days prior to a winter trip, 84 days prior to a spring trip, and 89 days prior to a fall trip.” They also found that a flight’s lowest price can generally be found “sometime between 95 and 21 days (roughly three months to three weeks) before the flight.”

Another study from Cheap Air analyzed flights from January through May of 2022 — found that “the best day [to book a flight] happens about 76 days [about 2.5 months] before your travel date, on average.” This chart shows the findings, which reveal that flight prices generally start to decrease 200 days before a flight, and they begin to increase again roughly 60 days before a flight. You’ll see a sharp increase in prices beginning about 2 weeks before a flight.

We did some of our own research to see if those findings hold up now, in late summer 2022.

The Research

We used airline websites and the flight finding app Hopper to search for various flights and compare the prices. Note that we searched for flights on July 20th, 2022, and we looked for flights 2 weeks out, 1 month out, 3 months out, and during the holiday season. We searched specifically for flights to the Orlando International Airport (MCO), and we looked at flights originating from Chicago Midway (MDW), Atlanta (ATL), and Los Angeles (LAX) to get a sample of flights from popular airports around the US.

Prices show a round-trip ticket price for 1 adult passenger. We’ll bold the cheapest flight we found in each timeframe as well as which timeframe had the overall cheapest flight from each airport.

Here’s what we found:

Chicago Midway to Orlando International Airport:

• 2 weeks out (August 4th – August 9th): Southwest Airlines – $346; Frontier Airlines – $228; Delta Air Lines – $322; Spirit Airlines – $294
• 1 month out (August 18th – August 22nd): Southwest Airlines – $183; Frontier Airlines – $177; Delta Air Lines – $287; Spirit Airlines – $211
• 3 months out (October 20th – October 24th): Southwest Airlines – $183; Frontier Airlines – $246; Delta Air Lines – $563; Spirit Airlines – $300
• Holiday flights (December 21st – December 27th): Southwest Airlines – $444; Frontier Airlines – $689; Delta Air Lines – $743

Atlanta to Orlando International Airport:

• 2 weeks out (August 4th – August 9th): Frontier Airlines – $66; Delta Air Lines – $178; Spirit Airlines – $67
• 1 month out (August 18th – August 22nd): Frontier Airlines – $77; Delta Air Lines – $149; Spirit Airlines – $78
• 3 months out (October 20th – October 24th): Frontier Airlines – $126; Delta Air Lines – $391; Spirit Airlines – $128
• Holiday season (December 21st – December 27th): Delta Air Lines – $388; American Airlines – $435; Frontier Airlines – $373; Spirit Airlines – $678

Los Angeles to Orlando International Airport:

• 2 weeks out (August 4th – August 9th): Frontier Airlines – $278; Delta Air Lines – $538; United Airlines – $408; American Airlines – $503
• 1 month out (August 18th – August 22nd): Frontier Airlines – $272; Delta Air Lines – $438; United Airlines – $393; American Airlines – $443
• 3 months out (October 20th – October 24th): Frontier Airlines – $283; Delta Air Lines – $547; American Airlines – $510; United Airlines – $566
• Holiday seasons (December 21st – December 27th): American Airlines – $738; Delta Air Lines – $878; Alaska Airlines – $1,006; Allegiant Air – $940

For each of the airports, the cheapest flights could be found about 1 month out, although the 3-month mark wasn’t too much more expensive. The holidays proved to be the most expensive for every airport, which is not necessarily surprising. We’ll go into more detail about booking holiday flights in just a moment.

Rule of Thumb

A good general rule of thumb is to book your flight somewhere between 1 and 3 months before the flight date. Booking earlier or later could result in higher prices. If you do book early and then find a cheaper flight later on, see what your airline’s cancelation policy is. It might be worth it to cancel your flight and re-book the cheaper one.

Understanding the airline’s cancelation policies and change fees before you book a flight is a good idea. If the airline doesn’t have major change fees, you may want to book a flight even before your plans are finalized if you find a good deal. Because prices change so frequently, grabbing up those deals when you see them is key!

For the Holidays

Flights during the holidays are a whole other beast entirely. Expect to see generally higher prices at this time than you’ll see at other times during the year. For the best possible chance at finding a good price, try to be one holiday ahead — meaning, book your Christmas flight tickets before Thanksgiving hits, and book those Thanksgiving tickets before Halloween hits, etc.

Keep the same rule of being between 1 and 3 months ahead, although you may want to be closer to 3 months ahead for these flights.

When Should You FLY?

Best Day of the Week to Fly

Now that you know when to book your flight, it’s time to decide which flight to book! Some days of the week yield lower-priced flights than others. According to NerdWallet, “For economy tickets, Tuesdays are about 24% lower than peak prices on Sundays, which translates to savings of about $85 per ticket.” CNN agrees, stating that Tuesdays and Wednesdays are the best days to travel. This makes sense, as many vacationers will travel during the weekend and most business trips happen on Mondays.

If you must fly on a weekend, Saturday might be the best choice. Saturday airfare is “about 13%-15% lower” than other days. Many people on vacation want to travel on Sunday in order to spend all of Saturday at their destination. But if you choose Saturday to fly instead, you might be able to “save about $50 per ticket” (NerdWallet).

Best Month of the Year to Fly

If you’re looking at months instead of days, there are a few big travel months to potentially avoid as well. You won’t be surprised to hear that December and November are the most expensive months for travel, as many people return home or go on vacation for the holidays. June and July are close behind as the peak summer travel months.

The BEST months to fly are January and February. Those who traveled in November and December have returned home at this point, and they’ll likely take a couple of months off before traveling again. People have returned to work, kids are back in school after the holiday break, so demand is significantly lower for flights, which translates into lower prices.

Overall

Here’s a quick summary of what we’ve learned:

• Try to book your flight between 1 and 3 months before you plan to travel.
• Look for flights on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays for the cheapest airfare.
• If your travel plans are very flexible, remember that January and February are the cheapest months for flights.

Some Extra Tips

Let an App Do the Work For You

It can be difficult to keep up with all the different airlines and flight prices. As you saw previously in our research, there’s not necessarily one airline that always has the cheapest flights.

Instead of going to each airline’s website to look at prices, you can take advantage of flight tracker apps like Hopper or Kayak. These apps will alert you when ticket prices change and can help you decide when to book a flight and when to hold out for possibly lower rates.

Both Hopper and Kayak are free apps. They’re fairly simple to use as well, and they can help you save quite a bit on your flight.

Look at Airline Policies and Perks

We mentioned this tip earlier, but it’s worth repeating. Look up the cancelation policies and change fees for an airline before booking your flight. In addition, pay attention to any extra perks that might save you money as well.

For example, Southwest Airlines allows all travelers to check 2 bags for free. With other airlines charging on average $30 to $50 per checked bag, it might actually be cheaper to book a more expensive flight on Southwest and save when it comes to luggage.

Many airlines have relaxed their change fees in light of the increased amount of flight cancelations. For example, both Southwest and American Airlines have no change fees at least for domestic flights. Note that most airlines will still charge you the difference if you change to a flight that’s more expensive than the one you booked.

So the next time you sit down to plan your upcoming Disney World trip, remember to pay attention to when you’re booking your flights and what days you’re planning to fly. You could save a lot of money by making some small adjustments!

We’ll continue to bring you the latest travel updates that might impact your Disney World vacation, so stay tuned to DFB!

Click here to see the average cost to fly to Disney World in AUGUST.

What are your best tips for flying to Disney World? Let us know in the comments.