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Flying for the holidays? The cheapest time to buy tickets is right now.
It's not even Halloween yet and your family members are already nagging you to buy flights for Christmas. But this year, they actually have a point.
This Friday marked exactly 10 weeks before December 15 — that means pretty soon, flight prices are only going to increase from here on out.
The cheapest time to book flights for mid-December travel is 71 days before departure, according to 2023 booking data from Google Flights.
Travel-booking app Hopper similarly recommends travelers purchase their flights for Christmas before October 14.
"Airfare will remain low, but volatile (moving up and down day to day) through early October, before rising in the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving and Christmas," economist Hayley Berg wrote in Hopper's 2023 Holiday Travel Outlook report.
In previous years, there's been a much longer buffer before flight prices start to climb for the Winter holiday season. In 2022, Google Flights calculated that average prices were lowest 22 days before departure, James Byers, a Google Flights product manager, said in an August blog post.
"If you want to save money on flights this holiday season, or any time of year, a little bit of planning can go a long way," Byers wrote. "Most of the time, it's better to book on the early side, especially when your plans aren't very flexible."
注释：
from here on out
表示"从现在起"，如：From here on out, I will begin to write my book. 从现在起，我将开始写我的书了。
volatile: adj
表示" 不稳定的；反复无常的"，means " of a quickly changing,undependable nature,especially easily becoming angry or dangerous"，如：The political situation is becoming more volatile.政局变得更加动荡不定。
buffer: v; n
表示"缓冲；减轻；"，means " act as a buffer to; a person or thing that protects sb or sth or lessens a shock"，如：The world's natural ecosystems act as a buffer. 地球上的自然生态系统起着一种缓冲的作用。
中文简要说明：
时序接近年尾，许多民众已经开始规划明年的出国旅行，相信有不少人好奇，什么时间买机票，最有可能获得优惠的价格呢？Google旗下的航班查询工具「Google Flights」分析，以今年为例，年底机票最好在10周前预订，大约就是本周六（14日）前，随着假期脚步愈近，票价将逐渐水涨船高；Expedia网站则推荐周五出发的国际航班，有机会以平常8折左右的价格入手。
综合欧洲新闻台、「商业内幕」网站报导，随着各地旅游需求大爆发，出国若不想花大钱，提早预订机票绝对是个好选择。根据Google Flights信息，以12月中旬出国为例，最好选在10周以前、也就是10月14日左右，这时较有可能买到便宜机票，错过这个时机，价格将逐渐提高，可选择的座位也愈来愈少。
在线旅游网站Expedia则是分析数百万笔航空公司数据，推算出「周日」是最有可能买到便宜机票的时间，最贵则是周五和周六。但若以出发时间来看，通常选在「周五」搭乘国际航班则最为划算，票价约是平常的8成左右。
另一个常令旅客担忧的问题，是班机突然延误、甚至取消，导致计划好的行程被迫临时改变，在疫情趋缓后，确实也出现不少航空业者因为缺工，而导致航运作业大乱。根据Expedia统计，最好选择凌晨3点到早上9点之间搭机，因为这是机场报到、安检等环节运作最顺畅的时段，超过下午3点的航班则较有可能出现延误或取消的情况。
最后专家建议，尽可能避开旺季出游，一来可以捡到便宜机票，到了机场也不用人挤人。买票时可以利用Expedia、Kayak或Skyscanner等网站比价，或直接向航空公司订票，有时反而能拿到不错的价格。
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