Your cheat sheet on best time to book travel throughout the year.
When you’ve got a holiday on your brain, it’s all too easy to find yourself spending days, even weeks, refreshing booking and airline sites, willing a deal to pop up.
And while travel sites can be unpredictable in terms of when and where they launch their next sale, there are certain dates on the calendar that you can bet your bottom dollar will dazzle you with travel deals.
For Australians, these are the most popular and most promising annual sales events where you’re likely to snatch up some of the best travel deals:
January
1 January: New Year's sales
Many of us might be ringing in the new year with parties and fireworks, but many airlines choose to ring it in with cheap travel deals.
Tigerair in particular is known for hosting a New Year’s sale within the first week of January.
26 January: Australia Day sales
Australia Day sales. It’s a thing.
Australia Day is a great excuse for booking sites to get patriotic with some domestic travel sales.
Jetstar and Tigerair both tend to get behind this one for flights, while Webjet and STA Travel tend to celebrate with tour packages. finder.com.au also hosts an annual True Blue sale to promote the growth of the Aussie economy.
February
Late January/February: Chinese New Year sales
Flights to Asian cities often peak around Chinese New Year and luxury airlines often host sales in honor of the event.
Popular airlines that offer discounted flights include Cathay Pacific and Qantas.
March
17 March: St Patrick’s Day sales
The Emerald Isle calls on St Patrick’s Day with sale flights to Dublin on all-inclusive carriers such as Emirates and Etihad.
Tour groups like STA Travel and Contiki also tend to discount their Ireland-bound tours and packages on this day, too.
March: Vivid Sydney holiday sales
Vivid is one of the largest light installation festivals on this side of the hemisphere.
Often held in May and July, luxury carriers such as Qantas and Virgin Australia start releasing discounted flights and holiday packages for the event as early as March.
Plan early for the best prices.
April
May
Second Sunday of May: Mother’s Day cruise sales
Treating your mum to breakfast, lunch, dinner or high tea on her special day is a no-brainer.
But if you want to wow her no end, cruise lines have your back. Princess Cruises is a well-loved brand that has offered cruise sales just for mum in the past.
22 May: Jetstar birthday sale
Mark this one on your calendars, budget airline fanatics, because Jetstar tends to go all out on its birthday with some of the lowest priced flights of the year.
As an added bonus, Tigerair has been known to “crash the party” with its own sale.
Late-May: Click FrenzyTM
One of the biggest sale events in the country arrives in May every year for a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it 24-hour event.
While it’s famous for heavily discounted shopping deals, it does throw in a few travel deals here and there, too. Travel sites that have participated in the past include BYOJet, Qatar, Webjet, Groupon and Scoopon.
Click FrenzyTM happens twice a year, so if you don’t catch it in May, you’ve a second chance to snatch up some deals in November. August also sees a dedicated Click FrenzyTM Travel event.
June
June: End of Financial Year sales
The end of the financial year brings with it a stack of discounts as merchants work to get rid of their stock.
For those in the travel industry, it’s just another reason to drop the dollars and send out the sales. Hotels, cruises, flights and tours all get behind this one.
August
Late-August: Click FrenzyTM Travel
Click FrenzyTM Travel is the little sister of the annual Click FrenzyTM sales event.
It’s still in its early days but last year this event made waves with its slew of discounted worldwide tours, cruises and travel insurance offerings.
This year, it’s only bound to get bigger and better.
November
16 November: Tigerair birthday sale
Jetstar’s not the only that blows out its candles every year and celebrates with a sale.
Tigerair’s birthday comes six months later with the offer of discounted fares across its entire network. This year (2017) is a major milestone.
Tigerair is turning 10, so we’re expecting big things. $10 domestic flights perhaps?
November: Click FrenzyTM
As mentioned above, the 24-hour drop-everything Click FrenzyTM event happens twice a year, and November is just as good as May.
Late-November: Black Friday
Synonymous with shopping sales, Black Friday originated in the US and quickly became one of the biggest shopping days in the country.
It takes place on the day after Thanksgiving and occurs both online and offline in the States.
For Australians, it’s more of an online event with everything from fashion and homewares to travel and experiences on sale.
December
7 December: AirAsia birthday sale
Another month, another birthday. AirAsia celebrated the big 15 last year with a massive sale to match.
While we can’t confirm if it’ll be pushing out a 16th birthday sale this year, we’re definitely hopeful.
If it does go ahead, expect heavily discounted flights to Asia.
December: Christmas sales
While most places tend to wait until Boxing Day to release their end-of-year sales, you might find a few retailers that like to get in quick with Christmas sales in early December.
Jetstar is known to do this as well hosting a Boxing Day sale.
26 December: Boxing Day sales
One of the most renowned shopping days of the year, Boxing Day brings with it a wealth of holiday bargains.
Head online to avoid the masses and snatch up some of the best deals of the year.
Think cheap-as-chips domestic flights, hotel packages, tours and cruises.
