Best time to book travel: Annual sales event calendar | finder.com.au
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The biggest travel deals events in the year to add to your calendar

Your cheat sheet on best time to book travel throughout the year.

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Stephanie Yip
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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

1NYD

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.

2AustraliaDay

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 tends to get behind this one for flights.

February

3ChineseNewYear

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

Ireland-best-time

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.

5VivisSydney1

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

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March/April: Easter travel sales

Flight and hotel deals abound over Easter and they’re often quite exceptional in price.

Flights deals are often offered during Easter but not necessarily for travel over the Easter long weekend.

May

7MDCruise

Second Sunday of May: Mother’s Day 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, airlines and experience sites often have your back.

8Jetstarbday

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.

9ClickFrenzy1

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

10EOFYsale1

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

click-frenzy-shopping-shutterstock_659265700-300

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.

Click Frenzy Feature

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.

eofy generic shopping

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

airasia.plane

7 December: AirAsia birthday sale

Another month, another birthday. AirAsia has a tendency to celebrate its birthday in December with a sale. Sometimes its a bespoke birthday do, other times is a quarter

If it goes ahead this year, expect heavily discounted flights to Asia.

best international money transfer services to use this Christmas

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 has been known to do this in the past - as well hosting a Boxing Day sale.

boxing.day

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.

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