Best Time to Book Tickets to Ecuador

Question: What is the best time to book tickets to Ecuador? 

Answer: According to recent studies, the best time to book a flight is 50 to 100 days before your scheduled flight. The best day to purchase tickets is on a Tuesday at 3:00 p.m. EST. If you can book your flight on a Tuesday or Wednesday, returning the following Tuesday or Wednesday, you also can save some money. If you use all three methods, you can save hundreds of dollars.

     

There are some exceptions, but flying Tuesday to Tuesday or Wednesday to Wednesday are the best days of the week for a good deal on airfare. If you have less time, Thursday to Sunday will also get you good rates.

     

Keep your dates flexible when booking; most airlines let you see the cheapest days of the week on a calendar grid. You can also get emails alerts notifying you when the rates go down; many times you’ll notice the dates fluctuating within a month. The websites www.bestfares.com and www.airfarewatchdog.com are two that will alert you to changes in fare prices.

If you want to compare rates of different airlines or want to travel to your destination all in one day, check out www.skyscanner.net. It searches hundreds of sites in seconds and also gives you a calendar grid where you can check out the cheapest fares for each day of the month.

     

If you don’t book your flight on your first visit to a website, be sure to clear your “cookies” from your computer or use another computer when you return to the site to book your flight. Believe it or not, it makes a difference, as these travel websites use tracking software and record your searches. The best rates usually appear on your first search and go up with each subsequent visit. For more tips on saving money on flights, check out the tips on FareCompare. 

We have a special preference for Avianca Airlines and normally our round trip tickets are $500 per person from Guayaquil to New York. They have excellent staff, comfortable leather seats, wonderful food and beverage service, and warming towels -- even in economy. It's the little things that keep us coming back.

TAME, the national airline of Ecuador, has flights from Guayaquil to New York (non-stop), but they are more expensive and have limited dates. 

We usually book with CheapTickets or CheapOAir, but this coming August we booked with Avianca through Vayama. They were offering the cheapest rates at the time, so we'll let you know if there are any glitches.

Feel free to comment on any ways you have used to save on airfare to and from Ecuador.

Until next time...hasta luego!  



Connie & Mark