Originally Posted by
dcline414
According to the WSJ,
Whatever You Do, Don't Buy an Airline Ticket On...
I try to buy all of my travel on Tue-Wed, and have personally observed that flights to/from ATL are much more expensive when purchased Fri-Mon. AirTran launches sales more or less every Mon/Tue and Delta often counters (though may not match) with sale fares of their own on Tue/Wed.
I'm not sure how much F/J tickets are impacted by these sales, as I exclusively book Y travel, but I would certainly wait until tomorrow afternoon to book this trip, just in case.
Don't forget the 24 hour (actually midnight somewhere of the next day) risk free cancel rule. I'd try to grab a ticket now, just in case the discrepancy is because some fare classes are close to being sold out, and then watch what happens to the fare all day tomorrow. (This strategy would not work if one is close to credit card credit limits and cannot buy a second ticket before the cancelled one would be credited.)
I'm confused about whether the WSJ article is referring specifically to fare sales (which somehow never seem to help me) or to revenue management adjusting the inventory classes at which seats are being offered. These are different issues. For sales, one possible explanation of the day of week patterns is whether the airline wants its own and it competitors decision makers to be in the office deciding whether to match, extend, or withdraw sale fares.