Do flight prices vary according to what days of the week you fly in and out on?

[I Have Hippos In My Garden]

I am currently looking at the prices of return flights to Hong Kong for threeish weeks in April/May. I can't work out if it makes a difference what days of the week i fly on. For example are fri-Mon more expensive than Tues-Thurs, and is it more expensive to fly in and out on different days of the week, for example going away on a tuesday and flying back on the thursday three weeks later?

I am backpacking, and going onto the Philippines and Borneo before coming back to HK, so am just trying to find the cheapest flights possible.

Thank you :)

[KnitWit]

Months of business travel led me to the conclusion that a trip that involved a "Saturday night stay" was more expensive. It seems that if you fly out on, say Thursday and back on Sunday you'll pay more than if you fly out on Monday and stay until Thursday. This could have been just a coincidence, but it seemed to be very consistent.

[mecaenas]

Yes.

I can't tell you specifically what days are cheap on your chosen route, but I can tell you that as a general principle airlines deliberately manage their prices to compensate for demand. High demand days are more expensive since they have a higher probability of filling the plane, where as low demand days are cheaper as the airline attempts to incentivize people to travel then.

[Ximenean]

If you play around with the prices at the websites of UK low-cost airlines such as easyJet, it becomes obvious that midweek and/or very early and late flights are cheaper than Friday to Monday. Weekend flights, or those that could make a long weekend, are simply in more demand.

[Dewey Finn]

Months of business travel led me to the conclusion that a trip that involved a "Saturday night stay" was more expensive. It seems that if you fly out on, say Thursday and back on Sunday you'll pay more than if you fly out on Monday and stay until Thursday. This could have been just a coincidence, but it seemed to be very consistent.
When I flew more regularly, it was cheaper if your itinerary involved staying over the weekend. The reason was that the business people on expense accounts wanted to fly during the workweek and so the airlines charged them more than those whose itineraries involved staying over on the weekend (since these people were typically leisure travelers on a budget). Sometimes the difference was great enough that I volunteered to stay over the weekend if the company would pay for the additional hotel stay and car rental (which cost less than if I returned on Friday).

[Jackknifed Juggernaut]

Months of business travel led me to the conclusion that a trip that involved a "Saturday night stay" was more expensive. It seems that if you fly out on, say Thursday and back on Sunday you'll pay more than if you fly out on Monday and stay until Thursday. This could have been just a coincidence, but it seemed to be very consistent.

I probably travel for work about 5 times a year, however, I seemed to experience exactly the opposite. In fact, I would turn business trips into mini-vacations: By staying over a Saturday night, I would save enough money for my company to pay the 2 additional nights (Friday and Saturday) of hotel stay.

[MikeS]

If you look at Southwest's front page (http://www.southwest.com/) right now, you'll notice that they're explicitly offering cheaper fares on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays than on Fridays to Mondays.

My impression is that the "stay over Saturday night and save" option has become somewhat less prevalent over the last few years. Currently, for instance, the best round-trip fares from Chicago to L.A. (found using Kayak (http://www.kayak.com/)) are pretty much the same if you're flying out on Friday and back on Monday versus flying out on Monday and back on Friday.

[suranyi]

mecaenas's answer is correct. Yes, prices vary according to what days of the week you fly. To be more specific, as he/she said, they vary according to the specifics of the demand on those particular days. Whether that means the flight is more or less expensive on weekends depends on the particular route.

Ed

[I Have Hippos In My Garden]

Thank you, they are helpful responses. As I'm away for three weeks I'll be away for several weekends anyway so the Saturday night issue isn't something I can avoid.

I will have a play around on sites StaTravel and see what I can find.

[Stan Shmenge]

Actually, it all depends. Fares are calculated on the spot, algorithmically to maximize revenue:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yield_management

In the passenger airline case, capacity is regarded fixed because changing what aircraft flies a certain service based on the demand is the exception rather than the rule. When the aircraft departs, the unsold seats cannot generate any revenue and thus can be said to have perished. Airlines use special software to monitor how seats are being reserved and react accordingly, for example by offering discounts when it appears that seats will remain unsold.
Another way of capturing varying willingness to pay is to attempt market segmentation. A firm may repackage its basic inventory into different products to this end. In the passenger airline case this means implementing purchase restrictions, length of stay requirements and requiring fees for changing or canceling tickets.
The airline needs to keep a specific number of seats in reserve to cater to the probable demand for high-fare seats. The price of each seat varies inversely with the number of seats reserved, that is, the more seats that are reserved for a particular category, the lower the price of each seat. This will continue till the price of seat in the premium class equals that of those in the concession class. Depending on this, a floor price (lower price) for the next seat to be sold is set.