How to pay for your plane ticket cheaper?
Every year, studies confirm it: certain hours on certain days of the week would be recommended to find plane tickets at reduced prices, less in any case.
And traveling on Friday the 13th, the day of supposed bad luck (or luck, it depends), would even be the ultimate trick to save money.
The reasoning: the most superstitious passengers seeking to avoid this date, demand would drop and flight prices would thus remain near the bottom.
A study published in 2017 by the Kayak flight comparator even supported this thesis.
It indicated that the prices of plane tickets on Friday January 13, 2017 were up to 11% lower than those of the other Fridays of the same month.
Identical observation on Friday, December 13, 2019.
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For this Friday, May 13, 2022, the online comparator explains the same phenomenon to
Figaro.
“According to flight data from Kayak, traveling on Friday, May 13, 2022 will be one of the most affordable flight days in 2022: the average flight price is around €255, which is around 33% less than the price average flight on other Fridays this year (around €380)”,
we are told.
The data is based on flight searches carried out over the last 67 days on kayak.fr.
But these numbers should be interpreted with caution.
There is nothing abnormal or surprising about the fact that prices vary by a factor of two from one day to another in the air sector, a sector in which prices vary according to complex rules of
yield management
.
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“Slightly less visit”
While Friday May 13 will be the only one of the year 2022, the other comparators and airlines questioned by
Le Figaro
do not note, for the French market, any major differences on this supposedly special day.
And this both in terms of demand and the prices charged.
"There is no effect on Friday the 13th at Transavia",
replies the commercial management of the low-cost company.
Same story at Air France.
“It's an urban legend, it is true that there are slightly fewer visits but no visible impact on prices. There are sometimes reductions from the companies but it is more linked to promotional offers pretexting this superstition”
, specifies Guillaume Rostand, spokesperson for Liligo, another online travel comparator.
Read alsoFive tips for paying less for your plane ticket
A simple search via Google Flight's price calendar function makes it possible to be sure: no noticeable effect on prices is to be noted for this Friday.
And this on all flight segments, whether on a Paris-Lisbon (€120, for a maximum for the month of May at €154), a Lyon-Casablanca (€168, maximum at €233) as for a Paris-Singapore (€1157, price for every Friday and Sunday in May) or for a Paris-New York (€347, maximum price €1379).
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Paraskevidekatriaphobia
Finally, note for paraskevidékatriaphobes (phobic of Friday the 13th): there are no more air accidents on Friday the 13th than on other days.
On the contrary.
The Flight Safety Foundation (Foundation for the safety of air transport), recorded an average of 0.067 plane accidents on Friday 13. A figure lower than the average of 0.091 fatal accidents per day.
Eight tragedies occurred during the 118 “Friday the 13ths” between 1945 and 2013. Two of them occurred on October 13, 1972. The deadliest caused the death of 122 passengers and crew, during the Aeroflot flight 964 crash near Moscow.
The most infamous accident was that of Fuerza Aérea Uruguaya flight 571, in the Andes mountain range, at an altitude of 3600 meters.
Keep in mind that the plane remains the least lethal mode of transport.
Including Friday the 13th.