Small Business Saturday, Black Friday, Cyber Monday are real sales days, but Travel Tuesday really wants to be part of the crowd. The event is now in its seventh year and scheduled for November 28th, out to tempt travelers with bigger and better discounts on travel.
Travel Tuesday is starting to get some cred. It may not be at the top of your shopping list, but according to Hopper’s data, the national travel shopping event historically has more deals on travel than any other day in the post-Thanksgiving sales week.
In fact, Travel Deal Tuesday has more deals than Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined according to Hayley Berg, lead economist at Hopper.
"Travel Deal Tuesday has consistently become one of the best days of the year to book travel – so for anyone eyeing trips for 2024, November 28th will be a great day to score a good deal!!,” Berg told ConsumerAffairs.
Since it’s Travel Tuesday’s time to shine, Berg thinks airlines will beat last year’s 2 million buy notifications that Hopper registered on Travel Deal Tuesday – an average of 20 deals per second on this travel holiday, 42% more than the average day!
And, as one mega-traveler told ConsumerAffairs, if you’ve never taken the time to check out Travel Tuesday, it’s worth the effort.
"I know of someone who found an excellent deal for a round-trip flight on Frontier from New York City to Chicago for $75. That's the best Travel Tuesday deal I've seen for a one-off flight,” Liam Hunt, director at GoldIRAGuide, told us.
You’ve got to think 'experience' when it comes to Travel Tuesday
Austin Lowe, president of Travelpass.com says Travel Tuesday is about more than the transactional nature of trip-planning. “We see it as an opportunity to emphasize the experiences that are more readily available as opposed to other times of the year,” Lowe told ConsumerAffairs.
“This could be college students experiencing their first time away from home or families seeking an affordable opportunity for a memorable reunion. Travel Tuesday ensures the emotional aspects of travel aren’t compromised by high costs.”
To Lowe’s point, Hopper’s Berg is forecasting amazing cross-section deals this year with discounts of up to 80% off trips to Hawaii, Orlando, Phoenix, Las Vegas, and more. The company promises that it has over 120 hotels, 30 tourism boards and several airlines already committed to offering deals on November 28th.
Among those are airlines such as Aer Lingus, Air New Zealand, Explore Azores Islands, Fiji Airways, French Bee, Porter Airlines, SATA Azores Airlines and Singapore Airlines.
The hotel deals are particularly impressive with discounts like 50% off all hotels in Bali and Madrid, 40% off all hotels in Phoenix, and 35% off all hotels in Paris.
How to stay on top of the deals
As far as airlines deals go, most are holding their cards close to their chest, but Julie Ramhold at Dealnews suggests that travelers do three things to stay in the loop for Travel Tuesday specials:
Sign up for emails.
Be ready to pull the trigger because deals can sell out quickly.
Check out your favorite providers.
Lowe added a couple of suggestions of his own. One is to opt for refundable rooms first.
“Secure a hotel reservation while continuing to keep a pulse on other deals, even going past Travel Tuesday and closer to the actual dates of your trip,” he suggests.
“Explore alternative booking channels like platforms with multi-supplier providers, travel agents or member discounts. The big hack I share with all travelers is calling into platforms directly, as some of the best unadvertised deals, including those for the holidays, are often available over the phone.”
How to keep from being disappointed
Ramhold says that there’s two gotchas that are lying in the weeds on some of the Travel Tuesday deals: Blackout dates and the fine print.
“Reading the fine print has always been important, but it's even more so now. You should be aware of any cancellation policies and procedures, should an issue come up and you're unable to keep your booking,” Ramhold said.
“Many companies have stopped being lenient with their cancellation policies as the global pandemic emergency has ended, so it's important to know what your options are if you have to cancel your trip.
Another hoodwink is artificial (or fake) discounts – the latest shopping challenge. Hunt says he’s found that airlines will frequently discount a specific travel route for a specific period rather than an open-ended discount.
“Bear in mind that many of the listed prices on airline websites are slashed, but these pre-promotional prices are artificially raised to give the illusion of a discount. I recommend checking out Flyertalk and blogs such as ThePointsGuy to find authentic deals on airfare on Travel Tuesday.”