Travel Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for road warriors and seasoned travelers. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this community
Given the superstitious nature of some travellers, are flights cheaper on Friday the 13th?
I have some anecdotal evidence of this, including a friend who moved countries that day as it was cheaper, and also got married on Friday the 13th(!). However, I am hoping there is a survey, study or statement from a ticketing or airline company on this somewhere as an answer.
Apparently there seem to be some studies that say that there's a drop in flight inquires (often cited in articles is a study of Jetcost.co.uk that says it drops by something between 24 and 27%). Another study by kayak.com seems to show that the prices are between 5 and 15% lower.
However, I don't know how serious those studies were as I couldn't find the original documents. They might not control for factors like overall drop/increase in flight demand, for instance. Also this is probably an effect that would only affect Western countries, where the superstition around 13 exists and not so much if you were to travel to Asia, for instance.
It might be a bit difficult to define precisely what “cheaper flights” means. If people avoid or postpone trips, Friday the 13th would see a lower number of passengers, all other things being equal. Yield management and pricing in the airline industry being what they are, I suspect quiet days are also days in which people pay less, on average (i.e. the most expensive seats/fares on many flights have not been sold).
