There’s an art to it.
If the only thing getting you through these last few weeks of the year is a dreamy vacation, hopefully in your near future, and you’re looking to book with travel points, according to experts, there’s a certain science to it.
While the “Goldilocks” travel playbook of booking a flight not too early or not too late is typically the formula to scoring a money-saving deal, according to Going.com, a service that finds and alerts travelers of cheap flight deals, that logic unfortunately doesn’t apply when booking with award travel.
If you’re purchasing a flight using a credit card, the sweet spot, aka the “Goldilocks window” for domestic flights, is booking 1-3 months before a desired departure date and 2-8 months for international flights, according to a Going.com report that looked at flight search data from January 1, 2025, to November 20, 2025.
But for travelers booking with earned travel points or miles, the best time to secure a ticket is when airlines release their schedules, which is about 10-11 months from the departure date and then the weeks right before takeoff —a bookend type of window.
Since those months in between are when flights are usually the cheapest, it doesn’t make sense to waste award points when you could just snag a reasonably priced ticket using your credit card.
So the bottom line is: pay attention to the time period of when you’re booking your next vacay — the Goldilocks window is only best for credit card-purchased flights, where super early or last-minute bookings are best for award travel.
The “Goldilocks window” makes the most sense for booking a flight using a credit card — not travel points. REDPIXEL – stock.adobe.com
There’s a science to finding the best bang for your buck when booking travel in the new year. aanbetta – stock.adobe.com
Speaking of savvy ways to book travel for 2026, over 77% of Americans said they would use AI to help them plan their next trip, but experts are a bit more skeptical.
“I would be wary of handing over all the travel planning to AI,” Sarah Silbert, managing editor at Points Path, warned The Post, saying it’s a “great first step.”
Both Silbert and RVshare travel expert Fiorella Yriberry advised travelers to use AI with caution by telling tools such as ChatGPT or Gemini their travel style, preferences and what they’re looking to get out of their trip.
“It’s best at providing suggestions and coming up with a shortlist of options, but you shouldn’t trust it to make the final call on anything, especially when it comes to timing flights and transportation, since making mistakes could be costly,” Silbert shared with The Post.