For as long as commercial flying has been around, travelers have been endlessly in search of the cheapest airfare pricing. It goes the same for those that want to fly to Taiwan.
And if you’re from a country outside of Asia, airfare tickets can be quite expensive if you pick the wrong times.
Many of my friends have spent well over $1000 USD flying to Taipei and all I could do was quietly shake my head in disbelief. Don’t be like my friends…
My goal here is to prevent you from making the same mistakes as my friends, so that you can spend more money on delicious foods or traveling to several other destinations in Taiwan.
Searching for the cheapest flights is really an art. But fortunately, it just boils down to a bit of supply/demand logic and some best practices for purchasing tickets.
In this guide, well cover all the points in finding the best deals and picking the cheapest time to fly to Taiwan.
Finding Cheap International Flights to Taiwan
According to a recent report by Expedia, the best day to book your flight is on a Tuesday. But if most airlines put out flight deals on Mondays, why is Tuesdays the best day?
That’s because when deals come out on Monday, other airliners scramble to put out better deals that come out on Tuesday. In fact, Tuesday deals are $28 USD cheaper on average.
If you’re lucky enough to have a flexible schedule for flying out, it could save you a ton of money!
For long distance flights, flying out on a Thursday and returning on a Monday (vs. flying out on Friday and returning Saturday) can save you as much as 20%.
For international flights, you save the most money 150 to 255 days in advance, with 171 days in advance being your best bet to save the most money.
Note: These reports are a bit flawed though, as they don’t take into account the destination of your flight. But that doesn’t mean these general airfare-purchasing tips don’t help.
Cheapest Time to Fly to Taiwan
As mentioned above, those general tips can help, but to really squeeze out as much savings as you can, you need to know when everyone is flying out to Taiwan.
The time period that many people are buying tickets means the demand for flights in that period is high. This means that airlines can charge more money for those dates.
So when is the time period where there are the least amount of people flying to Taiwan (off-peak season)? As a general rule-of-thumb, I would avoid big holidays or festivals in Taiwan, such as Chinese New Years.
That being said, the cheapest time I’ve found to fly to Taiwan is early/mid January, April to May and September to early November.
Most Expensive Time to Fly to Taiwan
The most expensive times to fly to Taiwan are in the months of February, June to August and December.
February is because of Chinese New years, when lots of relatives are flying back to Taiwan to celebrate with their relatives.
June to August is because of the summer season, when school is out and people want to spend their summer break traveling. But if you can, you wouldn’t want to travel to Taiwan in the summer anyway, as it is not exactly the best time to travel to Taiwan.
Of all the summer months, August may be the most expensive to fly. This is due to the fact that the people of Taiwan are also on summer break and August is when most of them are returning back home.
December is popular because of winter break in schools, which means college students and families want to travel to Taiwan.