Is Travel Tuesday the new Black Friday or Cyber Monday?

Is it just me or is there too much retail therapy happening right now?  Don’t get me wrong, I love getting presents, and I love buying things but I’ve turned over a new leaf lately.  One that requires I separate my needs from my wants.  This line can be quite blurry on occasion.  Do I need a new hair dryer?  Or is that simply a want?  In today’s modern age, the answer seems easy – it’s a need.  You can’t dry your hair without a hair dryer!  But after some deep reflection, I’ve come to the decision that the hairdryer is, sadly, a want.  Pushing it down to the bottom of the list.  Which means I’m not going to be able to purchase one at a severe discount thanks to Black Friday.

But where do we draw the line?  Of course, we barely have both Black Friday and Cyber Monday in the rearview mirror, and now we can be thankful for Travel Tuesday.  In recent years, many airlines have been participating in Black Friday in order to get more business, and that’s been a good business for them.  Now, however, airlines and the travel industry are taking a page out of Amazon and Walmart’s playbooks with their own “deal days”, and it’s starting to catch on.  Tuesdays have always been known as a good time to get a deal on a flight, but the Tuesday after Thanksgiving is expected to be even more lucrative for bargain hunters.

The airfare prediction website Hopper expects the number of flight sales on Travel Tuesday to be twice that of Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined.  That’s right – I said combined!  Hopper claims that its detected deals on 20% of all global routes last year during Travel Tuesday, and it expects fare sales to be just as impressive this year as well.  Not only that Hopper projects major savings on some of the world’s most popular destinations including 41% off flights to London, 32% off flights to Paris and 32% off flights to Hong Kong. (Please note – there are some additional news stories in the video shown below.)

All of that said, airlines haven’t posted any specific deals just yet.  However, many major airlines have extended their Black Friday sales into Cyber Monday and Travel Tuesday as well.  Here are some of the deals currently available:

• Southwest— Southwest is offering a $125 discount on US vacation packages and a $250 discount on international vacation packages. The discounts run through December 3.
• Cathay Pacific— The Hong Kong-based airline’s deals include round-trip flights between the US and Asia for under $600, including Boston, Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles to Hong Kong. The deals are available through November 27.
• Aer Lingus— Irish Airline Aer Lingus is offering $50 off round-trip tickets on flights to Europe from cities including New York, Boston, Chicago, and Washington D.C. West Coast cities such as Los Angles, San Francisco, and Seattle get a $100 discount on flights to Europe. This deal is available until 6:59 pm ET on November 28.
• EasyJet— The British low-cost carrier is offering £50 or $64 discounts on more than 60,000 “City Breaks” or its flight and hotel packages. For example, a three-night weekend trip to Barcelona from London including flights and hotel for just £140 or $179 per person. No discount code necessary. The sale ends at midnight on November 28.

But is this a good idea?  I mean, if it saves you money and you spend a lot of time traveling then the answer is yes.  But the answer is not spending in a willy-nilly type fashion.  After all, is it a need or a want?  There are a few trips that I feel like I need to go on, but is that really the case? Regardless, have a look for these deals tomorrow and through until Wednesday.