It’s a question we get all the time. And while we have our opinions, we’ve never actually sat down and looked at the hard data. Today we’ll be looking at airfare to really determine when is the cheapest time to travel to South Korea.
We used Google Flights to pull estimates on 5-day, round-trip flights in 2024. As prices and seasonal patterns can differ by region, we looked at flights originating in California, New York, Texas, the United Kingdom, Singapore and France. We checked a few different airline booking sites to see how well they correlated and Skyscanner came pretty close!
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Singapore
Travelers from Singapore are looking at an average ticket of 320 USD with major upswings in September, December for Christmas, and the New Years holiday. Prices are bound to spike for Lunar New Year, but otherwise prices are pretty flat. The cheapest airfare can be found in early-December (before Christmas) and mid-January (after New Years and before Lunar New Years) when they drop as low as 230 USD.
- Cheapest travel season: early-December and mid-January
- Cheapest price: 230 USD
California
California flights have a summer peak (June – July) with a minimum of 1,400 USD with the winter holidays running at least 1,500 USD per ticket. Due to the popularity of the California-South Korea route, getting cheap tickets isn’t going to be easy. The cheapest tickets can be found in early-winter (November, mid-December) with tickets as cheap as 780 USD.
- Cheapest travel season: November to mid-December
- Cheapest price: 780 USD
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Texas
If you’re coming from Texas, you have options. Airfare peaks in late-November, the winter holidays (mid-December through early-January) and the summer (late-May through early-August) when prices are a minimum of 1,500 USD and spike really high. On the other hand, tickets can be found for 1,070 USD if you book early enough through the autumn and spring seasons.
- Cheapest travel season: February, March, April, September, October
- Cheapest price: 1070 USD
New York
Tickets from New York is looking at airfare anywhere from 900 USD to 2,000 USD and up. Airfare hits its peak during summer (July, August) and winter (December) where it’ll be a minimum of 1,500 USD KRW for tickets. The cheapest airfare can be found before the holidays (November, early-December) and after (mid-January through early-March) bottoming out at around 900 USD. If you’re coming from New York, an early spring trip might be your best bet.
- Cheapest travel season: February to early-March
- Cheapest price: 900 USD
France
Travelers from France will have to cough up some more money during the major peak in autumn (August) when airfare is a minimum of 1,200 USD. There are loads of cheap tickets to be found in mid-January (after the holidays) up to early-April at 800 USD or even lower.
- Cheapest travel season: February, March
- Cheapest price: 800 USD
United Kingdom
If you’re coming from the UK, you should avoid visiting in autumn (August through early-September) when airfare will be a minimum of 1,000 USD. On the other hand, January and March have plenty of tickets at 650 USD. Otherwise, expect to be spending about 800 USD minimum on a plane ticket.
- Cheapest travel season: Mid-January to March
- Cheapest Price: 650 USD
General Thoughts
Generally speaking, early-December and mid-January before and after the holidays offer cheap flights with a few exceptions (France, New York). And, if you’re looking to save a100 USD here and there, you can opt for layovers in China or Japan (day trips in Japan are particularly fun if you can squeeze out about 12 hours).
Check out Skyscanner for ticket prices or check out their last minute cheap bookings.
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