The difference in price between tickets for the same train purchased 59 days before departure and 1 day can reach 300%.
Travel booking service OneTwoTrip analyzed train ticket purchases for five months of 2017 and found out how many days before departure, service users buy train tickets.
The most popular periods for buying tickets are the day before departure (9.1%) and on the day of sales opening – 59 days (8.65%), when ticket prices are the best. At the same time, the difference in the cost of a ticket for the same train can be either 35% or 300%.
“What surprised us most in the survey was the proportion of highly rational travelers who buy train tickets in as long as possible. Compared to 2016, the share of these customers increased by 3%. The main driver here is the desire to save money, as well as better plan the trip, ”- Arkady Gines, Development Director of OneTwoTrip.
The reason for such jumps in ticket prices is dynamic pricing on Russian Railways and FPC trains, as a result of which the price of travel depends not only on the season, but also on the day of the week and traffic volumes. The minimum markup may be on a less popular route, and, for example, tickets between Moscow and St. Petersburg can rise in price by 2 times or more from the start of sales to the date of travel. In addition to Moscow and St. Petersburg, among the leaders of early booking of railway tickets are the southern destinations: Anapa, Novorossiysk, Sukhum, Adler, Lazarevskoe. Most likely, this is due to the desire of travelers to plan their vacation in advance, choosing the most convenient places, and at the same time saving as much as possible.
The next most popular options in terms of purchase time: 2 days before the trip (6.5% of travelers buy railway tickets) and directly on the day of train departure (5.3% of travelers). The least popular purchase of train tickets is 37-39 days before the travel date.