Holiday Travel Tips for the Penny-Wise

Thanksgiving travel is less than a month away. For anyone still planning their travel, here are a few helpful tips.
By Eric Reed ,

How will you fly this holiday season?

If you’re anything like many consumers looking for Thanksgiving and Christmas flights, you clicked around airfare sites in early September only to find the prices demoralizing. Perhaps you put off a purchase decision, hoping fares would become more palatable. Now, of course, you don't have the luxury of more procrastination. 

The relatives are calling with their vaguely coercive requests for holiday plans, and the airlines have rejected your offer of a kidney in exchange for priority boarding status (although Spirit may soon pilot the program).

The holidays kick off in less than a month and bring with them that annual celebration of good cheer known as “going dead broke for the sake of family and friends.”

We’ll be right here waiting with the cheap booze and good advice when January’s credit card statement rolls in, but in the meantime there are a few ways you can still make flying home hurt a little less. Financially speaking, that is. 

Mourn the Loss, Then BUY...

A little more bad news: for a brief window in September, fares were great. They’re not now. According to CEO of Cheapair.com Jeff Klee, that early September ticket we all blew off was as good as it gets.

“It was unbelievable early in September,” he said, “but unfortunately things have gotten back to normal.”

In fact the U.S. market overall hit a sort of boom in late summer, with major routes often falling to less than $100 round trip. Unfortunately for travelers the airlines have gotten very good at stabilizing their business model, far better than in the late 90’s and early 2000s, so periods of fluctuation don’t last anymore.

So shake it off and buy the ticket. The dip is over and prices will only go up from here on out. You won't save a dime holding off between now and Christmas. Just think about holiday airfare like paying student loans: expensive now but ultimately unavoidable, and putting it off will only make things worse.

Travel Early For Christmas...

Every year it’s a truism that traveling on off days will save big money for revelers, but usually the big money days are around Thanksgiving when the entire country takes to the roads, rails and skies on the same Wednesday and Sunday.

This year we can add Christmas to that list.

With Christmas coming on a Friday, travelers will pack into flights before the holiday, spiking airfares and dropping availability like a stone. Great for people looking to hoard time off, terrible for anyone who live more than a few hours’ drive from home.

“The Friday thing is a big deal,” Klee said. “Because the holiday is on a weekend...that tends to make it a little bit tougher if you’re not flexible.”

“It means that from a practical standpoint, if you really want to come home on the Saturday or Sunday after Christmas, it’s more important to book your flight earlier than it was before,” he says.

Shop early, or fly flexible. Burn one or two of those vacation days you’ll save thanks to the calendar to get on a Thursday or even Wednesday evening flight. The money you save in airfare, not to mention the hassle, will easily make an extra day with the family worth it.

Bring Your Own Entertainment...

As we’ll be writing about more in this space, although airlines have made major investments in technology, capacity and comfort, almost all of those improvements have gone to quality of life in first class. Back in steerage with the rest of us life has only gotten more cramped.

As Klee pointed out, despite significant investments made by all the major airlines, “it’s hard to say that they’re improving their product when, even though there’s some good technology around, you’re more uncomfortable than you used to be.”

“I think primarily,” he added, “the investments are going to help the travelers on the business and first class side.”

Indeed, economy class seems increasingly dedicated to finding that fine line between “cheap” and “swimming in a bucket of sky chum.” A few airlines have some particularly creative ideas on this score.

Finally, Let the Family Fend For Itself...

O.K., maybe don’t go quite that Thunderdome, but it’s actually a pretty smart practice to look for family members’ seats individually.

The thing to remember about airfare search engines, Klee said, is that they will find you the best fares for the blockspecified. So if you search for four people, the website will give you its best results for flights with four seats all together.

That doesn’t mean it’s giving you the best result for a flight that can fit four people.

Now, we’re not suggesting leaving Little Billy up to his own devices in Row 23. But try searching for seats in pairs, or an individual spot for a spouse. Play with the arrangements a little bit, because there may very well be a flight that with enough space for less money, just not all in one place.

And good luck out there.

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