There's a possible bright spot in this recession: relatively affordable holiday fares. According to Priceline, Hotwire and Farecast, domestic fares home for the holidays aren't looking too awful this year. Round-trip airline tickets home for Thanksgiving are generally running between $245-$350, and Christmas tickets are running $285-$400, according to Priceline. That means fares are about the same as last year, when they were higher just a few months ago, Farecast says.
But of course, you can always get the best fares by flying on the best days. As we do every year, we asked Priceline, Farecast and Hotwire which days are the best to fly over the holiday period. (They have banks of computers that do nothing but crunch air fares.) Our exclusive calendar below comes from mixing the views of all three services, giving you the most comprehensive look at low holiday fares on the Web.
Priceline and Farecast also suggested some tips for making holiday travel just a little less painful:
- Avoid crowds. The most expensive days and the most crowded days over the holiday period aren't the same, according to Priceline. If crowds are what you really fear, try flying on November 21 or 23, December 17, 18, 21, or 26, or January 1-2. Notice that some of those days are also pretty expensive to fly on!
- Avoid toxic date combinations. Flying on one high-fare day is bad. Flying on two can be positively toxic. Flying out for Thanksgiving on Wednesday and back on Sunday gives an average fare of $475, according to Farecast. But move only your return date back to Saturday, and your fare just dropped to $382.
- Look at all the airports near your destination. Think of flying into Newark instead of LaGuardia, or Fort Lauderdale instead of West Palm Beach. Airports that have plenty of low-fare airlines flying into them typically have the most competitive fares.
- Fly first thing in the morning. Yes, I can hear you grumbling. But flights before 7 AM are typically cheaper. Late night flights are cheaper too, but you put yourself at more of a risk of airline delays if you fly in the evening.
- Check out more calendars. Our calendar is cool, but Priceline and Farecast both have features we don't. Priceline's calendar at www.priceline.com/flights/ lets you check comparative airfares across a grid of dates for your specific destinations. Farecast gives you tips on whether to buy now, or wait a little while to potentially get lower fares.
- Try opaque airfares. Opaque airfares from services like Priceline's "Name Your Own Price" service offer the best discounts at the last minute, often reducing prices to what you would have paid a month in advance. So don't wait in hopes of grabbing an opaque bargain, but use opaque services if you're panicking at the last minute.
- Holidays can mean hotel discounts. Business travel pretty much stops over family-oriented holidays and during the week between Christmas and New Year's. Farecast has seen hotel price discounts of up to 36% between last year's holidays and this year in US cities.
On this calendar we built from Priceline and Hotwire's data, green days are the best days to fly. Yellow days are middling, and red days will have the absolute worst fares.
November
M | T | W | T | F | S | S |
17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 |
24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 |
December
M | T | W | T | F | S | S |
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 |
15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 |
22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 |
29 | 30 | 31 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
I'm with you all on this one: I'm flying to visit my in-laws in Tucson for Thanksgiving. But by booking early and flying on off-peak days, I snagged a decent air fare. You can too.
So You're Stuck - Now What?
Remember this chart applies to domestic flights only. You can still find bargains over Thanksgiving for flying to Europe (where Thanksgiving isn't celebrated), for instance.
But if you're stuck traveling on a high-traffic day, remember the usual mantras: arrive early at the airport and maintain patience, patience, patience. If you have a little flexibility, get bumped, especially if you're flying on Nov. 25-27 or Dec. 28-29. By agreeing to arrive a little later than planned, you can reap hundreds of dollars in flight vouchers usable during less-stressful times of the year.
To get yourself bumped, try to bring carry-on bags only (they're less likely to get lost that way) and make sure you're at the gate when the gate agents arrive an hour before your flight. Ask if the flight is full; if it is, find out what their rewards for bumping are. Make sure the vouchers you're getting are unrestricted -- that they're usable as cash on the airline or are usable for a wide range of flights. Some bump vouchers nowadays are almost unusable because they're for a strictly limited set of seats or flights. (If the voucher has blackout dates or capacity controls, stay away.) Make sure they'd be able to get you on a later flight and that you won't be stuck in the airport overnight. Then tell them that you'd like to be on the bump list. Even if you don't get bumped, you may get a drink voucher or such for volunteering. That's what happened to me on a recent flight from Seattle to New York.