It might only be September, but now is the time to start planning your holiday travels. If you need to travel for Thanksgiving or Christmas, you could end up paying a pretty penny last minute. Start researching now to find the cheapest flights to your destination.
Choosing Destination
Thanksgiving and Christmas is usually the time you want to spend with family. So the first thing you need to do is figure out if you want a traditional family holiday, spend it with friends or go solo on a vacation. There are many places that offer deals around the holidays, but also beware of airlines raising their prices this time of year. It is also important to think about the weather. Do you live in a place where you could potentially run into delayed flights? Or are you flying to a destination where the weather might be bad? This will make you think twice about not purchasing extra insurance for tickets.
Finding Flights
After you have decided where you want to go for the holidays, the next step is to find the cheapest flights. Remember, some airlines might raise the prices during the holidays and they are known to do this last minute. This is why you want to start researching as soon as possible so you can compare prices and keep an eye on them for a few weeks to see if they change. You might not want to book anything this early on unless you find a deal you cannot beat. But you don’t want to wait too long. If you plan on going somewhere for Thanksgiving, try to get your tickets by the end of September. It is unlikely that prices will drop any lower in the weeks after. If you plan on flying for Christmas, try to get tickets in the beginning of November. You might think that prices will go down for Black Friday, but prices for Christmas flights are highly unlikely to lower the closer you get to December.
Prepping for Trip
After you have your tickets booked, you can start prepping for your trip. Keep in mind that Thanksgiving and Christmas are usually the busiest time of the year for airports. Plan to arrive in plenty of time, maybe even earlier than planned to the airport. The airport might be experiencing large crowds in the security section or weather delays could be causing issues. Check the flight status ahead of time and make sure to arrive plenty of time to get through security and board the plane without any issues. It all depends where you are flying out. Smaller airports usually aren’t that hectic, but larger airports in big cities are going to busy and crowded.
Categories: Travel, Travel Tips
