If you’re planning to fly home for the holidays this year, it’s time to start booking your flight. Even though fares are cheaper than they were last year, prices have been going up over the fast few weeks, according to a report in USA Today. Thanksgiving prices are down around 7%, with the Christmas/New Year’s season down 12% from last year. Since the travel market is still limping along, you may be able to pick up some deals. To get the most for your money, though, you’ll need to put in a little bit of effort.
1. Turkey over ham:Priceline.com puts the average price for a Thanksgiving ticket booked from July 1 to October 1, 2009 at $361. For the December holidays, the average was $440. Opting for the closer holiday thus can save you a few bucks.
2. Don’t be demanding: if you have the elbow room to choose different dates around the holiday (maybe visit mom and dad a little longer), you can trim a few dollars from your fare – in particular the new $10 (each way) surcharge that some major airlines are applying to flights from November 29 to 30 and December 19, 26-27 and January 2 and 3. Being flexible on airports might nab you a better deal, as well.
3. Visit, don’t move in: we’re all familiar with the extra baggage fees that airlines have come to enjoy rely on. Cut your load down to the essentials. Doing your laundry on your parents’ dime may be easier and cheaper than the local laundry dive, but your savings may disappear if you try to drag it all on the plane.
4. Use your computer: check in at home or work. The lines will be crazy at the airport anyway, so you’re actually paying yourself to have an easier trip. If this isn’t win-win defined, I don’t know what is.
5. Save a little, not a lot: pounce on reasonable fares. If you try to wait for the deal of the year, you could be stuck paying much more than you wanted. Pay a little more than you may want to pick up some predictability.
It’s time. The worst travel day of the year is upon us, the sun has risen and it’s time to get the shit kicked out of you at the airport. Have you got your passport? Did you sleep well last night?
Go through the rituals before you leave your house: passport and wallet, left pocket. Phone, right pocket. Laptop, charger, soap, jacket, headphones, book. Got a ride into the office and a ride to airport at lunch. Head to the airport empowered, take the bull by the horns and charge straight into the chaos with no fear.
You’ve got a great flight, great weather and great family and friends to binge on this weekend, so leave your stress at the door, get to the airport early and revel in the true beauty of travel, people moving, talking, sliding, shifting into new places and new times, the science and flow of departures and arrivals.
Every single one of us at Gadling will be out there with you, somewhere in the terminal or on the road, waiting in lines, collecting data, drinking sake at the airport bar, occupying the lav. We’ll be with you all of the way. We promise.
It’s going to be a great weekend. Safe travels to all of you,
I’ve written to you before and now I have another question. So I’ve told you that we’re traveling w/ our one-year old next month. No car seat, etc. Are there any sneaky ways to insure that we could get an ’empty’ seat for her???? I think currently we have it booked so my husband gets the window seat and I get the aisle. We thought that might work as nobody would want to sit in the middle of us. But, I’m sure they’ll have to put a single traveler in the middle. We’re leaving on the 26th of December w/ American Airlines. I’m sure it will be busy, but what do you think?
Thanks so much! Marlo
Dear Marlo,
I remember your question, as my answer did get quite a rise out of many Gadling readers, especially those who do what I do for a living. Flight attendants everywhere scolded me for telling you that it was okay to travel without the car seat, even though I did point out that it was much safer to book the extra seat and take the car seat along with you. For those of you who missed that one, here’s a link to Galley Gossip: a question about traveling with car seats and strollers. If you’ll be traveling with kids during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday season, make sure to check it out, along with Galley Gossip: The best invention for kids on the airplane – CARES,
As for scoring a middle seat, Marlo, I think you did all that you can do, as that’s exactly what I would have told you to do – book the aisle and window and leave the middle seat open. Remember, you are traveling during one of the busiest holidays of the year, so if the flight is not full, it’s probably getting there. I have yet to work an empty flight this year. Since the back of the airplane is a lot less desirable than the front (and also bumpier if there’s turbulence) you could move your seats to the rear of the aircraft, cross your fingers, and pray no one wants to sit that close to the toilet. It’s your best bet. I’d also like to point out that there are going to be mostly other families traveling during the holiday season, so that single traveler sitting between you and your husband is probably not a single traveler at all, but a traveler displaced from their family, a traveler who is praying he or she can get you to move to another seat! So be patient. Be kind. And remember, holiday travel is never fun. Unless you can just relax and go with the flow.
Your question brought back a memory from long ago, so there’s one more thing I’d like to mention. If you do decide to book the aisle and window seats, leaving the middle seat open in an attempt to score the extra room, remember that middle seat passengers are people too. Please, do not talk over the unfortunate person who ends up getting stuck between the two of you. And please, do not pass things over the person, particularly food, even if you think that person is sleeping. Twice I’ve awoken to loud voices, crumbs in my lap, and my magazine gone after getting stuck between two people traveling together. For more information on what you should and should not do concerning the middle seat, check out my other post, Middle Seat Etiquette.
Happy Travels
Heather Poole
Have a tip when traveling with kids? Post a comment below. I’d love to hear from you.
For me to get home for Thanksgiving, I’m lucky enough to only have to take Amtrak. Even though train stations are popping at the seams with travelers during the November holiday weekend, airports are even worse. And this year is no different.
As a matter of fact, during this year’s Thanksgiving and Christmas travel periods, airlines will operate about 2,500 to 3,000 fewer domestic flights than compared with the same periods in previous years. That means that one way or another, you’re probably going to be affected. To visualize just how your travel plans might be impacted, USA Today’s travel blog Today in the Sky has put together an interactive graphic to show how flight cutbacks by airlines could affect your travel choices.
The graphic can be used to find flight changes for select days from every domestic airport with flights to the following seven hubs: Atlanta, Charlotte, Chicago O’Hare, Dallas/Fort Worth, Denver, Houston (Bush) and Minneapolis-St. Paul. The map is dotted with red and green squares to signify fewer or more flights to the hub, making it pretty simple to see what routes are going to be more problematic. But if you’re lucky, you’ll find that your particular route has that great green box, meaning that you’ll actually be able to take advantage of more flights to get you home for the holidays.
To check out the graphic for yourself, click here.
Wow, it’s here again. The holiday season so loved for the time off and family visits and so feared for miserable travel experiences. During no other time of the year are loads so high, people so anxious to get home and weather patterns so unfortunate.
But things are different this year. You’ve got Gadling on your side, watching the travel radar, ear to the ground, listening to low fares and proofreading your travel itinerary. Follow these ten tips below to make your holiday travel awesome. Buy your Ticket Early
If you haven’t already purchased your ticket, do it now. Right now. The earlier you buy your ticket the less expensive and the better routing you’ll get. That means more money for hard liquor and fewer layovers that could cause delays. Plan your Route
Any layovers on your way home are an opportunity for disaster. It might be nice in Tuscon, but once you land in Chicago on your way to Charlotte, the snowstorm of this millennium may hit the city and you could be stuck for days. So if you absolutely have to take a layover, try to make it in Atlanta instead of Minneapolis.
Similarly, highest load times are the days before and after Thanksgiving and Christmas, so if you want to avoid the heaviest crowds, travel the day before, after or (godforbid) the day OF. Get to the Airport Early
I can’t stress this enough. Everyone and their mother is going to be at the airport the day before Thanksgiving, security lines are going to be out the front door and the ticket line will be longer. Get there at least three hours before your flight and bring some reading material in your carry on (see below.)
In fact, get a ride to the Airport
All of those people in line at security and Starbucks got to the airport somehow. Chances are they’re parked in the last available spot at the cheapo-park. Call your best friend, bring over a case of beer and ask them to drive your family to the airport. As a bonus they’ll get a relieving kick of happiness when they pull out of departures and see you heading into pure bedlam inside.
Know your Baggage Allowance
Things aren’t the same as they were last year when you went home for Thanksgiving. Airline fees are everywhere, and chances are if you’re checking bags you need to pony up some cash at the ticket counter. Check your airline’s website to see what your quotas are, and if necessary, combine your bags into one checked or even one carry on bag. At the very worst, make sure you have twenty bucks in your bank account before you show up at the airport with a couple of carryons.
Engineer your Carry-on
If you must check bags, bring a carry on that contains important items for your time in transit. Prepare yourself for the worst case scenario, being stuck overnight or marooned in a foreign place for a long duration of time. Keep the things on you that will keep you functioning in a bind.
Mobile phone / laptop charger
Toothbrush & toothpaste
Fiction
Socks & underwear
Why “fiction,” you ask? Because in the event that you do get stuck somewhere overnight, you’re going to want something long and easy to read with you, not a periodical that will get old after two hours or something difficult that’s going to further stress you out.
Know your Airport
There are a lot of quiet corners to take a nap (try the chapel if you’re in a bind) internet hotspots and accoutrements available to you in the right airports. Take a walk around if you’ve got some spare time, figure out when the Chili’s closes and stock up for a long stay if you’re stuck for a while.
Join a Lounge
Most airlines have membership lounges that you can puchase day passes to. The $20-30 fee will usually get you free snacks, wireless internet a comfortable place to hang out and often some free booze. Any day of the week this might be a so-so deal, but when the airport is chocked full of screaming kids and is 95°, it’s totally worth it.
Don’t be afraid to wander into a lounge and ask either. Those agents behind the desk inside are paid to glare at you, but they’re also paid to sell you a day pass if their employer offers one. What you’re wearing, class of service (with exceptions that you probably don’t need to worry about,) what you paid for your ticket and who you’re with doesn’t matter either, so don’t feel excluded on that qualification.
Have your Airline and Hotel Phone Numbers Available
When your flight gets canceled and the line at the ticket desk backs up to Narnia, the only difference between YOU and Mr. Rill getting the last seat out to Ft. Lauderdale is who gets to the ticket agent first. If you’re in the back of the line, call the airline, give them your record locator ask to get rebooked and have a smoke while Mr. Rill waits in line.
Count your Kids
Hey, you wouldn’t be the first family to leave a child at home.