Thanksgiving Travel Deals 2010

Surefire Ways to Find Thanksgiving Travel Deals

Traveling during Thanksgiving is a stressful experience, to say the least. The airports and highways are packed, everyone’s are rushed and frazzled, and the weather doesn’t always cooperate. To add insult to injury, travel costs during Thanksgiving are exorbitant. To make your Thanksgiving travels a little more pleasant, research Thanksgiving travel deals and make sure that you’re getting the best deal possible.

Book Early

Although it’s possible to find great Thanksgiving travel deals at the last minute, there’s never any guarantee that you will. If you want to snag the lowest prices, your best bet is to book early. As Thanksgiving nears, prices gradually increase, so start searching for Thanksgiving travel deals several months in advance and book before mid-September, when prices typically go up. By booking early, you’ll be able to take advantage of holiday sales.

Avoid the Most Popular Thanksgiving Travel Dates and Times

Thanksgiving takes place in the US on the fourth Thursday of November. Most people prefer to travel on Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday, and then return home on the Sunday or Monday after Thanksgiving. As a result, hotel rates and airfares are typically the most expensive on these days. If you want to find cheap Thanksgiving travel deals, travel on Thanksgiving Day and return home on Friday or Saturday. You can also save by taking red-eye flights or early morning flights. Just avoid taking mid-day flights because they’re the most expensive.

Fly to and from Alternative Airports

To save on airfare and find the best Thanksgiving travel deals, be flexible about the airports you fly to and from. Although the big hubs typically have the best prices, there are some exceptions. You may be able to find better prices on airfare by flying out of a smaller airport or an airport that is slightly further away from where you live. For example, if you live near Washington DC, you may find that flying out of Baltimore is more affordable. If you’re flying into New York, you may find that it’s cheaper to fly into Newark, New Jersey rather than directly into the Big Apple.

Buy Flights One at a Time

If you’re traveling as a family, don’t buy all of your tickets at the same time; buy them one at a time to ensure that you’re getting the best deal on each seat. For example, say you’re a family of five. If a flight has only one seat with a low fare left and the rest of the seats have higher fares, the airline won’t combine the low fare and the high fares if you book all five flights at the same time. They will just book five seats with the same, higher price.

Change the Date That You Celebrate Thanksgiving

This might be too drastic of a move for some, but if you want to find the best Thanksgiving travel deals, changing the day you celebrate Thanksgiving and then adjusting your travel dates accordingly may provide the best bargains. So, instead of having Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday, you could have it on Friday or Saturday. That way, you can fly to your destination on Thanksgiving Day itself (Thursday) and then fly back home the following Tuesday. The week after Thanksgiving (after everyone flies home on Sunday and Monday) is considered one of the slowest periods of the year in the travel industry, so prices are at all time lows, both for airfare and hotel.