It can be stressful flying during the holiday season. The airports are crowded Tickets are expensive, and weather-related issues can lead to significant delays to flights and cancellations.
If you need to travel to another country, what is the ideal moment to travel? Scott Keyes, founder of the travel website Going.com (formerly known as Scott’s Cheap Flights) and shares his tips, including the when to avoid certain days and the most optimal timing to travel.
Do not travel during Thanksgiving or Christmas.
“It’s among the most stressful time when you travel” He says due to delays in flights as well as the crowds at airports and the cost of tickets. “My most important tip for traveling during the holiday season is to avoid travel if feasible, don’t do it.”
If you must travel during the holiday season take it on the day you have to fly.
“You will see a lot fewer travelers,” says Keyes. “And when there are fewer people on the road it means reduced fares and fewer interruptions,” including delays and cancellations. Therefore, think about booking tickets that depart and arrive Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day or New Year’s Eve. New Year’s Day.
Avoid peak travel days
For many who travel, the primary reason for traveling this season is to spend time with family for the actual day of the holiday, says Keyes. “So the most congested and crowded dates to travel will be the days prior to the Christmas season. Consider Tuesday and Wednesday prior to Thanksgiving, December 21st and 22nd and 23rd of December around the time of Christmas.”
If a delay in travel extends over a couple of days, like a storm is a quick way to ruin the trip, he says. “That’s the time when you’ll face the greatest competition other passengers” for a small number of seats when trying to change the date of the flight.
To avoid this, Keyes recommends flying a few days prior or after these times of peak travel. If you’re planning to fly on the Tuesday prior to Thanksgiving, think about taking a flight a few days before.
The month of January is the 8th day, to be exact.
If you’re able to travel in January according to Keyes. It’s likely that you will have more pleasant flight experience.
Keyes is even known to have a favorite date for the month: January. 8. He adds. “It’s my most-favorite day of the year. I put that date in the calendar due to the fact that while airfare prices are inflated in the period between Christmas and New Year beginning around January. 8 they simply drop off a cliff, from the most expensive period of the year to the lowest price.”
Prices for tickets, though “extremely unstable,” can drop 75-80 percent, he adds. For instance the nonstop round-trip ticket between Los Angeles to Tokyo from December. 22-29 is $1,996, as per Google Flights. If you take this trip from the month of Jan. 10–17, your price drops to $427, almost 80% off. If a nonstop round-trip trip between New York City to Miami beginning December. 24-January. 1 is priced at $608 and up, the price drops to $138 starting January. 9-16, which is a 77% savings.
Find a direct and early flight
“There are two kinds of flights that offer the best chance of getting you there you want to go on time, or at the very least with no major delays in the early morning hours and nonstop flights” Keyes claims. Keyes.
In the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Air Travel Consumer Report for October, flights that took place between 6-7 a.m. were able to achieve a 90% rate of departure on time as opposed to 64% for flights that run between 5-11 p.m.
In the morning, “your plane [has beenwaiting at the airport all night. It’s there, waiting to go once you arrive at the airport at the beginning of your morning flight,” he says. The afternoon flights however depend on planes coming into the area from another location and are susceptible to delays.
Direct flights benefit of having no layovers. “If you’re on a connecting flight that delays by one hour and a quarter however you had only an hour layover the next thing you know, you’ve missed your connecting flight, and you’re required to be rebooked” This isn’t something that is easy to do in the festive season.
Be prepared for possible delays to flights that could delay your arrival in the terminal. Keyes is known to carry “noise-canceling headphones as well as a small snack container, because honestly eating food at the airport isn’t particularly memorable,” he says. Keyes also likes downloading some movies and books on his iPad “just in case I have to stay at the airport for longer than I expected.”
The audio was recorded through Clare Marie Schneider. Editing the digital stories was handled by Malaka Gharib. Visual producer Kaz Fantone.
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