ATLANTA — Travel experts say if you’re planning to fly somewhere during the holidays, the time to find a good deal is likely gone.
Airline tickets will be considerably higher this year and prices are only going to climb between now and the end of the December.
On a relatively quiet day at the Atlanta airport, passenger LaTonya Polk was among those preparing for a trip to Las Vegas. Her plan was to travel somewhere to visit family sometime over the holidays but hasn’t made up her mind when or where, so buying an airline ticket will have to wait.
“That’s my next goal when I come back next week, is to decide whether I’m going to go home for Thanksgiving or Christmas,” said Polk. “I need to decide quickly.”
Indeed she does.
Laurie Garrow, an expert in aviation and travel behavior at Georgia Tech explained to 11Alive the rule of buying tickets a month before travel changed with the pandemic.
“This year, because there’s so many people traveling, that timeline is extended to six weeks, to two months, to even longer in advance,” she said.
The booking site Hopper projects the average airline ticket for Thanksgiving travel will be 19% higher than a year ago. Christmas travel will cost 40% more.
Garrow said the best thing to do now is travel during off-peak times.
“If you’re traveling for Thanksgiving for instance, usually the Sunday after Thanksgiving is when everybody wants to fly in,” she said. “So if you’re able to move your return date to maybe the Monday after Thanksgiving or even the Saturday, you may be able to get cheaper fares.”
The days to avoid travel are the Wednesday before and the Sunday after Thanksgiving. For Christmas, avoid the Thursday and Friday before (Dec. 22 and 23) and the Monday and Tuesday after (Dec. 26 and 27).
Consider flying on the actual holiday.
There are ways to ease the pain in your wallet, but the longer you wait to book, the more pain there will be.