Holiday travel hack: How to avoid lines, high ticket prices | Cruising Altitude

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This year I’m foregoing the turkey and will be in the air on Thanksgiving Day instead.

I’ve done this kind of thing before. A few years ago, I flew home from a Christmas gathering on Christmas Day, and I’m just going to say it: If you have the flexibility and tenuous enough family obligations to do so, traveling on the actual day of a holiday is an excellent and wallet-friendly choice.

The data backs me up, too. 

The Federal Aviation Administration said there are more flights scheduled for the Wednesday before Thanksgiving (49,606 in the U.S.) this year than there were in 2019. In comparison, only 38,351 flights are on the calendar for Thanksgiving Day.

At a time when air traffic controllers are struggling to handle high volumes of traffic, it’s worth considering traveling on those lower-volume days if you can.

Is it cheaper to fly on a holiday?

Demand for plane tickets famously picks up during holiday season. Thanksgiving often ranks as the busiest travel weekend of the year, and local TV stations can do their annual coverage of annoyed passengers standing in long TSA lines the night before the feast.

But on actual Thanksgiving, Thursday, Nov. 23, things are different, and airlines have less incentive to charge high prices. 

According to Expedia, flights on Thanksgiving day are 11% cheaper than the average ticket prices on other days of the same week, and airports are 45% less busy.

Bargains are less available on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in comparison. But Expedia said New Year’s Eve is an especially unpopular time to travel, and flyers can save as much as 14% compared to other days in the same week. Traveling on New Year’s Day, however, only saves you about 9% on airfare compared to other peak-period days, and then you have to deal with a hangover at altitude. 

Are airports crowded on holidays?

Deals aren’t the only benefit to traveling on holidays, either. If you find airports and their associated crowds stressful, you can avoid them by catching a flight on a holiday.

“If you look at Thanksgiving, the Wednesday, and then the Thursday, it’s half the number of travelers on the Thursday,” Christie Hudson, Expedia’s head of public relations for the U.S. told me. “People do not take advantage of the savings and the lack of crowds you can get by traveling on the holiday itself.” 

Expedia’s data shows that crowds are lower during Christmas and New Year’s Eve, too. Their research shows airports are 43% less crowded on Christmas Day than the Friday before Christmas, and 33% less crowded on New Year’s Eve compared to the Friday before.

A number of people responded to a callout I posted on social media, saying they appreciated the smaller crowds on holidays, too.

“Flying Christmas Day is one of life’s true great hacks,” one X user posted.

Are things open in the airport on holidays?

If you’re like me and absolutely insist on buying a bag of Snyder’s of Hanover mini pretzels and a bottle of SmartWater from Hudson News before every flight, this is a big concern. But Hudson (the Expedia rep, not the store) told me not to worry – it’s more relaxed but otherwise a normal day at the airport.

Last week’s Cruising Altitude: What are the cloudy lines behind planes? I was on a NASA flight researching them.

“I have traveled on Christmas many, many, many times,” she said. “My husband’s family is from Texas, and we would do Christmas with my family (in Seattle), and then Christmas day, you open your presents in the morning, and then instead of being depressed for the rest of the day, you get on the airplane and go do Christmas number two, and it’s actually really lovely.” 

Hudson said the airport is more relaxed without the huge crush of stressed holiday travelers, and she said airport workers usually seem calmer and happier to be there than even on a regular travel day.

“It’s just a nicer vibe,” she said. 

Zach Wichter is a travel reporter for USA TODAY based in New York. You can reach him at zwichter@usatoday.com