Whether you are traveling for work or pleasure during the next three months, be aware of this: Millions of Americans will fly somewhere for Thanksgiving this year—and for many of them the search for flights will begin this week. “Last year we saw a spike in flight-related searches for Thanksgiving dates starting in mid-October,” according to Matt Kayala, Insights Engineer at Google Flights.
Here are some year-end travel tips from Google for the year-end business traveler and advice for holiday traveling, as well.
1. Avoid the busiest travel days.
Travel is bad enough. You don’t want the added hassle of long lines at the airport, flight delays or cancellations. Americans are pretty predictable when it comes to Thanksgiving travel plans—flight searches over the last two years indicate that Friday Nov. 17, Wednesday Nov. 22 and Sunday Nov. 26 will be the busiest days to fly, so pick other travel days if possible.
2. Prepare for (or avoid) these airports.
If you’ll be traveling domestically, be aware that airports in the U.S. cities shown on the map above tend to be the busiest. If it’s an option to consider alternate airports, Google Flights can help you identify other more affordable options that are close to your destination. Just tap on “airports” in the flight insights bar and move the map icon to see the closest airport to your final destination.
3. Book your flights before expected price increases.
Flight prices often rise 21, 14 and 7 days in advance of travel dates. For example, if you’re looking at a departure date of November 23, you can expect significant increases in flight prices on Nov. 1, Nov. 8 and again on Nov. 15. So make sure to book your Thanksgiving flights by the end of October to get a better deal.
Bonus: A tip from some of our users who are travel warriors.
The period between Thanksgiving and Christmas is a good time for business travel. Family travel tends to be at a low-point and the holiday activities at home keep some people on the ground. Need an empty seat next to you? Check out the first couple of weeks in December.
VIA | Google Flights
illustrations: Google, photos: istock