If you haven’t made travel plans for the holidays, here are a few suggestions:
The four-day Thanksgiving weekend is one of the year’s peak travel times for short-haul airline flights. You probably will have a tough time finding seats on Nov. 24, the morning of Nov. 25, Nov. 28 and the morning of Nov. 29. If you want to fly on those dates, book immediately.
If you can’t find a low fare to your first-choice airport, see if anything is available to a field nearby: Newark instead of New York, Baltimore instead of Washington, Midway instead of O’Hare International Airport, Oakland instead of San Francisco.
On the other hand, the Friday and Saturday of the Thanksgiving weekend can be slow days for the airlines. In earlier years, some have run “sales” for travel on those days, or at least waived the usual advance-purchase or Saturday-night-stay restrictions. And long-haul seats can be plentiful. I recall one transcontinental non-stop on the Friday after Thanksgiving when I was one of four paying passengers on a 747.
Traveling for Christmas or New Year’s could be especially tough this year because of the calendar. Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve fall on Fridays, and many workers will get either or both Fridays off.
I expect low-fare seats to be scarce on both sets of Thursdays, Fridays, Sundays and Mondays. If you want to travel on those dates, start looking immediately and be prepared to take what you can get. If you can be flexible, I’m guessing that you’ll find a better choice of seats on Dec. 28 and 29.
Seats also may be a bit easier to find on Christmas and New Year’s Day. I once flew from London to Los Angeles on New Year’s Day on a 747 that carried 50 people. Of course, I missed a lot of bowl games.
Keep in mind that failure to find a seat at the lowest advertised price doesn’t mean you’ll have to pay the exorbitant full coach or economy fare. On most routes the airlines have several levels of excursion fares. You may find the seat you want by moving up one price level.
For accommodations, as always, the best percentage deals are at big-city hotels that normally cater to business travelers. Because business travel virtually dries up over major holiday weeks, these hotels often offer a range of “sale” rates and holiday packages.
Call the hotel directly and ask about its holiday deals or have a travel agent scout the options. You should find plenty of vacancies. That recommendation isn’t confined to hotels in the United States. You’ll find holiday deals in major European cities too.
You’ll run into stiff competition for accommodations in prime resort areas: Get moving on reservations immediately.
If you have trouble finding seats or rooms, consider a tour package, though you may pay more, especially on programs for which the list price goes up during holiday weeks. Even so, a simple air-plus-room package often can be a good deal.
