Some booked over the summer. Others are just thinking about it. And still others will book last minute, or just stay home. But if you’re even thinking about holiday flying and haven’t booked, now is a good time to start.
There’s no getting around it: flying during peak holiday periods is more expensive than other times of the year. And the question on everyone’s lips is “When’s the best time to buy?” Airfarewatchgod.com has been in the fare-finding business for almost a decade, and, other than staying home, the following is our best advice for making the best of a challenging situation.
1. If you care where you sit on the plane, the time of day you fly, and whether it’s a connecting flight or a nonstop, book sooner rather than later. The most desirable flight times will sell out first, and only middle seats next to the lavatory will be left if you wait too long, leaving you with the red-eye flights or 5 a.m. departures.
2. Flying on Thanksgiving, Christmas Day and New Year’s Day will be cheaper.
3. Flying overseas will be a relative bargain compared to flying domestically, at least on some routes. Some fares (New York or Chicago to Dublin for example) might even be cheaper than for domestic trips.
4. Business class fares to Europe will also be a relative bargain compared to other times of the year. Delta, Air France, SAS and other airlines typically lower international business class for travel over the holidays, because business travelers stay home during the holidays and seats go empty.
5. Check alternate airports. Flying on Frontier to Trenton, N.J. may be cheaper than on United to Newark or on US Airways to Philadelphia; flying into London Gatwick may be cheaper than into London Heathrow, etc.
6. Don’t fall for the myth that searching for airfares on Tuesday will get you the lowest fare; that’s airfare voodoo. Airlines can lower fares any day of the week. Search several times a day, every day of the week.
7. If you’ve searched for holiday airfares and gave up because they were too expensive, it doesn’t hurt to search a couple of weeks before the holidays to see what’s left in the “bargain bin.” Airlines try to soak us for as much as possible and then put the remaining seats on sale last minute (but again, they’ll be the worst seats and schedules).
8. If fares are $500 or more where you’re going, consider using airline miles or points, if seats are available.
9. Search on Southwest.com, FlyFrontier.com and SpiritAir.com and separately from Kayak, Expedia, etc. Those airlines put their best fares (or their only fares in the case of Southwest) on their own websites.
10. Investigate package deals. Some air/hotel packages use cheaper airfares than you’ll find on Kayak and so on.
11. Fly someplace cheap. If you aren’t visiting family but just want to get away, you’ll do better flying where there’s a lot of airline competition. That would be places like Nashville, Vegas, Chicago and Los Angeles, which for various reasons have a lot of airline capacity.
Nedra Rhone’s Bargain Hunter columns returns next week.
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