AIRLINE TRAVEL Book early, or fly on holiday
Thanksgiving weekend is the heaviest travel period of the year.
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
Traveling over a holiday is always dicey. Thousands of other people have the same idea, so airline flights are a tough ticket. They're crowded, hard to book and expensive.
"The word to use for holiday travel is 'ugly.' If you haven't already bought your ticket by now, you may pay three to five times the low fares," said Tom Parsons, CEO of www.BestFares.com.
But there's an out if you're willing to be flexible: Travel on the holiday itself. Many flights are wide open that day.
Maybe you, like many others, don't want to get up early on Thanksgiving, Christmas or New Year's Day morning to board an airplane, but if it gets you to your loved ones, isn't it worth it?
Many savvy travelers think so.
"I myself travel on Thanksgiving morning," said Amy Ziff, editor-at-large of Travelocity, an online booking agency.
Thanksgiving weekend is the heaviest travel period of the year, but if you book ahead good fares still may be available, Ziff said.
Examples
In early November, for instance, a round-trip from Miami to Philadelphia leaving on Thanksgiving Day (Nov. 27) and returning Sunday (Nov. 30) was priced at $256 on American.
Similarly, flights beginning on Christmas Day also were bookable at a reasonable cost in early November. For Dec. 25-28 trips, for instance, American Airlines had a Miami-Boston round-trip priced at $260, Miami-Washington at $254, Miami-New York at $232 and Miami-San Francisco at $375.
These fares may no longer be available today. Airlines revise fares daily, raising them as a flight fills up and lowering them when reservations are light. Waiting for a better fare to show up may not work.
"We're going into the holidays with more people traveling and fewer planes," Ziff said. Her advice: "Buy ahead if you can."
Limited options
If you procrastinate or decide to travel over a holiday at the last minute, your options -- other than paying through the nose for your flights -- likely will be quite limited.
"It's possible you may see fare sales for the holiday, but not until the week before," said Parsons. Indeed, United Airlines just announced a holiday fare sale good with 50 percent off on domestic flights -- but they had to be booked by Nov. 21.
Flying out on the holiday, however, has proven to be a consistently good option for some.
"The thing to do this Thanksgiving is to get an early flight on Thanksgiving morning, be with the family for the carving of the turkey, and then return Friday or Saturday," said Peter Greenberg, travel editor of the NBC "Today" show.
"It's a win-win situation: You avoid traffic both going and coming, and the fares are good."
Unless you book well ahead of time, he said, forget about traveling on the day before the holiday or on the Sunday afterward.
Online booking
One good way to latch on to attractive fares and travel times is offered on the Internet by online booking agency Orbitz, which has two useful search programs.
Using Flex Search, prospective travelers can bracket their search to include two or three days before and after the dates they prefer to travel.
A check through Flex Search in early November found a Miami-New York round-trip departing Thanksgiving Day had attractive prices for return Friday and Saturday ($204 and $213), but for a Sunday return the price jumped to $294.
Departing Christmas Day, another Flex Search turned up a Miami-New York trip for $273 returning Dec. 27, or $233 Dec. 28, or $204 Dec. 29, Dec. 30 and Jan. 1.
Another approach uses Orbitz's Deal Detector, which serves travelers who know when they want to travel and how much they want to spend. They enter the dates and their target price, and Orbitz checks it daily and sends an e-mai when and if the price comes through.
What about using frequent flier miles to secure a holiday flight?
If your travel dates are not blacked out, you stand a good chance if you fly on the holiday itself.
"It's easier to get such flights on a holiday," said Tim Winship, publisher of www.frequentflier.com. "I've used frequent flier miles on both Thanksgiving and Christmas. In both cases, I would've preferred to fly at another time, but I was able to get a seat on the holiday."
And, Winship says, he got an added dividend flying on those days.
"Because all people working the flight were in a good mood, the whole experience was rather festive -- not what I expected. It was quite pleasurable."
Another plus, he says: "On the holiday, flights are quite light. You may get a middle seat empty next to you."