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Best Dates for Holiday Travel 2007 Print
Thursday, 1st November 2007 (by J.D.)This article is about Money Hacks, Travel
I hate flying. Not only am I scared of the actual air travel (yes, really), but I don’t like the crowds and, especially, the cost. Flying during the holiday season is a special class of hell. One Get Rich Slowly reader recently forward this handy travel calendar from Hotwire.com:
If you must travel over the holiday season, your best bet is to stick close to the green dates. Flights are cheaper and less crowded. The red dates should be avoided, if possible. (Yellow dates feature large crowds, but moderate prices.) The reader who sent this info also wrote:
My favorite piece of advice is to travel on the day of a holiday, particularly if you are traveling East to West or it’s only a short distance. I’ve made Christmas dinner that way before now. Also, with Christmas falling on a Tuesday this year, people could save money by traveling on Christmas Eve which is usually an expensive day. More people will likely make a long weekend of it and travel before Christmas Eve this year.
Our flight to London and back in July killed any desire I had to fly elsewhere else this year. Maybe we’ll go see Kris’ family for Christmas 2008. (I’ve never used Hotwire, by the way. How does it compare to other travel sites?)
Calendar image reprinted with permission.
November 1st, 2007 at 11:41 am
If you are no longer a student and bound by school breaks, and you don’t need to travel for certain holidays, mid October and mid February are the cheapest times of the year to fly. Incredible deals during those times - I’m talking about $800 for a normally $1400 international flight.
-Raymond
November 1st, 2007 at 11:41 am
What are the yellow suitcases for?
November 1st, 2007 at 11:43 am
Heh. I knew I shouldn’t have edited out the key to this calendar.
I’ll edit the post to make the info clearer.
November 1st, 2007 at 11:47 am
p.s. I just realized that the link to Hotwire looks like an affiliate link. It’s not. But when I contacted them for permission to use the calendar image, they asked me to use a tracking URL. As always, I never post paid content here.
November 1st, 2007 at 12:04 pm
You’re not the only one who’s scared of air travel JD. I’m a wreck during take-off and on any kind of more-than-mild turbulence. Oddly enough, landings are ok for me. It’s not logical but there you have it.
November 1st, 2007 at 12:36 pm
I use Hotwire quite often for hotel deals, occasionally for car rentals. Additionally, I combine my Hotwire bookings with Upromise, so I get a percentage back toward my daughter’s Upromise school savings.
I rarely travel on a flexible schedule so I miss out on many of the benefits of booking my air travel that way but their hotel deals can be quite good. Their four- and five-star hotel deals have saved me hundreds of dollars, allowing me to stay in prime locations and luxury hotels for little more than I’d pay at a Holiday Inn or worse in a less-appealing area of whatever city I was visiting.
November 1st, 2007 at 1:09 pm
Kayak.com is a pretty good fare checking web site. I used it when I had to fly coast-to-coast suddenly for a family emergency, and got pretty good deals on two one-way tickets using it. (Not dirt cheap, but buying one-ways the day before you leave can get ugly.)
November 1st, 2007 at 1:10 pm
i managed to find tickets on aa.com with no stop between stl and dc for what i thought were great prices on red calendar days. for those of us with family at a distance, what little vacation we receive seems to be used visiting them and spread out through the year.
also, i’m a BIG fan of dramamine…
November 1st, 2007 at 1:13 pm
I’m going to sound like the biggest freak ever, but I love flying and don’t mind airports at all.
Two years ago, I went to New York for the first time and got stuck in that ‘largest blizzard since 1850-something’. Flights were all cancelled. Hotels were booked. People had to spend the night in the airport! The airport was mayhem once they resumed flights. Yet, erm, strangely enough, I loved it. Not a sadistic joy of others suffering, but fun enjoying the experience.
November 1st, 2007 at 1:26 pm
The best thing I’ve found to conquer my (former) fear of flying was to travel with someone who LOVED to fly. Planes and airports made him excited, and he could explain to me why the plane was acting the way it was: “Just got bumpy, we’re going over mountains.” “The pilot is storm dodging!” etc etc. Very interesting stuff, really, and my confidence in planes has gone up 100% and I’m now good to fly places on my own without that stomach-dropping feeling I used to get when we’d hit turbulence. Now it’s more like, “Wheeee!”
I also use kayak.com to seek out low fares when I know my travel dates, but I always buy tickets through the airline’s site.
November 1st, 2007 at 1:36 pm
for anyone concerned about price, Hotwire can be a fantastic resource. i live in NYC without a car, so travel costs tend to be pretty steep. but renting cars through Hotwire has saved me hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars over the years as I can routinely get prices of about $30/day. i also just cut a hotel bill in half for a wedding in Baltimore using Hotwire and have used it for air travel a couple of times with good results.
it does have a few rules, however, that make it less than ideal for some circumstances. for instance:
* you can only pick up rental cars from airport locations. this can be a little inconvenient if you’re not flying in (the trip to LGA from my house via subway/bus takes an hour).
* you do not get to see the name of the hotel/rental car company ahead of time - only after you have booked and paid (and there are no refunds). this has never been an issue for me, as they use all the name brands that you’re used to, but for someone with specific likes or who wants to take advantage of a reward program, this would be a drawback.
* for some of their best rates, you do not get to choose the exact time of your flight. they only say that you will get a departure between 6am and 10pm with 0-1 stops each way. great if you’ve got some flexibility, bad if you need to know exact times. of course, with the state of air travel these days, you can never rely on departure or arrival times anyway!
November 1st, 2007 at 1:57 pm
If you want to save money on flights, start checking fares early and often. Airfarewatchdog.com, kayak.com, cheaptickets.com, lastminute.com, and lots of other sites will point you to good deals. Check at least two or three. When you find the fare you like, it’s usually cheapest to book through the airline’s website. Most search sites charge extra to book the fare (in some cases, $100s more - I’ve seen some huge discrepancies on Orbitz for example).
If you buy your tickets 3-4 months in advance you can pretty much always get a darn good price. If you have a higher risk tolerance, and you’re flexible with dates, there is often a window (about six weeks out) when airlines start bringing prices down. Airfarewatchdog’s Q&A section has lots of good tips on this sort of thing.
The key thing is checking everyday for at least a week and jumping on a good fare if you find one. There is huge variation from day to day, in my experience.
November 1st, 2007 at 2:07 pm
I recently booked a flight — east coast to west on 11/17 and back on 11/23. It’s the cheapest coast-to-coast flight I’ve ever booked. Of course if I had wanted to come back on 11/24 it would have been several hundred dollars more. I’ll just have to brace myself for the crowds — I’m not a fan eithere, but this time around, the cost difference is making it worth while to me (it doesn’t always).
November 1st, 2007 at 2:30 pm
Flying is fine, airports and crowds and all that racket are the trouble….it’s way more scary to ride my bike each day.
November 1st, 2007 at 2:34 pm
Drat! I’m flying on red-suitcase days for Christmas! I travel cross-country every year to see my family - it’s one event that is Not To Be Missed. However, the good thing is that I got my ticket for about $300 in March, and it’s long paid-for. The bad thing is that I just checked my flight times and I somehow have 17 minutes between planes on the way back!
November 1st, 2007 at 3:18 pm
“More people will likely make a long weekend of it and travel before Christmas Eve this year.”
I sure hope so. I’m traveling on Christmas Eve because I don’t have a choice. Which is probably why those days are always busy. We’re coming back on the train, though, which ought to be relaxing.
November 1st, 2007 at 4:40 pm
Try to imagine yourself flying the plane. For some odd reason, that always calms me down.
I think most people are really intimidated by the crowds and confinement more than anything. So I’m saving up for NetJets.
November 1st, 2007 at 7:52 pm
I lived in Japan for 3 years and had to fly back and forth all the time. After flying so much I rarely get scared anymore, only when there is moderate turbulence. I just don’t like being exhausted from all the flying because I don’t sleep well on planes.
We just got great rates on flights from Las Vegas to Boston, Boston to Cleveland, and Cleveland back to Vegas, for our Christmas/New Years trip. We’re flying to Boston on the 23rd (Sunday), which actually was like $100 less for each ticket than flying on either Christmas eve or the 22nd (Saturday). Go figure! We got the tickets directly from the airline and it was cheaper than Expedia.
I have used Priceline to buy hotel rooms. I have had good luck most of the time. You usually get a decent room at a much cheaper price.
November 1st, 2007 at 10:26 pm
I think the best day to return after thanksgiving is Black Friday. Everyone is out shopping and no one is on the planes. Last year I made my vacation from the Friday before thanksgiving until the day after it and it worked awesomely.
November 2nd, 2007 at 6:30 am
[...] Best Dates for Holiday Travel 2007 If you’re planning on flying this holiday season, this is some worthwhile information to know. (@ get rich slowly) [...]
November 2nd, 2007 at 7:21 am
If you’re a student, I’d recommend studentuniverse.com. It’s been far cheaper than any other prices I’ve seen for the last 4 flights I took, and 3 of those were international (<400 one-way Zurich-Chicago last year!) They even have deals for the little regional airports that always seem to have the worst fares. Otherwise, if you’re not traveling that far, why not see if there is a bus or train? It’s probably about the same time commitment when you factor in getting to the airport early and tracking down your luggage.
November 2nd, 2007 at 10:06 am
A few years ago we got a great deal in Hawaii and flew out on Christmas Day. The airport seemed practically empty, although the plane was mostly full - not stuffed to the gills though. On another trip we flew to San Francisco on December 26th - another good day without heavy crowds - and returned on New year’s Eve - yet another pleasant flight. I may be shooting myself in the foot here, but if you can travel on the holiday itself, it seems to be a good day. One caution is that many of the services in the airport will be closed or on reduced staff for the holiday, so getting food or a rental car may take a bit longer than normal. You won’t spend time standing in a long line, so it evens out.
November 2nd, 2007 at 12:51 pm
I did that last Christmas, and it was a surprisingly pleasant holiday. Christmas morning with the parents in Chicago, Christmas night with the in-laws in Dallas. My kids loved it.
November 2nd, 2007 at 1:07 pm
I used to love to fly even when there were delays or other problems. These days, I hate flying .. the days of a carry on and no checked baggage are over unless you want to deal with harassment.
Buying the correct travel size liquid containers is not cost effective and for some reason any of the “travel size” containers I’ve bought and filled myself have broken and caused a mess (thank goodness for ziploc bags!)
If you forget and pack your correct travel size items in that pretty bag Auntie Martha made for you as a way to show her you’re actually using it, you get a stern talking to for not having all personal items viewable in a see through bag. (Doesn’t the nature of “personal items” mean that they are personal and not for the general publics’ viewing pleasure?)
With airline cutbacks, you are not always offered refreshments once on board. Yet, you cannot bring liquid in from the outside so if you care for anything to eat or drink, you are pretty much forced to spend $12 for a can of coke and a stale sandwich.
I could go on - but the point is that the list of rules is ridiculous and is ever changing. You almost have to have a degree in airline travel or be perfectly happy taking nothing more than a book with you in flight and waiting around for an hour or two to pick up the rest of your belongings to avoid other problems. Add to that the stress and frustration of both travelers and airline workers who are both becoming impossible to deal with rationally and you’ve got one huge problem.
November 2nd, 2007 at 2:23 pm
I have to second (or third) kayak.com as a great way to find cheap tickets. It’s like the google of travel sites. It is simply a search engine of hotwire, expedia, orbitz, about 40+ sites in total. I travel frequently for work and use the site often which explains my enthusiasm.
November 3rd, 2007 at 5:28 am
[...] shares tip from Hotwire about the best holiday travel days for [...]
November 7th, 2007 at 11:26 am
I used hotwire on our family vacation to oregon+seatle+vancouver, and all the hotels we got were dumps. Hotwire doesn’t tell you what hotel you will get until they take your money (your credit card number). That was four years ago and I still have not heard the last of it from my wife and kids complaining about the hotels we stayed in. There was a CSI Las Vegas episode where the CSI guy commented the dead tourist probably booked using one of those online site where they don’t tell you what hotel you will get until you pay. So I definitely urge everyone not to use hotwire, not worth it, no matter how cheap they are.
November 15th, 2007 at 1:47 pm
The morning of the actual holiday is usually a good bet.
December 26th, 2007 at 2:59 pm
[...] Get Rich Slowly - Best Dates For Holiday Travel 2007 [...]