Vacation journey

Updated October 29, 2025 at 14:58 PM ET

This story was initially printed on Nov. 13, 2023, and has been up to date.

It’s aggravating to fly across the holidays. Airports are packed, tickets are costly and dangerous climate could cause important flight delays and cancellations.

So, for those who have to journey, is there an optimum time to take action? Scott Keyes, founding father of the journey website Going.com (previously often known as Scott’s Cheap Flights), shares his suggestions, together with days to keep away from and one of the best time of day to fly.

Don’t journey forward of Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Eve

“It’s one of the worst times to travel,” he says, attributable to flight disruptions, crowds on the airport and ticket costs. “My secret, best advice for travel over the holidays is: If at all possible, just don’t do it.”

If it’s a must to fly for the vacations, do it on the day itself

“You just see far fewer people traveling then,” says Keyes. “And with fewer people, you can see lower fares and fewer disruptions,” together with delays and cancelations. So take into consideration reserving tickets to depart or arrive on Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day.

Avoid peak journey days

For quite a lot of people, the entire level of touring throughout this time of 12 months is to be with household on the precise vacation, says Keyes. “The few days before and after a holiday are when you see the most crowds.”

For Thanksgiving, the busiest journey days are the Tuesday and Wednesday earlier than the vacation and the Saturday and Sunday after, he says. For Christmas, it is between Dec. 20 to Jan. 5.

A journey delay that stretches out over just a few days, like a snowstorm, can rapidly wreck a visit, he provides. “That’s when you’re going to have the most competition with other travelers” for a restricted quantity of seats for those who’re attempting to rebook a flight.

To keep away from this case, Keyes recommends flying just a few days earlier than or after these peak journey instances. So as an alternative of flying on the Tuesday earlier than Thanksgiving, you may think about touring just a few days earlier.

Travel in January — the eighth, to be exact

If you may wait, journey in January, says Keyes. You will most likely have a significantly better flight expertise.

Keyes even has a most popular date for that month: Jan. 8, he provides. “It’s my favorite date of the entire year. I circle that date on the calendar because whereas flight prices really get inflated over the Christmas-New Year period, around Jan. 8, they just fall off a cliff from the most expensive time of the entire year to the absolute cheapest.”

“It’s not atypical to see airfares 80% lower on Jan. 10 compared to the same route on Dec. 30,” he says.

Take an early and direct flight

“There are two types of flights that have the highest odds of getting you to where you’re going on time or at least without a major delay: early morning flights and nonstop flights,” says Keyes.

According to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Air Travel Consumer Report for September, flights between 6-9 a.m. had an 86% on-time departure fee, versus 50% for flights between 8-11 p.m.

With morning flights, “Your plane [has been] at the airport overnight. It’s sitting there and ready to go when you get there in the morning,” he says. Afternoon flights, alternatively, depend upon planes which are flying in from some place else and could also be topic to delays.

Direct flights have the benefit of not having layovers. “If you take a connecting flight that gets delayed an hour and a half but you only had a one-hour layover, all of a sudden you’ve missed your connecting flight and you have to get rebooked” — not a simple feat through the vacation season.

Prepare your self for potential flight disruptions which will hold you on the airport. Keyes likes to pack “noise-canceling headphones and a little snack box, because frankly, airport food is not very memorable,” he says. And he likes to obtain just a few books and flicks to his iPad — “just in case I’m having to hang out at the airport longer than expected.”

The audio was produced by Clare Marie Schneider. The digital story was edited by Malaka Gharib. The visible producer is Kaz Fantone.

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