What You Should Know Before Booking A Flight This Holiday
Prices are climbing for holiday flights so booking soon will be the key to saving. Booking early and having flexibility are the keys
If you’re hoping to book relatively inexpensive holiday flights this year, time is running out. Airlines say the demand is very high and airfares are soaring as a result. Nonstop flights from Chicago to any of the New York airports for Thanksgiving, from November 22nd to 27th, cost more than a $500 round trip. Flights from Los Angeles to Seattle on the same dates are also well above the round-trip price tag, NRP reports.
While the prices of holiday flights may fill would-be travelers with anxiety, gleeful airline executives are forecasting massive profits for the fourth quarter of 2022. The industry also experienced a better-than-expected third quarter due to a surge in summer air travel. As a result, the country’s three largest airlines, American, Delta, and United, earned a combined profit of more than $2 billion.
Speaking to analysts, Delta CEO Ed Bastian said it’s going to be a very strong holiday season. “Advance holiday season bookings are up significantly over last year and demand for air travel remains very strong,” Bastian said via NPR. Although airlines didn’t provide figures for their early bookings, industry experts and online travel sites say the number of people booking holiday flights could be above pre-pandemic levels.
As such, folks are booking holiday flights despite higher prices and don’t seem fazed by airline operational problems and staffing shortages. “After two years of delaying travel consumers are getting out and seeing the world,” Bastian continued. Along with other executives across the airline industry, he remains confident that people will continue to spend on travel despite soaring inflation and a possible recession.
Addressing the pricey holiday flights Hayley Berg, the Lead Economist for travel search and booking app Hopper, said the airfares fares for Thanksgiving and Christmas are already up 40% or more on some routes compared to last year. “We are seeing that airfares to top destinations are much higher than they typically are at this time of year,” she explained, adding that they’re only going to increase.
To survive the busy travel season, people booking holiday flights should be flexible with their plans. Folks can save a lot of money by flying on the Monday before the holiday and returning a few days after. “We’re going to have fewer flights available and more travelers wanting to go home or go on vacation for the holidays,” Berg added. That means people might pay a higher price and still not get a seat on the flight they want.
To avoid disappointment, travelers are advised to book their holiday flights early. But according to Berg, people seem to be waiting until the last minute to reserve their seats which is very risky. “With fewer flights available this year you’re going to have fewer options the later you book,” she said. And those options are going to be significantly more expensive.
Booking your holiday flights early can also help travelers to skip some of the chaos and disruption at airports. The holiday season will be very busy which means there will likely be higher cancellation and delay rates. But airlines are not expecting to see the high volumes of cancellations and delays they experienced over the summer.
