Here are the best and worst days to travel for Thanksgiving and Christmas
Thanksgiving is right around the corner -- and despite the name and meaning behind the holiday, it's actually one of the most stressful times of the year. Whether you're cooking up a holiday feast for 20 people, coordinating the travel details for the in-laws or are stressing about last-minute flights, there's nothing about the holiday that says, well, holiday.
Historically, flying around the holiday makes for some of the most expensive flights of the year. Plus, as one of the busiest holidays for airports, Thanksgiving travel is not for the faint of heart. If you have yet to finalize your holiday trip, there's one day you should be booking your flights for that will help preserve your sanity.
"Thanksgiving is special, since the travel period is in a compressed timeframe," explained Brian Kelly from "The Points Guy" to AOL Lifestyle. "The best day to travel during the long Thanksgiving weekend? Thanksgiving day. If you book an early flight on the day-of, you can arrive in time to pull up to the table for your turkey feast."
He continued to explain the worst days to travel "are the day before Thanksgiving, the Saturday before Thanksgiving and the Sunday and Monday after Thanksgiving."
When booking flights for the November holiday, travelers should book between Oct. 29 and Nov. 13 and watch out for certain days. "For Thanksgiving, fares tend to be the highest and flights are the most crowded on Wednesday and Saturday," Kelly suggested.
Whereas travelers may be restricted by their Thanksgiving flights, they can make up for it when booking flights for Christmas.
Explains the travel guru:
When it comes to Christmas travel, there's more flexibility, since people tend to spread out their flying, starting the weekend before Christmas right up to the day of. Again, you can snag some real flight deals by flying on Christmas morning, but aim to fly on Christmas Eve or Dec. 23.
"If you don't want to miss any flight deals, Follow The Points Guy on Facebook and Twitter, and subscribe to text message alerts from our deals feed, @tpg_alerts, so you know when great deals — especially holiday ones — drop," he advised.
