It's Time to Book Your Christmas Travel, Right Now

Jo Piazza
·Managing Editor
Updated
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It’s never too early to start planning for the holidays. (Photo: Getty Images)

The kids only just went back to school. Christmas, Hanukkah, and Thanksgiving seem like a lifetime away, but that’s not so. The holidays are going to creep up on us all too soon — and with them come all the hassle of holiday travel.

Now is not only the time to think about booking for the holidays, it is also time to actually book.

Follow these tips from the booking experts at Skyscanner, and we promise you will have a little extra cash for presents this year.

Related: How to Effectively Complain About Airlines to Get Exactly What You Want

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The Thanksgiving Day Parade is right around the corner. (Photo: Corbis)

When to book Thanksgiving tickets:

For those of you looking to book at the last minute (that would be us), prices hit some serious lows during the three weeks before Thanksgiving, reaching a record low of 4.3 percent in savings during the week of Nov. 10. You can get more info on the Skyscanner blog.

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Are you ready for the Festival of Lights? (Photo: Getty Images)

When to book Christmas and Hanukkah tickets:

For domestic flights, the best time to book is 12 weeks before Christmas (Oct. 6–12). That is when holiday travelers can find ticket prices 13.7 percent below the mean, according to Skyscanner.

Travelers can continue to find below-average-priced flights until  four weeks before Christmas. After that, prices start to increase.

Fliers should avoid booking the week before Christmas week (Dec. 15–21). That’s when prices jump up to 13 percent above average.

However, for the ultimate procrastinator, prices are only 4 percent higher than average during Christmas week. The problem is that most of the seats tend to be sold out by then.

Related: The 20 Nastiest Things People Have Tweeted to Airlines This Month

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Don’t get gauged on your Christmas travel. (Photo: Corbis)

For international flights, the best time to book is 20 weeks before Christmas, when the average ticket price is 14.5 percent below average. Even though this time has passed, there are still opportunities to find below-average-priced flights out of the U.S. at this time.

While prices might not be at their lowest, lower prices can be found up until 11 weeks before Christmas.

Fliers can cash in on an anticipated dip of 6 percent less than average prices 12 weeks before Christmas, the week of Oct. 6–12.

Happy holiday booking!

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