My mom’s famous marshmallow-topped sweet potato casserole– a holiday staple! (Photo: Chris McGinnis)
Since an increasing number of Americans are now taking the whole week off, expect big crowds, and long, slow-moving security lines at the airport today (Friday), over the weekend and of course, next week. (Thank goodness for PreCheck at this time of year, right?)
Flying during the holidays means paying a premium of anywhere from 30% to 70% compared to other times of year—especially on long haul flights, according to FareCompare.com. Christmas/New Year’s holiday period airfares are running at an average $454 this year, up 5% from the same period last year when they were $434 according to Expedia.com. Average fares during the peak Thanksgiving period are only slightly less, averaging $442, which is also up 5% compared to last year.
If you are hitting the roads or the skies next week or next month, here are five ways improve your chances of having a happy holiday trip:
1-Postpone peak season trips
If pricey holiday airfares will keep you grounded this year, celebrate with your family during “dead weeks” instead. Dead weeks are travel industry lingo for the annual low points in travel demand, which ironically come in the middle of the peak holiday travel season. And when demand plummets, so do prices.
The catch is that you have to travel when everyone else is staying at home. Dead weeks typically occur right after the big Thanksgiving rush, and again right after the Christmas/New Years rush in early January. The good news this year is that with an early Thanksgiving (Nov 22) we have one extra dead week—the last week of November—and the deals are plentiful.
For example, if you’d like to fly to San Francisco for Thanksgiving on peak days next week, you pay close to $800 round trip. But when checking on dead week deals earlier this week, we found Delta round trip fares of just $220 round trip during the dead weeks of early December. As of this morning, those fares had increased to about $327– still not bad.
2-Use dead weeks to score a good mileage run–or buy MQMs
Dead week deals are not only a great opportunity for flexible travelers to save, but an easy way for frequent travelers to top off their mileage balances on mileage runs in order to keep or bump up their cherished elite level status.
As stated above, Delta was offering roundtrips between Atlanta and San Francisco for just $220 round trip during early/mid December! That ATL>SFO round trip nets a whopping 4,300 MQMs, so that would have been money well spend. Regrettably, when we checked this morning, the deal was gone.
But it may not be gone for good. Keep an eye on this as fares have been bouncing up and down all week because ATL-SFO is a route where Delta, Southwest and AirTran are competing heavily. Expedia has a helpful tool for monitoring the lowest fares.
This week Delta unveiled a rather weak MQM buying program (compared to previous offers) for those who’d rather buy than fly… but this year, you’ll really pay up for the honor of preserving your status. The MQM prices below are $100 more expensive than last year‘s prices. Will you do it?
This fun video (which we shared before) sorta puts the whole mileage run game into perspective!
3-Book nonstop flights
While the lower price of a one-stop flight might be tempting, you increase your chances of a delay or cancellation by 100% when you take two flights instead of one to get to your destination. Why take that chance, especially if you are headed home for just a few days, and a delayed or canceled flight could spoil the entire trip?
In many cases nonstop flights cost the same, or only $50 to $100 more. I think of that extra cost as an insurance policy against a hassle-filled trip. (If you don’t know the difference between a nonstop, direct or connecting flight, please read this!)
Another tip to ensure a delay-free trip: Book early morning flights, which are frequently parked at the airport overnight and not reliant on arriving from another airport.
(Have you scored your 500 Delta SkyMiles bonus for using TICKET sponsor Peachy Airport Parking yet? Click here for the coupon!)
4-Stay at a hotel
Why burden the in-laws with the hassle of houseguests during the already stressful holidays? Instead of bunking on that lumpy sofa bed or stuffy guest room, book a nearby hotel.
Due to lack of demand from business travelers, most hotels are dirt-cheap during the holidays, and offer the chance experience a five-star hotel at a two or three star price.
Example: Do you have family visiting for the holidays? I’ve found rooms at the five star InterContinental Buckhead hotel for just $139 per night during Thanksgiving or Christmas, while at other times of year they go for $400+.
Rooms at comfortable suburban hotels like Best Western that may be closer to your relatives are likely starving for business during the holidays—so call the hotel directly to see if you can negotiate a great deal.
Or show off your travel-tech-savvy by pulling out your fancy new iPhone 5 or Samsung Galaxy S3 and using last minute hotel-deal apps like HotelTonight to score some amazing rates.
5-Splurge a little
While you can always pay a lot more to sit in first class, you can now pay a little bit more, and get a more comfortable coach seat. During the busy, crowded holidays, that’s money well spent.
While getting a few extra inches of room always helps, the real benefit of paying for a better economy seat is that you are usually allowed to board early—with elite level flyers. Early boarding means you get early access to scarce overhead bin space, and since these seats are located near the front of the plane, you’ll be among the first to exit when the plane lands.
These premium economy seats cost from $20 to $200 more, depending on the duration of the flight. For example, for a trip home for the holidays, those without Medallion status could pay Delta $70 extra for one of its Economy Comfort seats for the 4-5 hour nonstop between Atlanta and San Francisco. A cheaper option would be Southwest’s EarlyBird check in fee of just $10 each way—which gets you closer to the front of the line for boarding.
Have a great trip and a very happy holiday!
–Chris McGinnis
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Once again I purchased the Delta Platinum Card thinking that the benefits would outweigh the cost. Once again when it came time to purchase a buy one first class ticket and get the companion ticket there were no seats available. In a review of the flight there were 2 seats on one flight purchased and 3 on the return from ATL to LAX. I would pay the Class A fare for the first ticket but they would not confirm a seat, the promotions desk stated that they were following the rules and could not help me. I have flown over 2M miles, platinum member, flying Colonel etc but to no awail. Well after all these years of flying Delta I will be looking for another Airline for our further flights. I have the AMEX Plat card so entry into the Crown Room is not important, we even tried to used points for a trip to Australia this coming year (yes 335 days out) and no seats were available. I would encourage others to consider the changes in Delta and their service before committing further flights with them. There is never a telephone number on any correspondence for customer service or contact with the Corporate Office. Customer focus has gone away along with their service.
I sure wish DL would go back to the charity deal they offered two years ago. As far as buying or making a mileage run, I’m at 160k so anything else I get will really be double (this year plus rollover) which effectively cuts the cost in half per MQM.
Hi Stephen: I don’t see any problem paying the airline more for a product that’s better than standard coach. What’s wrong with that? With economy comfort, Delta is offering a new, improved product, not nickel and diming for the same product as before. I believe that it encourages the airline to improve its product for those who are willing to pay slightly more. If you want dirt cheap, you get what you pay for.
Chris, I’m really surprised that you are encouraging people to pay for economy comfort seats. Seems that you are just encouraging more nickle and diming by the airlines. Clark Howard has been pretty vocal about discouraging passengers to buy into this. Will we be paying to use the premium toilet next?
Taking morning flights to avoid delays is sound advice, especially in the summer when thunderstorms pop up in the afternoon or at congested airports (such as in New York). However, fliers should be aware that on some occasions, especially at small airpots, the first flight of the day is delayed because the last flight the night before got in late and the flight crew must wait to meet minimum FAA rest requirements. At hub airports, the airline can usually find a replacement crew.
I’m doing the same thing! I’ll be shy of Diamond by about 3,000 miles, so I have decided to roll over the miles. I don’t see that I would gain that much by doing a last minute “run for the miles”.
I did the same thing as THW last year. Rolled 44k miles this year and may buy 10k mqm’s to make gold for next year, just in case I have something if I have to go back out on the road.
Just can’t find it in me to do any mileage runs.
Hope to be out of the game soon.
I got the MQM email yesterday & while intriguing (I’ll end up about 3800 mi shy of Diamond Medallion), I think I’ll just keep my lowly Platinum status & roll over the 47k miles for next year. If it were the difference between silver & gold, I’d consider it but since I already have a Sky Club membership, it doesn’t much seem worth it otherwise & I don’t really feel like a mileage run to get it.