Christmas Flights Travel Deals and Cheap Tickets

Christmas Travel Deals

xmastree Christmas is one of the holidays many people consider synonymous with travel. For some, it means an annual trek home to see family. For others, it’s an excellent excuse to visit a new destination and celebrate the holiday in their style. Either way, it’s a season when enough people are traveling that it means you’ve got to do a bit of research in advance to prepare.

One of the main things that advance research helps with is the cost of travel at Christmas time – by doing your homework and booking in advance you’re more likely to save money on a ticket. But there are other things you can do ahead of time to prepare for Christmas travel that will make the trip less stressful – and we’ve covered all those topics in the articles linked below.

For more holiday travel tips, don’t miss these collections, too:

>> Christmas falls on a Tuesday in 2012

Christmas Airport Travel Tips

xmasairport2 Those of us who aren’t lucky enough to live within driving distance of the place where we’ll spend Christmas will likely be passing through one or more airports this holiday season (if you see me, stop and say hi, wouldja?). Airports at Christmas aren’t necessarily as busy as they are at Thanksgiving, but it’s hard to tell when you’re stuck in the long lines at check-in or security. Yeah, the holidays may be all merry and bright, but getting there usually isn’t.

Last week we went over some of the tips for Thanksgiving travel, and the tips we’ll outline in this article for Christmastime travel are going to be similar. There are, however, a few things that you need to keep in mind at Christmas that probably weren’t on your radar at Thanksgiving.

And despite the legendary crowdedness of airports at Thanksgiving, when you throw in potentially worse weather into the mix at Christmas you’ve got even more reason to be prepared before you head for the airport – just in case you’ll be there longer than you really want to be.

Here are our Christmas travel tips.

>> Note that Christmas in 2012 is on aTuesday

Best and Worst Days to Travel at Christmas

xmasairport Last week we looked at the difficulties surrounding getting a good deal on airfare Thanksgiving, so this week we’re moving onto the other big holiday coming up for many – Christmas. With this first installment, we’re going to go over the best and worst days to travel at Christmas.

Luckily for anyone who has to fly over Christmas, the crush at the airport isn’t as bad as it is at Thanksgiving. Most people get more time off (or just take more time off) over Christmas than the usual couple days they get over Thanksgiving, so there isn’t that one day at the airport when everybody and their brother is trying to get on a plane in order to get somewhere in time for the big turkey feast.

At Christmas, there are certainly days which are busier than others – and the whole couple of weeks around Christmas, which airlines routinely include in their blackout dates every year, tend to also be when ticket prices spike. So even though it’s not as critical to figure out which days are the worst or best days to fly at Christmas, it certainly doesn’t hurt to consult a calendar before you book your trip.

>> In 2012, Christmas falls on a Tuesday

How to Find Cheap Christmas Airfare

xmasball For most people, Christmas is all about family and spending quality time with people you love (and may not get to see much during the rest of the year). It’s a pity, then, that getting home for the holidays without spending a fortune can be such a royal pain in the you-know-what.

Finding cheap Christmas airfare is definitely a challenge, as anyone who’s started looking can attest to. You plug in your travel dates and get hit with huge ticket prices. You think you can use the old trick of shifting your trip by one or two days in either direction and you still run into the same high prices. It’s frustrating. Oh, and don’t count on using those precious frequent flyer miles you’ve accumulated, either, because the Christmas holidays are typically part of an airline’s blackout dates.

But even though you may not find a super bargain-basement price on an airline ticket over Christmas, there are still some things you can do to avoid paying more than you need to for your flight.

>> In 2012, Christmas is on a Tuesday

Thanksgiving and Christmas in August

Remember last year when you waited until the last possible second to purchase your tickets for your Thanksgiving and Christmas travel? As your bank account wept, you made a promise to not wait as long next year. You swore that you would get your tickets early so that you wouldn’t have to mortgage the house just to afford a trip during the holidays. You even put a reminder on your Outlook calendar so that you would buy your winter tickets during the summer months.

It is time to put your words into action. Sure the calendar might read August, but it is a good time to start thinking about Thanksgiving and Christmas. If you book your flights and accommodations right now, you might actually have enough money left over to buy your family presents. Family members like presents. Or so I have been told. I usually wait until the last minute too and end up giving out airplane peanuts as presents. If you give out airplane peanuts you will earn a reputation as being a Grinch. It is not fun being a Grinch.

Not this year. This is the year when the holiday plans will be sorted out early and at a reasonable price…