The holidays are upon us and if you have plans to travel and see family and friends, the time to buy flights for Thanksgiving is now. Experts say, you could save up to 30 percent if you book by this weekend.
Skyler McKinley with AAA says 2017 is expected to be a record year for holiday travel and that means there will be high demand for airline seats.
"The new rule for buying for these peak travel periods is 60 to 70 days so that’s right about where we are right now for booking Thanksgiving travel,” McKinley says.
If you are wanting to save extra money, McKinley suggests flying into smaller airports close to your destination for a cheaper ticket.
“For every major airline and airport there are smaller ones nearby that have a variety of flights. There might not always be the exact flight you need but shop around for airports and certainly shop around for airlines.”
Also, traveling on Monday and Thursday of Thanksgiving week will save you money compared to flying Wednesday.
"The easiest ways to save money is to fly in on Thanksgiving and fly out on Thanksgiving. That’s going to save you 30 percent, But no one wants to do that, right?" McKinley says. "So, in general the rule of thumb is definitely avoid the Sunday after Thanksgiving. That’s the busiest travel day of the entire period. It's also going to be the most expensive."
If you are not ready to buy tickets just yet, experts say you have until Halloween to get it together.
“The week of Halloween, or after that prices really begin to spike dramatically, but, again, day after day after day prices are going to be going up,” McKinley says.
If you wait until early November to book your flight, it will cost you about a dollar per each day you wait.
Which McKinley says, “people we know are going to be traveling over this holiday, so in order to make sure you have a seat at the price you want you need to book now because there’s just not going to be a last minute, 'Oh we’ve got an extra seat,' because everybody’s traveling.”
