Home for the holidays: An expert shares money-saving holiday travel tips
LOS ANGELES - Many travelers looking to book for the holidays are often left wondering if they should book an early deal before Halloween or take a risk in hopes of scoring a last-minute deal.
Winnie Sun shared tips on how to save for holiday travel with financial data from a new Adobe study as her guide.
Sun is a Managing Partner at Sun Group Wealth and a frequent Forbes contributor. She stopped by Good Day LA with tips for people who want to make holiday travel plans and still want to get a great deal.
Thanksgiving travel
-Wait until November to book if you haven’t booked just yet. Travelers still looking to purchase flights for Thanksgiving will see a nearly 10% cost-savings if they wait to book until the first week of November.
That first week is the sweet spot, as tickets will spike up to 14% a week prior to the holiday.
Turkey vs. Presents?
-Choose the food: travelers will find booking flights (anytime during the year) much cheaper for Thanksgiving over Christmas; ticket prices for the week surrounding Christmas are nearly 17% more expensive than Thanksgiving
Christmas flights
-Hold off until December to book Christmas flights: for consumers who haven’t purchased flights around Christmas, flights will decrease by 13% the first week of December. Don’t wait too long, as prices will jump back up 8% the week prior to the holiday.
New Year's Travel
-The best day to book flights for New Year’s is 55 days out from the holiday, November 6.
Flights cheaper in 2019
-Travelers have been seeing the average price on flights for Thanksgiving increase at 6% each year since 2016. This year we expect flight tickets to be 5% cheaper for this year’s peak Thanksgiving period.
Hotels
-Hotels are a different story. Sun says it is best to wait and book them up to six days before your arrival to get the lowest price. If it is a major tourist destination, however, you may not get the hotel you want, so take that into account.
Travel delays
-A reported 66% of airports had their worst delays after Christmas. December 26 is the most unfavorable day for holiday delays at 44% of airports.
Other tips:
-Never book a connecting flight when a non-stop is available for within $200
-When booking with points, book as early as possible to maximize your points