Snagging Cheap Holiday Flights Close to Thanksgiving

If you wish to get home in time for Thanksgiving, when should you start looking for  cheap holiday flights? Usually, about 10 weeks ahead, should be the best time. With flight prices going up all the time anyway, buying ahead to ensure an affordable holiday trip does make sense anyway.

Now the price of your ticket depends in large part on how full the flight you pick, runs. If you're someone who really wants to get the perfect nonstop flight just one day before Thanksgiving, you are really going to have to buy that ticket as early as possible. While there can be cheap seats later on, it's very unlikely that anything like this could happen during the holiday season. You're going to have to buy early if you want cheap holiday flights.

The day before Thanksgiving is usually the worst time to buy tickets for. Everyone wants to travel then. The day before is the busiest travel day of the year, and you'll never catch a break. Not only will you not see any discounts, you'll see prices that are nearly twice as much as on the typical weekday. When you buy 9 to 10 weeks ahead though, a few cheap holidays prices do become available to you.

If you're flying less than 500 miles, you should consider a $125 ticket a pretty good bargain. If you see a ticket for a 1500 mile trip priced at $350, that's a bargain. For long-haul flights, something around $450 should be considered the perfect price.

If you don't really know when exactly you need to travel, you may need to put off buying a ticket until October or so. If you don't mind flying on Thanksgiving, you'll get cheap tickets then. Most everyone has already flown by then, and airlines will contend with plenty of empty seats. If you're willing to fly the day after Thanksgiving, you'll have it pretty tough again. The Saturday after can be easy though. If you don't really mind going in after the holiday, you could be in for some pretty cheap holiday flights.

All through this of course, there are those regular cheap ticket strategies that you could always try. You could try flying in into an airport that's a little distance from the place you would like to actually go to. If you don't mind driving 100 miles in a rental car or something, you could get a cheap flight.

Alternatively, you could try buying a ticket for the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. Tuesday afternoons are traditionally the cheapest.