COLORADO SPRINGS – It’s hard to believe that Thanksgiving and Christmas are just around the corner.
For those flying for these holidays there’s some tips and tricks that could save you a few bucks.
Skyler McKinley, spokesman for AAA Colorado, said travelers could potentially save between $75 and $150. It all depends on how creative people want to get with their holiday travels.
Here’s what McKinley recommends for Thanksgiving:
- The cheapest time to book flights will be about 7-13 days before the holiday.
- The cheapest day to fly out is the Monday beforehand.
- Flying back on Thanksgiving Day could save people a good chunk of change.
McKinley said the same tips apply to Christmas. He said if you’re able to, fly out on Christmas Eve and return just a few days before the New Year to save money. Ultimately, it comes down to being strategic and traveling on the days when not a lot of other people are flying out.
Of course, booking less expensive flights may mean longer layovers or taking off at an undesirable time.
McKinley said, “I think the ultimate advice is, for both of these holidays and especially Christmas, punch the area you want to go in and a general sense of the dates into of these flights trackers, and as you see costs starting to go down that’s a good indication oh now’s a good time to look at buying.”
Mahala Moran is traveling home for the holidays and said, “I usually go through Expedia just because they have a list of all the different airlines and so it’s easy to compare which flights are cheaper and which flights aren’t.”
Moran’s friend, BB Hall said, “I usually just go on the individual, but that’s smart. I should do that.”
To give you an idea of how many people will be traveling this holiday season, AAA expects about 54 million Americans will go 50 miles or more from home by either car or plane which is the most since 2005.
Besides searching on the Internet for flights AAA also recommends calling a travel agent for help which they say probably won’t cost you anything.
