Even though it's still summer now is the time to be thinking about booking your holiday travel. It can be complicated to figure out the best way to get the best deals.
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00:00 Welcome back, even though it's still technically summer,
00:02 it's the time to be thinking about booking
00:03 that holiday travel.
00:05 It can be complicated to figure out the best way
00:07 to get the best deal.
00:08 So here's ABC's Justin Finch with some tips.
00:11 With the sweltering summer continuing
00:15 in many parts of the country,
00:17 it might not seem like the right time
00:19 to start planning your holiday vacations,
00:21 but experts say it is.
00:23 Prices are still too high, so you don't wanna book yet,
00:26 but start monitoring the price of your trips
00:28 for Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's,
00:30 and expect to book in mid-September to mid-October.
00:34 If you're booking after Halloween,
00:37 you've waited too long, prices will be extremely high.
00:39 Haley Berg of the travel website Hopper
00:41 is forecasting a busy holiday travel season this year.
00:45 Airlines are operating even more flights
00:48 and seats available to book this year
00:50 than they were at this time last year,
00:52 so we can expect that the holiday season
00:54 will be jam-packed with a lot of travelers.
00:56 If you're looking for the best dates
00:57 to fly for Thanksgiving, Berg says you can typically
01:00 save hundreds of dollars if you fly the day before
01:04 or on Thanksgiving Day itself.
01:07 Christmas is on a Monday this year,
01:09 so she suggests booking flights on Monday,
01:12 Tuesday, or Wednesday of the week before Christmas
01:15 to get the best airfares.
01:17 If you haven't decided yet where you wanna go,
01:20 you might want to think about an overseas trip.
01:23 We typically see that international destinations,
01:26 especially around the holidays,
01:28 can see huge price drops in the couple of months
01:31 before the holiday season, so if you are flexible,
01:34 you may be able to save significantly
01:36 by going where the deal is instead of the destination.
01:39 Berg doesn't anticipate the chaos and technical meltdowns
01:43 we saw in last year's holiday season,
01:46 but there are things you can do
01:48 to help your trip go as smoothly as possible.
01:51 The easiest way to protect yourself against disruption
01:54 is in the planning process.
01:56 Build in a buffer day when you're booking your flight
01:58 and try to book the first flight out in the morning.
02:01 If you depart before 8 a.m.,
02:03 you are 50% less likely to be delayed or canceled
02:07 than everyone departing after 8 a.m.
02:09 Justin Finch, ABC News, Washington.