Experts Say Now Is the Time to Start Planning Holiday Vacations

23ABC News

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.

Transcript

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.

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