There’s no doubt that Americans love flying. It’s estimated that approximately 1 billion US passengers fly annually. Additionally there are nearly 20,000 airports in the United States, about 5,000 public airports and more than 1,400 private airports.
With Christmas fast approaching, US airports are sure to be kept busy. It’s estimated that nearly 50 million people fly US airlines during the holidays. If you’re one of those people who travels during the holidays and flies home for Christmas no doubt you’ve had times when travel has been remarkably easy and other times were travel has been exceedingly difficult.
If you’re going to be taking a flight home to celebrate with your family this Christmas, here are some helpful tips for traveling during the holidays:
- Monitor flights: You’ve probably seen countless online articles about the absolute best time to book flights. Everybody seems to have an opinion on when the best time to book flights is, but the truth is it’s not an exact science. The best thing you can do if you’re going to be traveling home for the holidays is to monitor flight deals and strike when the opportunity is the best. These days there are any number of websites you can monitor by the day, by the hour or even by the minute to see which flight deal might work the best for your trip.
- Travel during off times: Another way to take the stress out of holiday flying is try your best to travel during off days and try to avoid peak times as much as possible. For Christmas, peak travel days would be the Friday before and the Monday after, so if you can check flight schedules and squeeze yourself in between those two times you might have a better chance of getting home a lot quicker. Native Chicagoans can check with the Springfield Airport Authority for example to find out when the busiest times are.
- One way tickets: You might be used to buying round trip tickets either out of habit or out of convenience, but if you’re traveling during the holidays you might want to compare one way ticket prices before you book anything. There are some cases where flying one airline home for Christmas and then flying another airline on the way back can actually save you money.
- Pack wisely: If you’re flying home for Christmas, odds are that also means you’re bringing gifts with you. In order to avoid getting held up by the TSA or the Springfield Airport Authority, it’s best to pack your gifts unwrapped that way security can see exactly what you have in your bag. You can very easily gift wrap all of your stuff once you get to your destination.
- Don’t travel with gifts: Another alternative to dealing with the TSA or Springfield Airport Authority when it comes to gifts is to not travel with any at all. These days you can pretty much order anything and have it shipped to wherever you need it to go. You can very easily order gifts have them shipped to a relative’s house or to a hotel and then wrap them when you arrive.
- Keep yourself safe: No one can predict when safety hazards such as illness or natural disasters are going to affect your flight plans. The best thing you can do is to buy trip insurance, which covers a wide variety of situations and also pay attention to travel alerts in your area. Chicagoans should check with the Springfield Airport Authority for any sort of travel warnings or advisories before heading out.
Bottom line: being prepared for holiday travel can do a lot to take the stress out of traveling. Make a packing list, check it twice and make sure you pack everything you need from snacks to chargers to any travel documents you need. Pay attention travel advisories and if you have a smartphone, don’t forget to download any useful travel apps that might help you on your journey. The better prepared you are, the better off you’re going to be and the more enjoyable your trip will be.
