Flexibility Saves Money Durings the Holidays

If you haven't already made your holiday plans, take heart. Suppliers tell us that airline seats and hotel rooms are still available. You may have to pay a bit more than you planned, but some fares are better on specific days than others. This year, more than ever, the industry is bombarding us with best-time-to-travel information:

• For the first time in my memory, most of the big airlines are adding an airfare surcharge or $10 to all tickets on what they consider to be the most popular days. Presumably, the airlines know better than anyone when their planes are going to reach peak loads. You won't see it as a separate surcharge—the airlines are building it into the fare, as required—but it's there.
• Several individual airlines are posting calendar displays highlighting the days fares are highest and lowest over the holiday period.
• The online website FareCompare posted its good-days/bad-days list, based on booking trends.
• Priceline also posts similar calendars of days when airfares are expected to reach their highest and lowest prices over the holiday season.

The first holiday crunch will come around Thanksgiving, November 26 this year. The airlines have hiked fares on November 29 and 30, at the end of the four-day weekend. Heavy travel and high fares are also expected on November 24 and 25. The better days will be, as usual, well before and after the weekend; travel on the Friday and Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend is also traditionally light.

Christmas and New Year's Day are both on Fridays this year, and the airline surcharges apply on December 19, 26 and 27, and January 2 and 3. Just about everyone agrees these days are the most crowded. Pre-holiday low-fare days are hard to find after the 16th, and post-holiday rates don't drop until January 5. However, if you're willing to travel during the holidays, you can probably catch some good deals for December 28 through 30, and, of course, air travel on Christmas Day and New Year's Day is fairly light.

The airline surcharges also apply into the spring break and Easter seasons, on March 20, 21 and 28, and April 11 and 29. Those dates should be pretty easy to avoid.

Apparently the lousy economy is hurting destination areas everywhere. I was a bit surprised to see a press release still pitching Hawaii for the Christmas-New Year season, traditionally the year's toughest ticket.
Travelers interested in visiting a big city can usually find some very good hotel deals. Business travel—already very weak because of the economy—traditionally disappears from mid-December through the first week in January, and business hotels in major cities often offer incentives. Some are straight rate cuts, although many try to fill their rooms with various value added shopping and Nutcracker packages rather than actually slicing the prices.

If, even after checking out the good and bad days, you still can't find available rooms or seats, consider looking for a tour operator's air-hotel package. Some of the big tour packagers may still have seats and rooms they've blocked even after the airlines and hotels have sold out, at least at their good prices.

If you're really having trouble finding the holiday trip you want, consider working with a travel agent. Those folks often know of sources and techniques that you wouldn't find on your own or on the Internet.

As always, flexibility is the key to finding good holiday deals. However, there comes a time when being where you want, when you want, takes precedence over finding a rock-bottom price. Seek out the best deal you can find, but in the final analysis, make sure you get the trip you really want.