5 Tips for Flying During the Holidays
How do we do holiday travel better? Here’s a few ways we suggest navigating the superhighway through the sky during the most wonderful time of the year.
Every year between Thanksgiving and New Years, millions of people in the western world head to the airport with high hopes of reconnecting with family and friends, living a magical holiday experience, or, at the very least, eating their weight in pie.
These are beautiful sentiments, but the reality rarely lives up to the fantasy. Between the peak season crowds and extreme weather events, shuffled flights and soaring prices, the grueling journey itself tends to eclipse whatever precious time we get with loved ones on the other end.
So how do we do holiday travel better? This year, we’re exploring a few different ways to navigate the superhighway through the sky, from avoiding it all together to salvaging an already sticky situation.
Stay Home
This option might not work for all, but we encourage everyone to take at least a moment to consider it. In 2023, nearly half of the population of the US plans to travel at some point during the holidays. For those who don’t have frequent flyer miles to cash in, those tickets can get pricey, especially for whole families. Financials aside, opting out of the busiest travel period of the year is an ecologically responsible choice and, at the end of the day, could save everyone involved a big headache. For those who live far from extended family and yearn for that time together, we feel you. But shifting those family visits to a shoulder season can also provide the opportunity to stay put and see home through new eyes. Our piece about exploring our own backyard offers some starter ideas on how to enjoy local treasures like a traveler.
Avoid Peak Travel Days
For those who can’t avoid air travel, flying either on the actual holiday or well ahead can help save money and hassle. We know this doesn’t always work with school and work schedules, but with remote office hours and some advance negotiations with teachers, it could be a possibility. Making the trip on days like Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Eve is a sacrifice, but less so than staying home altogether. And celebrating a day earlier or later is a small price to pay for a massive difference in air fare and tarmac turmoil. Flying out well before those key dates, as mentioned, can also take the stress off the travel days.
Fly Nonstop
Again, for those who can’t avoid air travel, choosing nonstop flights helps bring down our carbon footprint significantly. Fares can get pricier, especially when booked closer to the travel dates, but with advance planning and creative flight searches, oftentimes, it’s still a viable option. Switching out that extra flight on either end for a mini train or road trip might seem like added stress, but lightening the load a little on the environment and sharing the magic of a ground travel experience with your children always make up for it. For more information on how to fly greener, check out our 8 Sustainable Air Travel Tips for Families.
Carry-On Only
Losing a checked bag is the last thing anyone wants to deal with, especially on the most traveled days of the year. But packing light is not only easier for travel logistics; it also forces us to minimize and think through what we’re bringing with, and why [finetune and link].
When packing gifts for others, it may seem like checking a bag is unavoidable. But what if we plan for this by selecting gifts that fit in our carry-on (inspiring a loved one to follow in our carry-on commitment footsteps with a cute set of compression bags, perhaps), or by deciding to shop local once we arrive at our destination, or even by choosing an “experience” gift to avoid transportation and wrapping paper altogether? In our Holiday Gift Guide, we have gathered some tips on how to maximize the gift-giving experience while minimizing waste. And for those just dipping their toes into the carry-on only waters, the "What Can I Bring?" section of the TSA website lays out some helpful ground rules.
Plan for Potential Problems
We get it. Whether or not we tried to sidestep the peak travel days, sometimes we find ourselves stranded and frustrated far from home. When lines to speak to a customer service rep stack up and hungry kids melt down, desperation can set in quickly. Here are a few preliminary measures to take before this happens to help navigate those moments better:
Download your airline’s app beforehand in case you need to pivot quickly and book a new flight.
Consider travel insurance. Many travel credit cards include at least some travel insurance benefits, but it’s always good to know before you go.
If flights get canceled, try to create an alternative route to your destination utilizing trains, buses, or ride shares. This will be easier to do if you don’t have to get to the final destination to pick up checked luggage. One more reason to go carry-on only!
At the end of the day, these solutions are mere band-aids on a faulty system. But making small, responsible choices add up to big differences along the way. And by supporting businesses who care about the environment, offsetting and abstaining when possible, and voting for representatives working to mitigate the effects of climate change, we all do our part.
