When to book Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year — which travel days are cheapest, and how fare alerts help at peak times.
Updated October 25, 2026. Fares change by route, date, and availability — always confirm the final price at checkout before you book.
Holiday flights are the exception to almost every cheap-flight rule. Dates are fixed, everyone travels at once, and waiting for a sale usually means paying more, not less. This guide covers when to book each holiday, which travel days tend to be cheapest, and how to use fare alerts without falling for the myth of a single "best day to buy."
Thanksgiving travel is concentrated into a few days, which is why it is expensive. The cheapest Thanksgiving flights are usually the ones nobody wants: flying out early in the week or on Thanksgiving Day itself, and returning the following weekend rather than the Sunday after Thanksgiving, which is one of the busiest travel days of the year. If your dates are flexible by even one day on either end, check the fare for each nearby day — a one-day shift can change the price more than any booking trick.
Christmas and New Year form a longer peak than Thanksgiving, roughly mid-December through early January, with the highest prices around Christmas Eve, Christmas Day travel, and New Year's Eve. The cheapest days in that window are usually Christmas Day itself and New Year's Day, when fewer people want to be in transit, and the days just after New Year. If you can travel before the peak starts or after it ends, you will usually pay far less — and the destination will be quieter too.
For international holiday travel, book earlier than for domestic: international holiday fares tend to rise sooner and sell out faster, especially for popular winter destinations. See our best time to book flights guide for domestic versus international timing in full.
Set a fare alert for your exact route and dates as soon as you know them, and also set one for the flexible version — nearby dates, nearby airports — if your plans allow it. An alert will not magically find a cheap holiday fare that does not exist, but it will tell you when a price drops, and it will stop you from refreshing fares every day and talking yourself into waiting too long. Our cheap flights tips and last-minute deals guide cover alerts, mistake fares, and what to do if your dates truly cannot move.
Sometimes the peak day is the only day. If you must fly on the busiest days — the Sunday after Thanksgiving, or the days just before Christmas — there are still ways to soften the cost and the stress. Book the earliest flight of the day, which is least likely to be delayed by knock-on problems from earlier flights. Arrive earlier than usual, because holiday security lines and check-in queues are longer. And choose a direct flight over a connection if the price difference is reasonable: a missed connection on a peak day is far harder to recover from, because the next flights are full.
At the holidays, a connection is a risk as well as a saving. If you do connect, leave a longer layover than you would in summer — at least two hours for a domestic connection, more for international — and avoid the last connection of the day, which leaves no recovery option if the first flight is delayed. Check whether your airline will rebook you automatically and whether your fare includes that protection; the cheapest third-party ticket is not always the cheapest trip if something goes wrong.
Planning a winter trip around the holidays? Pair this with our cheap winter getaways guide to pick a destination, then book the flights using the timing above.