How to avoid a holiday season travel nightmare

You may have wrapped up the last of you summer travel, but now it’s time to fast forward to the winter months.

If you’re planning any sort of holiday or winter time travel, now is the time to start booking those flights.

Ken and Michelle Belcher know the holiday period will be busy at the airport, but they still fly every year.

“We are looking forward to the crowds and the excitement of the holiday,” Michelle said. “With everything going on in the world, it will be good to be around others celebrating Christmas.”

But there is some good news for the Belchers and early bookers like Waka Blanchard.

They are finding holiday fares down from last year.

“Yes, they’re lower, much lower,” Blanchard said.

Fares down, but may not be that way much longer

But don’t wait much longer to book.

Katy Nastro is a travel expert with the airfare deal site Going.

She says for any peak travel season, you should ideally book domestic flights between three and seven months out, which means booking now for Christmas week.

“To give yourself the best odds at getting a great deal,” she said, “versus waiting a bit longer and seeing prices rise.”

For the best odds of getting to your destination on time, especially during the holidays, Nastro says aim for a nonstop flight.

“You’re not changing flights, worrying about missing a connection,” she said.

In addition, if you have to change planes and there is a winter storm somewhere along the route, you risk missing your connecting flight.

She also suggests booking morning flights which have higher on-time arrival rates.

That’s due to the fact the plane is already at the airport, typically having arrived the night before.

With many morning flights, Nastro said, “they’re not running the risk of running into bad weather, which can develop later in the day and then sort of run amok across all routes and schedules.”

She says the risk of losing a bag also goes down when you can snag a nonstop flight.

Lastly — if you have yet to book — use a flight search engine like Google Flights to track if and when airfare drops.

Yes, the holidays often mean bad weather, crowds and delays.

But Waka Blanchard keeps a positive outlook, saying she doesn’t mind dealing with the crowds.

“No, not at all,” she said. “I take a deep a breath, and go with the flow, and if a flight is canceled I just go with it.”

 It’s a good attitude to have as we head into the holiday travel season.

And that way you don’t waste your money.

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