November is just a few weeks away, and that means there’s one big question on every American’s mind. Okay, we can’t answer that one, but we can help with a different one: What should we expect from holiday travel in 2024?
There’s good news and bad news. First, this may be one of the busiest travel seasons in recent memory, which could mean long lines and delays, but with some strategic planning, travelers can be prepared, avoid the worst, and snag some great travel deals.
How people are thinking about travel for the holidays in 2024
We surveyed more than 4,000 members of point.me to find out how their holiday travel plans are shaping up. What we learned:
- Most people will travel for at least one holiday this season, with the majority traveling for Christmas
- More than half of people haven’t booked their travel as of early October
- Economic concerns aren’t stopping most people from traveling
- Flying remains the most popular way to travel for the holidays, and people are looking to leverage points for those flights
Most people will travel for at least one holiday
Overall, 80% of people expect to travel for at least one holiday between Thanksgiving, Christmas, or New Year’s, with the majority of those travelers planning their trips for Christmas and the smallest group planning their trips for New Year’s.
Advance planning varies among those who have decided and those who haven’t
Of those planning to travel, 46% or more have already made their plans, and fewer than 13% are waiting until the final four weeks to book their trips. That’s good news, as award space can sell out, and cash fares can rise rapidly the closer you get to departure.
Among those who are uncertain if they’ll travel, the majority will decide 3-6 weeks in advance. Thanksgiving travelers are more likely to wait until the last two weeks, while Christmas travelers are more likely to make their decisions 7+ weeks in advance.
Cost is not a major factor keeping people home
When it comes to why people aren’t traveling, the two main reasons are that people simply prefer to stay home or that they have family or work commitments. People were more likely to cite a preference for staying home over New Year’s and more likely to cite family and work commitments for Christmas. Only 13-18% cited cost concerns as their reason to stay home.
Leisure trips are a driver of travel across the holidays
Perhaps surprisingly, across all three holidays, the majority of people are actually traveling for tourism. People are most likely to be visiting family for Thanksgiving and least likely to do so for New Year’s. And we’re happy to see that only a very small percentage of people are traveling for business over the holidays.
Even though tourism accounts for a slight majority of trips, a lot of holiday travelers will visit family, so it makes sense that many are also traveling domestically and visiting places they have already been to.
Just as Thanksgiving travelers are the most likely to visit family, they are also the most likely to visit a domestic location and, along with Christmas travelers, the most likely to be returning to a place they have already been. And just as New Year’s travelers were the least likely to be visiting family, they were the most likely to be traveling internationally and the most likely to be visiting a new place.
Flying is the dominant method of transportation
Across the holidays, more than two-thirds of people will travel by plane, with those international New Year’s travelers slightly more likely to fly and the domestic-traveling, family-visiting Thanksgiving travelers a bit more likely to drive.
Of those who will fly, close to half plan to redeem points for their flights.
Thanksgiving travel
Best and worst days to fly for Thanksgiving 2024
In 2021, 2022, and 2023, the Sunday after Thanksgiving was the single busiest day of the year to fly from U.S. airports, and in 2023, the day actually set a record for the TSA for the highest number of people ever screened in a single day: more than 2.9 million. That record was actually broken by several days in 2024 already, so there’s no reason to think we won’t see even more people pass through TSA on Sunday, December 1.
Comparatively, Thanksgiving is actually a pretty great day to fly, as most people already want to be where they’re going and have flown to their destination earlier. In 2023, for example, while 2.9 million passed through TSA on the Sunday after Thanksgiving, only 1.5 million people did so on Thanksgiving day.
Best days to fly: Saturday, November 23; Monday, November 25; Thursday, November 28
Worst days to fly: Saturday, November 30; Sunday, December 1
Top destinations for Thanksgiving
With so many people traveling domestically for Thanksgiving, it’s actually a perfect time to snag great deals to international destinations. As a bonus, it’s off-season in many places, including Europe, so prices tend to be lower. In recent weeks, we’ve seen some amazing fares for Thanksgiving week, including (all fares listed one way):
- Seattle to Tokyo in premium economy starting at 40,000 points
- Orlando to London in business starting at 45,000 points
- London to Tampa in business starting at 70,000 points
- Paris to Boston in economy starting at 21,000 points
Top domestic Thanksgiving destinations
- Honolulu (Oahu), HI
- Los Angeles, CA
- New York, NY
- San Francisco, CA
- Miami, FL
- Kahului (Maui), HI
- Las Vegas, NV
- Chicago, IL
- Orlando, FL
- Atlanta, GA
Top international Thanksgiving destinations
- London, UK
- Paris, France
- Tokyo, Japan
- New Delhi, India
- Cancun, Mexico
- Rome, Italy
- Mumbai, India
- Madrid, Spain
- Bangkok, Thailand
- Amsterdam, Netherlands
Christmas travel
Best and worst days to fly for Christmas 2024
Throughout 2023, the busiest days, on average, at U.S. airports have been Fridays, and the Friday before Christmas, along with the following few days, will likely be the busiest for Christmas travel as well. Similar to Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day are comparatively quiet days for air travel.
Best days to fly: Tuesday, December 24 through Friday, December 27
Worst days to fly: Friday, December 20 through Monday, December 23
Top destinations for Christmas
Christmas is one of the most expensive times to travel, both domestically and internationally. While flight prices tend to rise across all destinations, hotel prices can also soar in popular spots like Hawaii, the Caribbean, and Australia. If you’re looking to vacation on a budget, consider places that don’t celebrate a major holiday in December or where Christianity isn’t the dominant religion; in spots like Morocco, Vietnam, Turkey, Japan, and many others, costs don’t rise as dramatically over the Christmas period.
While the window is closing for finding great deals on airfare over the Christmas holiday, there are still some excellent fares available (all fares listed one way).
- Dallas to Los Cabos in business class for 17,000 points
- Charlotte to Nassau, Bahamas in economy for 9,000 points
- Charlotte to Providenciales, Turks and Caicos Islands in economy for 9,000 points
- San Francisco to Papeete, Tahiti in economy for 35,000 points
Top domestic Christmas destinations
- Honolulu (Oahu), HI
- Los Angeles, CA
- Kahului (Maui), HI
- New York, NY
- Miami, FL
- Orlando, FL
- San Francisco, CA
- Las Vegas, NV
- Kona (Big Island), HI
- Denver, CO
Top international Christmas destinations
- London, UK
- Tokyo, Japan
- Paris, France
- Bangkok, Thailand
- Taipei, Taiwan
- Dubai, UAE
- Sydney, Australia
- Rome, Italy
- Madrid, Spain
- Singapore
New Year’s travel
Best and worst days to fly for New Year’s 2024
With New Year’s following hot on the heels of Christmas, many of the best and worst days to fly overlap. If you’re skipping travel for Christmas and flying out afterward, you’ll likely see fewer crowds on the Thursday and Friday after Christmas, with passenger numbers increasing as New Year’s Eve approaches. Like Christmas and Thanksgiving, New Year’s Eve can actually be great days to fly, especially on an overnight flight. From the Thursday after New Year’s until that Sunday, prices will be at a premium, and passenger numbers will be higher as people try to fly home before work starts back up post-holiday.
Best days to fly: Thursday, December 26 and Friday, December 27; Tuesday, December 31
Worst days to fly: Saturday, December 28 to Monday, December 30; Thursday, January 2 to Sunday, January 5
Top destinations for New Year’s
There’s no getting around it; most places will be expensive to travel to over the New Year holiday, both in terms of flying there and when it comes to hotels. Places renowned for their New Year celebrations (think: Berlin, Rio, New York, Sydney, Reykjavik, and others) will likely cost the most as thousands, or even millions, of people head to those cities to ring in the New Year. Warm weather destinations accessible from the U.S. (think: Hawaii, the Caribbean) can also be quite expensive as it’s peak season there.
For flights, fares will also be at a premium, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t some great deals to be found (all fares listed one way).
- Newark to Casablanca, Morocco in business class for 55,000 points
- Chicago to Tenerife, Spain in business class for 50,000 points
- Los Angeles to Oslo in business class for 76,500 points
- Washington, DC to Lisbon in economy for 22,000 points
Top domestic New Year’s destinations
- Honolulu (Oahu), HI
- Los Angeles, CA
- Kahului (Maui), HI
- Miami, FL
- New York, NY
- Orlando, FL
- Las Vegas, NV
- Fort Lauderdale, FL
- San Francisco, CA
- Salt Lake City, UT
Top international New Year’s destinations
- Tokyo, Japan
- London, UK
- Paris, France
- Bangkok, Thailand
- Dubai, UAE
- Taipei, Taiwan
- Sydney, Australia
- Singapore
- Cancun, Mexico
- Mumbai, India
Tips for holiday travel in 2024
Planning a trip over Thanksgiving, Christmas, or New Year’s this year? Here are some things to consider.
The actual holiday is the quietest, and often cheapest, day to travel
Most people don’t want to travel on Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and New Year’s Eve. If you’re willing, you’ll spend less and deal with shorter lines and fewer crowds at the airport.
Getting anywhere warm will be difficult or expensive
Late November into early January kicks off the high season in many warm-weather destinations like the Caribbean, Hawaii, and Mexico, and award space will be extremely limited. If you’re set on visiting one of these places, it helps to be flexible on your travel dates or airports.
Early January will be very busy
Thursday. January 2 to Sunday, January 5, will be one of the hardest times to snag award space as millions of people try to return home after the New Year in time for work to start on Monday. You’ll have an easier time finding seats and spend less if you fly back either before or several days after (like January 10 or later) the holiday.
Build in a buffer
Let’s say you do book a flight back on January 3, and it gets canceled. With flights sold out for the 4th and 5th, you might not get home until a few days later. Plan for the worst and make sure you can adjust should you get delayed coming home.
Book your flights for earlier in the day
Delays stack up; once one flight is delayed, the next one using that plane will be delayed, and so on and so on. To reduce your chances of getting delayed or missing a connection, book your flights as early in the day as you can.
Allow extra time
Airports will be busier than normal during the holidays, so even if you have TSA PreCheck or CLEAR, allow some extra time to check your bag, get through TSA, and navigate through the masses of people crowding the airport. If you’ve got a layover, it’s wise to err on the longer side as well, not only in case of delays but also to allow yourself — and your checked bag — more time to get through the airport and onto your next flight.
Pack light and pack smart
More people traveling = more bags to transport = more chances for your bag to be lost or delayed. Sometimes, you can’t help but check a bag, but if you must, make sure that anything vital to your trip (that dress you have to wear on Christmas Eve) or valuable (the engagement ring for your New Year’s Eve proposal) stays with you in the cabin.
While you can bring wrapped gifts, the TSA recommends you travel with gifts unwrapped, as they may need to unwrap them to examine them. And yes, you can bring pie on a plane.
How you book matters
Whether you use case or points, booking directly with the airline can help you in case things go wrong. When you book with a third party like an OTA or your credit card portal, you can end up in an endless blame loop, with the third party telling you to contact the airline and the airline telling you to contact the third party. Booking directly with the airline generally gets you better, faster customer service — which can mean the difference between getting home on the next flight or spending the night in your layover airport.
If you’re booking with cash, use a credit card that offers travel protections such as coverage for cancellations, delays, and lost luggage.
Booking with points can help you
When you book with points, you’ll be in main economy or above, which generally means boarding earlier (less chance the overheads will fill up, and you’ll have to gate check your carry-on), and you can change your flight for free.
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