We are now in the prime booking window for holiday flights.
As we often report, Best time to book flights at cheapest airfare One to two months ahead of schedule. We’re now just past the one-month window for Thanksgiving and the two-month window for Christmas, so airfares should be the cheapest around this time.
If you wait too long, prices will increase as we get closer to the holidays, so consider this your fair warning for booking. For the cheapest domestic travel, plan to book Thanksgiving flights in early to mid-October and Christmas trips through Halloween. The cheapest vacation airfare deals are typically available in October.
Unfortunately, our latest data analysis of 2025 holiday prices for flights shows that fares are increasing year on year, although fortunately, they have not increased that fast we saw last monthStill, it’s time to book.
Our advice to find the cheapest prices ahead of time is to monitor your search three months in advance of the date you want to travel. (Although, obviously, you should immediately consider any deals you find before then.)
Try to book everything by Halloween. This is a good aim, although after that you’ll probably still have a few more weeks to book Christmas flights.
This is also in line with Google’s report.
- Average prices for Thanksgiving trips are lowest 35 days before departure.
- Average prices for Christmas and New Year trips are lowest 51 days before departure.
i’m a big fan of google flights Because you can set alerts for specific destinations.
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Sadly, there’s no secret to the “best day or time of day” to book, so logging in at midnight on a Tuesday won’t save you money. That said, there are better days of the week to travel.
Your best bet is to fly mid-week, especially on Wednesdays, for both domestic and international travel. Flying on holidays can also save you big. For example, if you’re willing to fly on Thanksgiving Day or Christmas Eve, you’ll likely save a lot.
Also remember that if you book now, you can get a trip credit for the fare difference if the price drops as long as you book the basic economy fare. That’s why TPG always recommends booking the Standard Economy fare and not the Basic Economy fare.
Connected: Airlines offer you credit when airfare prices go down
Pricing Trends for 2025 Holidays
Our final report on holiday airfare trends is not what we were expecting to share. Unfortunately, in most cases fares have been increasing year after year… at least, when it comes to vacations.
New data from our friends at Points Path shows that fares are higher for both Thanksgiving and Christmas trips, except for a few specific cabins and dates.
Points Path is a free web browser extension that shows points and miles award values in Google Flights along with cash fares. Points Path uses extensive access to search data to better understand how airlines are currently pricing flights.
Connected: How to Use the Points Path Extension to Compare Cash and Rewards Rates in Google Flights
thanksgiving prices
We looked at over 100,000 flights with affordable fares during Thanksgiving week, as well as search data for international coach and premium cabins. The data was collected till October 19.
Overall, coach prices in the US are up about 3.4% year over year to just under $586 for the Thanksgiving holiday.
For domestic fares, business class and premium economy prices have declined between 1% and 5%, although average fares for first class have increased by a whopping 12%.
International prices for coach tickets are increasing about 3% year over year, although we are seeing steep declines of between 6% and 35% in international premium economy, business-class and first-class cabins.
If you’re looking to splurge on premium cabins internationally, there’s good news for you for Thanksgiving.
Christmas prices
Prices for Christmas flights show similar trends, with the average cost of domestic economy flights at around $639, compared to around $633 in 2024. Fares in coach are up by about 1% year on year.
Domestic flights in premium cabins have seen a huge year-on-year price increase of 8% to 14%.
So far international fares have generally declined year over year, averaging $1,258 for coach tickets.
Unfortunately, the year-over-year decline in airfares we saw earlier this year did not continue into the holidays. Prices are generally high, especially for domestic rentals.
Still, fares aren’t likely to be much lower than that in the next few weeks, so now is the time to book.
Connected: New data shows steep drop in airfares for Labor Day
Other Tips for Cheap Vacation Flights
We have some other tips for finding cheap leisure flights (as well as other peak travel windows).
Remember that when cash prices are high, you may deplete your points and miles reserves. You’re likely to get the best value when cash prices are high such as they typically are during the holidays.
Also, try flying on non-peak days, getting to your destination earlier or staying longer. You’ll often get a better deal, for example, if you can, say, go home for Christmas for a few weeks rather than a few days.
Try to be flexible with days and times. Often, you’ll get the best deal on a flight that departs at 6 a.m. rather than 10 a.m. Depending on the price difference, it may be worth getting up at 4 a.m. to save some cash. The same applies to red-eye flights, which are often the cheapest flights of the day.
Finally, set Google Keep an eye out for flight alerts and prices over the next few weeks. And like I said before, try not to wait until after Halloween to book your tickets.
ground level
Points Path and TPG found that vacation rentals for 2025 are generally higher year over year. Prices are likely to remain at their lowest level in the next few weeks, he said. It’s time to start booking.
We always recommend booking domestic flights one to two months ahead of time. But remember that if you are Using Airline MilesIt’s never too early to start checking in and booking.
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