11 Things to Do Right Now if You’re Planning to Travel During the Holiday Season

Google Flights is a great tool to help you get started on your holiday travel planning. If you’re not quite ready to book your flight yet, you can set up an alert to receive regular updates when the price drops for your preferred route and dates.

You can also see a calendar overview of the lowest-priced flights, so you can see if the cost is trending up or down.

For Christmas flights, there will generally be a sharp increase in the price by the time late October rolls around. So while you may want to roll the dice and hope the cost of your flight will keep dropping, by October, it’s decision time.

Airline fares are priced dynamically. That is to say that the more demand there is for a route or schedule, the bigger the price tag for that flight.

Flexibility is the key to getting the best rate for your Christmas flights.

In general, early morning flights–think crack of dawn–are less expensive. But there is an added bonus to booking the first flight of the day. In addition to saving money, you’ll also greatly decrease your chances of experiencing a flight delay or cancellation.

If you don’t mind flying on Christmas Day, that is often a sweet spot for good flight deals, since most people don’t want to fly on the actual holiday.

If the flights from your home or destination airport are out of your price range, regional airports could provide a great alternative. Again, it’s a matter of dynamic pricing.

For example, if most holiday travelers want to fly out of Philadelphia International, you might consider the smaller Trenton-Mercer Airport, less than an hour away. In Los Angeles, rather than LAX, passengers can often snag lower-priced flights out of John Wayne Airport or Hollywood Burbank Airport.

Look for your flights where there is less demand, and you’ll almost always be rewarded with a less expensive fare.

There are smart ways to use your points and miles, and then there are wasteful ways to redeem them. My colleagues at The Points Guy provide a super-helpful (and free) “Awards vs. Cash” calculator to assist travelers in deciding whether it’s worth it to redeem miles for a flight.

The Christmas holidays, when flights are generally at a premium, are a great time to consider cashing in your points. Of course, you need to do this well in advance because award seats always have limited availability.

If you intend to redeem points for your holiday travel, you should get right to it. Now.

If your holiday travel will include more than just a flight, then you could reduce the overall cost of your trip by bundling everything together.

Many airlines now offer their customers the ability to add car rentals and hotels to their flight plans. Before deciding to bundle your trip, make sure to do exact-match comparison shopping. Third-party booking agents often build packages with run-of-the-house hotel rooms and basic economy airline tickets to get those discounted rates.

It’s critical that you not skim over the terms and conditions of your travel package before booking. These bundles frequently come with strict cancellation policies and can’t be altered. If your plans change, even slightly, you could be out of luck. Additionally, your ability to earn frequent flyer miles or use your loyalty program benefits may be restricted.

If you’re a novice traveler, a professional travel advisor can provide crucial guidance to help you save money on your holiday flights.

If you don’t already have a trusted travel advisor of your own, I recommend using the American Society of Travel Advisors’ (ASTA) website VeriVacation. It can connect you with professional agents who know exactly how to find the most affordable flights for your holiday travels.

Additionally, experienced travel agents often have insider connections and information that can provide you with extra benefits during your journey.

Many premium credit cards provide membership benefits that can include a basic travel insurance policy. This coverage can save you hundreds of dollars if you experience an extended flight delay or cancellation during your holiday travels that causes you to incur additional expenses (hotel, food, etc).

Cards like the American Express Platinum Card and the Chase Sapphire include travel insurance benefits and car rental coverage as part of your membership. If you have a premium credit card, make sure to use it to pay for your holiday flights to provide that extra layer of protection.

Many travelers share a common misconception that travel insurance is a scam. As a consumer advocate who often handles the aftermath of expensive travel mishaps, I couldn’t disagree more. Nearly all the complaints I receive about travel insurance come from travelers who didn’t understand their policy or how to use it.

Any time you have a nonrefundable part of a trip–whether you’re traveling domestically or internationally–you should insure it. That includes nonrefundable flights or other aspects of your journey, like a vacation rental. But it is crucial to read the policy during the 14-day lookover period to make sure you understand it.

Sites like Squaremouth and InsureMyTrip allow you to compare various travel insurance policies based on your personal details.

If you’re booking nonrefundable, basic economy flights or consolidator tickets, which typically come with “use-it or lose-it” terms, it is imperative that you buy travel insurance protection. That is, unless you can afford to lose all your money if you miss your holiday flight.

I don’t have to tell you that late December is chaotic in airports around the world. You can expect to experience long lines, angry fellow passengers, and irritated TSA and airline employees everywhere. Travelers must calculate this chaos into their plans.

Remember, if you get held up at check-in or TSA and miss your flight, that is your problem, not the airlines.

Check your airline’s contract of carriage to ensure you understand the required time you must be checked in before departure. Some airlines, like Frontier, have a strict one-hour cut-off. If you’re not checked in by your airline’s cut-off, you’ll be considered a no-show even if you’re standing in one of those long lines I mentioned before. (FYI: Airlines do not refund no-shows.)

The best way to combat holiday havoc is to show up at the airport three or more hours before your flight’s departure. During the end-of-year holidays, it is crucial that you show up at the airport well before your flight’s scheduled departure. If you don’t, you might end up going nowhere but back home.

Last December I wrote about a hopeful change in airline passengers’ rights in the United States. Unfortunately, since that time, the proposal has been squashed.

Domestically, there remains no requirement for airlines to provide compensation (or duty-of-care amenities) to passengers after a flight delay or cancellation.

The Department of Transportation only requires an airline to do one of two things during an extended flight delay or cancellation: Move the passenger to the next available flight on their own fleet. Depending on availability, this replacement flight could be hours or even days later. Or, refund the passenger’s ticket, so that they can find their own alternative transportation.

That’s the entire scope of required action by your airline if you experience a long flight delay or cancellation domestically. However, many U.S.-based airlines have independently agreed to guarantee their passengers basic duty-of-care benefits like food vouchers and hotels.

Before you set off on your holiday travels, make sure to check what your airline has agreed to do if you experience a delayed or canceled flight–and how to access those benefits. Typically, your airline’s contract of carriage, which will contain that information, can be found in the footer of its website.

Before heading to the airport for your holiday travels, download your airline’s app onto your mobile device. This will ensure that you’ll only get official notifications about your flight from your airline.

We know that scam airline call centers and fake customer service agents continue to plague the Internet. I regularly receive requests for help from airline passengers who have fallen prey to faulty Google search results that led them straight into the hands of bad actors pretending to represent various airlines. Unfortunately, since I first began reporting on this scheme, the risk to travelers has only increased.

The good news is that you can dodge the bad actors completely if you download your airline’s app. Not only will you get real-time information about your flight, you’ll be sure to always have your airline’s official contact information–and avoid the scammers whose only goal is to help themselves…to your money.