9 Things I Wish I Knew Before I Booked My Christmas Flight

Whereas I usually keep away from flying throughout Christmas week, final 12 months I took a fast journey to Denver, leaving on December 22 and returning residence on the morning of December 25. Whereas my journey went easily and the issues I feared going improper didn’t go improper, it opened my eyes to a wide range of points vacationers might have once they fly through the vacation season.

My son and I made a decision to go skiing comparatively final minute and flew from San Antonio to Denver. Our huge household celebration is on Christmas Day and I booked the 7 a.m. flight residence on December 25, which might get us residence in loads of time for the festivities.

My vacation flight expertise, plus the expertise I had a number of months later once I did get stranded, impressed this piece. Here’s what I want I’d identified — and what I would like different vacationers to know — earlier than reserving a Christmas flight.

1. You Might Be Compensated If Your Flight Is Canceled Or Delayed

Learn the nice print and be sure to perceive what’s going to occur if the airline cancels or modifications your flight or when you cancel or change your flight. Will you get a full refund or credit towards a future flight? That’s essential to know, particularly when you hardly ever journey. Double and triple-check the nice print when you’ve booked a fundamental financial system fare or a low-budget provider.

I like to recommend having journey insurance coverage or including journey safety protection to your flight. No matter you buy, perceive what it does and doesn’t cowl earlier than your journey. I additionally advocate steering away from reserving flights by Expedia, Hotwire, and related websites. Whereas you may get some killer offers, it’s usually a trouble getting customer support when one thing goes improper. The airline would possibly direct you again to the company and the company would possibly direct you again to the airline, leading to extra work in your half to get rebooked or refunded.

The Division of Transportation has an airline customer service dashboard that’s a reference for what varied airways will and received’t compensate for within the occasion of a flight delay.

The underside line is, don’t journey with expectations that the airline will put you up and feed you within the occasion of a flight cancellation or lengthy delay. It doesn’t harm to ask for lodge or meal vouchers however don’t depend on getting them.

2. Obtain The Airline App And Flip On Notifications

Should you haven’t embraced the usage of journey apps, this can be a good time to start out. The airline’s app can retailer your boarding go, eliminating the necessity to print it at residence or stand in line to have somebody print it for you. Most airways have hyperlinks to terminal maps and “The place’s My Aircraft” and chat options. Many airways have leisure portals with motion pictures or tv exhibits to look at in flight. You may as well retailer cost info, which is helpful for purchasing meals and drinks on board, as many airways are shifting away from accepting money.

Additionally obtain lodge apps, rideshare apps, and apps of different airways. In different phrases, all of the journey apps you hope you received’t want. You may delete them while you get residence but when it’s important to scramble to get one other flight or an sudden room for the evening, utilizing the app might be going to be quicker than standing in line or ready on maintain.

Professional Tip: Make sure that the airline is aware of easy methods to attain you. Join textual content and e mail alerts and activate notifications within the airline’s app. 

3. Don’t Wait For Gross sales Or Cut price Fares

Vacation airfares are normally greater. Whereas it’s attainable to snag these last-minute offers, most individuals want to solidify their Christmas plans early. Vacationers don’t need to threat not getting a seat on the aircraft in order that they e-book early, which doesn’t normally lead to financial savings on airfare. 

I’m not saying you’re by no means going to snag a superb deal on vacation airfare, however airways are usually going to benefit from the demand for peak season and never roll out their cut price fares between Thanksgiving and New Yr’s Day. My household and I are flying a number of days earlier than Christmas this 12 months. We booked our December flight in mid-October, after watching the fare for 2 months. We stored hoping for the fare to lower nevertheless it maintained after which went up. 

Whereas airfare offers are at all times on the market, seats on planes are in excessive demand through the holidays and excessive demand can drive up costs.

4. Have Versatile Vacation Plans

Should you’re flying to attend a vacation celebration or household gathering, I like to recommend ensuring your plans are versatile. In different phrases, being late for church or lacking dinner received’t really feel like the tip of the world. I like to recommend padding your journey schedule to get there a day early. This normally mitigates delays. In case your plans to get there early lead to getting there on time, it’s a win.

Our Christmas Day flight arrived at 9 a.m., which was loads of time to get out of the airport and get the place we would have liked to be. If we’d been late, my son and I might have missed a household lunch on Christmas Day. I accepted the danger of lacking the gathering because the flip aspect to going snowboarding proper earlier than Christmas. We reside close to household and it wouldn’t have been catastrophic if two of us had missed lunch however when you’re touring a distance to see family members you hardly ever get to see, a day-of arrival could be chopping it too shut.

5. Nonstop Flights = Much less Threat Of Delays

Including layovers to your journey ups your odds of getting stranded someplace you don’t need to be. Once you take a direct flight, you solely have to fret about one flight being on time. You’ll additionally scale back your threat of misplaced baggage, which is very problematic when you’ve packed items in your checked baggage.

Additionally, be sure to perceive the distinction between nonstop and direct flights. A nonstop flight is precisely what it seems like — a flight between two factors that doesn’t cease. A direct flight is a flight between two factors that stops for passengers and/or gas. Passengers could or is probably not required to deplane, however the flight quantity, boarding go, and seat stay the identical.

6. Scout Potential Perks

Take a look at your airline loyalty accounts in addition to bank card perks to see if factors or standing could earn you an improve. That is additionally a superb time to see you probably have any advantages which are near expiring, akin to drink coupons or airport lounge passes. Take into consideration cashing in your factors for one thing that may make your flight extra comfy akin to cabin upgrades to get extra legroom or precedence boarding. Some bank cards additionally supply reductions on pre-screening applications, akin to Clear, to assist get you thru safety quicker.

7. Make investments In TSA PreCheck, World Entry, Or Clear

TSA PreCheck and Clear are pre-screening applications that enable vacationers entry to shorter safety lanes and exempt them from sure necessities, akin to eradicating footwear and taking electronics out of their baggage. World Entry is a program that expedites entry into the US for prescreened vacationers. These applications can scale back the size of time you stand in line to get by safety or immigration.

Based on the TSA, approval for precheck usually takes three to 5 days however in sure circumstances, it will possibly take so long as 60 days. TSA PreCheck is legitimate for 5 years and prices $78.

Clear registration is faster and dearer. The complete Clear course of took me about 5 minutes on the airport throughout a non-busy time. Should you’re signing up for Clear with the intent to make use of it over the vacations, I like to recommend beginning the method on-line and finishing it at one of many Clear stations within the airport. Clear is $189 per 12 months however many bank cards and mileage loyalty applications supply reductions.

World Entry’s software course of takes round 90-days and requires an interview. The value is $100 for 5 years and grants entry to TSA Precheck lanes as nicely.

Whereas Clear’s value doesn’t make sense for somebody who doesn’t journey often, I’ve seen them do on-the-spot free trials within the airport, so if the road is lengthy and somebody asks if you need a 30-day trial, say sure. Simply don’t neglect to cancel the membership when you don’t need to pay for the complete 12 months.

8. The Quantity Of Carry-On Baggage Might Fluctuate By Fare Class

There’s no good time to have an airline lose your bag (or inform you it went someplace totally different than you probably did) however the holidays are an particularly inconvenient time to take care of the complications that go along with misplaced or delayed baggage. The airways can’t lose your bag if you don’t give it to them.

Minimal travel isn’t for everybody. You might want to hold drugs or different objects that aren’t permitted in a carry-on bag. Make sure that your fare class permits a carry-on curler board suitcase. Should you e-book a bare-bones financial system fare, you could forfeit the appropriate to convey your suitcase on the aircraft. 

Skipping the strains for check-in or baggage drop and bypassing the luggage carousel saves time, an enormous profit when the airports are busy.

Professional Tip: Should you’re flying a price range airline, akin to Spirit or Frontier, be sure to are conscious of the size for carry-on baggage and whether or not you’ll be charged further to convey one on board.

9. Airport Eating places Might Not Be Open 

Should you’re flying on a serious vacation, don’t depend on airport eating places and retailers being open. Nobody plans on skipping a meal as a result of a delay nevertheless it occurs. Whereas a stash of granola bars and beef jerky may appear a poor substitute for turkey and pie, being hangry when you wait out flight delays will solely make your state of affairs really feel worse.

Professional Tip: Seize a water bottle — make certain it’s empty while you undergo safety — and fill it at a bottle filling station contained in the terminal.