We are now at the main booking window for holiday flights.
As we often report, the The best time to book flights with the cheapest airfare. It’s one or two months ahead of schedule. We are now just ahead of the one-month window for Thanksgiving and two months for Christmas, so airfares should be cheaper around this time.
If you wait too long, prices will increase as we get closer to the holidays, so consider this fair warning to start booking. For the cheapest domestic travel, plan to book Thanksgiving flights in early to mid-October and Christmas travel before Halloween. The cheapest vacation airfare deals are usually available in October.
Unfortunately, our latest data analysis of flight prices for the 2025 holidays shows that fares are increasing year over year, although fortunately they are not increasing as drastically as we saw last month. Still, it’s time to book.
Our advice for finding the cheapest prices in advance is to keep an eye on your search starting three months before the dates you want to travel. (Though you should obviously take advantage of any deals you find before then.)
Try to have everything reserved for Halloween. It’s a good goal, although you probably have a few more weeks to book Christmas flights.
That also agrees with what Google reports.
- Average prices for Thanksgiving trips tend to be lowest 35 days before departure.
- Average prices for Christmas and New Year’s trips tend to be lowest 51 days before departure.
I am a big fan of Google Flights because you can set alerts for particular destinations.
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Unfortunately, there’s no secret “best day or time of day” to book, so logging in at midnight on Tuesday won’t save you any money. That being said, there are better days of the week to travel.
Your best bet is to fly during the week, specifically on Wednesdays, for both domestic and international travel. Flying during the holidays can also lead to big savings. For example, if you’re willing to fly on Thanksgiving Day or Christmas Eve, you’ll probably save a lot of money.
Also remember that if you book now, you can get a travel credit for the fare difference if the price drops, as long as you don’t book basic economy fares. That’s why TPG always recommends booking standard economy and non-basic economy fares.
Related: Airlines that offer you a credit if the price of the air ticket drops
Price trends for holidays 2025
Our final report on holiday airfare trends is not what we expected to share. Unfortunately, rates increase year after year in most cases…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 sailings, aside from a few specific cabins and dates.
Points Path is a free web browser extension that displays points and mileage award prices on Google Flights, along with cash fares. Points Path uses extensive search data to better understand how airlines currently price flights.
Related: How to use the Points Path extension to compare cash and award fares on Google Flights
thanksgiving prices
We analyzed more than 100,000 low-fare flights during Thanksgiving week, along with search data for international economy and premium cabins. Data was collected starting October 19.
Overall, coach prices within the US increased about 3.4% year over year, to just under $586 for the Thanksgiving holiday.
For domestic fares, business class and premium economy prices are down between 1% and 5%, although average first class fares are up a whopping 12%.
International coach ticket prices have increased by approximately 3% year on year, although we are seeing sharp drops of between 6% and 35% in international premium economy, business class and first class cabins.
This is good news for Thanksgiving if you want to splurge on premium cabins internationally.
Christmas prices
Holiday flight prices show similar trends: Domestic economy flights cost an average of about $639 compared to about $633 in 2024. Economy fares are about 1% higher year-over-year.
Domestic flights in premium cabins show even steeper year-over-year price increases of 8% to 14%.
International fares have generally dropped year-over-year so far, to an average of $1,258 for coach tickets.
Unfortunately, the year-over-year decline in airfares we saw earlier this year has not lasted into the holidays. Prices are generally higher, especially for domestic rates.
Still, rates aren’t likely to drop much lower than they are in the coming weeks, so it’s time to book.
Related: New data shows sharp drop in airfares for Labor Day
Other tips for cheap vacation flights
We’ve got some other tips for finding cheaper holiday flights (as well as other peak travel windows).
Remember that when cash prices are high, you can dip into your stash of points and miles. You’re likely to get the most value when cash prices are highest, as they often are during the holidays.
Also, try to fly on off-peak days, get to your destination earlier, or stay longer. You’ll often get a better deal, for example, if you can, say, come 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 leaves at 6am instead of 10am. Depending on the price difference, it may be worth getting up at 4am to save some money. The same goes for night flights, which are usually the cheapest flights of the day.
Finally, set Google flight alerts and price tracking in the coming weeks. And like I said before, try not to wait after Halloween to reserve your tickets.
In a nutshell
Points Path and TPG find that rates for the 2025 holidays are generally higher year over year. That said, prices are likely to reach their lowest level over the next few weeks. It’s time to start booking.
We always recommend booking domestic flights one or two months in advance. But remember that if you are using airline milesIt’s never too early to start checking and booking.
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