Is Thanksgiving day a good time to fly?

November 22, 2020 11:55 AM

It seems to me that most people won't be traveling on Thanksgiving day, especially in the afternoon. Is this intuition correct?
posted by uninformative to Travel & Transportation (14 answers total)

For years I always travelled Thanksgiving morning or early afternoon and it's been a breeze every time. Not very crowded at all. Usually Amtrak NE Corridor or a bus. (I'm not going anywhere this year, for obvious reasons.)
posted by Ampersand692 at 11:59 AM on November 22, 2020 [2 favorites]

Are you in the US? The CDC is recommending no travel this holiday.
posted by cozenedindigo at 12:01 PM on November 22, 2020 [29 favorites]

Anecdotally: I travelled from NYC (Penn) to Philly by Amtrak on Thanksgiving (morning) a few years back and it wasn't crazy busy, but it wasn't empty either.

(I then flew out of the international terminal at Philly, and that was a ghost town)

But yeah, this year? Stay at home. Please.
posted by parm at 12:04 PM on November 22, 2020 [2 favorites]

In other years? Maybe - you may run into a handful of people who are trying to get back home the same day, but it should be a little light.

This year? Don't.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 12:18 PM on November 22, 2020 [4 favorites]

Aside from Covid, yes, major holidays are usually good days to fly. I once got on a Christmas Day flight with like 5 other people. It was lovely.

Thanksgiving can be a bit iffy -- weather issues in many years + the usual massive load of holiday travelers + the short length of the Thanksgiving holiday for most = people getting bumped and Wednesday flights getting delayed into Thursday with corresponding schedule changes for Thursday flights and huge amounts of people stuck at airports. This year I'm assuming that won't happen given the much smaller number of travelers and a lack of news about big blizzards happening right now.
posted by BlahLaLa at 12:29 PM on November 22, 2020 [1 favorite]

Hey everyone, just a reminder that the poster hasn't said anything about traveling themselves. They are asking whether an intuition they have about holiday travel is correct.

Agreed with BlahLaLa that in recent years it seems like Thanksgiving day travel hasn't actually been quite as light and easy as I remember from, say, 20 years ago when it was a sure-fire empty-plane situation. Driving traffic in particular seems to be pretty terrible on the day. Christmas day travel, on the other hand, still seems to be very light everywhere.

My theory is that people don't get that Wednesday before Thanksgiving off as often anymore. They are far more likely to have had Christmas Eve off or even the 23rd, so they can get a jump start on the travel. Plus, at least some people are likely to have caught on to the "trick" of traveling on the day.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 1:35 PM on November 22, 2020 [7 favorites]

I flew from LGA to Denver on Thanksgiving morning about 5 years ago and it was PACKED.
posted by maggiemaggie at 4:38 PM on November 22, 2020

I can say that driving somewhere on Thanksgiving Day has always been generally clear -ish wherever I've gone in NorCal. I can't speak for public transport though.
posted by jenfullmoon at 5:24 PM on November 22, 2020 [1 favorite]

15 years ago I scheduled a flight from Amsterdam to NYC on Christmas, thinking it wouldn't be crowded. It was packed.
posted by brujita at 5:45 PM on November 22, 2020

For many years I would try to schedule flights on big holidays such as Thanksgiving and Christmas Day. I never failed to have multiple seats open around me and a very nice flight crew in the holiday spirit. I do not know about this year bc of covid. I would also say it is a function of how many flights going to that destination are flying that day and the day before the holiday. Generally, the flights will go off because they need to position the plane for the next day.

One way to check a specific flight is to go online and try to book a seat. Or call the airline and ask about that flight.You don't actually have to book the seat, just begin the process and check out the seat availability.
posted by AugustWest at 9:44 PM on November 22, 2020

I flew late evening on New Year’s Eve once. As soon as we reached cruising altitude, the flight attendants hauled out the champagne. The plane was packed. It was a long haul international flight so they are not as affected by actual holiday dates. OTOH, free drinks.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 4:38 AM on November 23, 2020

Response by poster: I should clarify. I'm currently visiting my parents, away from my usual residence (in the United States). My worry is that because Covid is only getting worse in the US, it will become increasingly dangerous to travel over the coming months, and I don't want to be stuck away from home for an indefinite period of time. So it occurred to me that it would be best to travel soon, and maybe on Thanksgiving because most people might already be at their destination for the holiday.

Thanks.
posted by uninformative at 11:44 AM on November 23, 2020 [2 favorites]

It definitely should be less busy than other days around the holiday, especially tomorrow and this Sunday, but I don't know how it would compare to a random day in early December. (The somewhat good news is that even though passenger numbers are increasing, they're still substantially lower than any day last year.) I think one consideration is the risk that since so many people are going against CDC advice and visiting family for Thanksgiving, the people who are flying afterward are more likely to be infected, so that would be an argument for traveling on Thanksgiving. If you're saying that you're outside the US right now, and you have flexibility, I would strongly consider staying away longer-term, though.
posted by pinochiette at 4:46 AM on November 24, 2020

Thanks for the update - that changes things.

I think international flights arriving in the US may indeed, in theory, be a little less on Thanksgiving evening. Many of the expats who would be returning "home for Thanksgiving" would be already there. However, you may see an increase in people who were there for dinner and then had to fly back home across country right after because they couldn't get the day off work - then again, that would be domestic travel.

However, you may also want to look into what the travel restrictions are in your home state when it comes to re-entry. Some states have travel restrictions in place whereby if you're arriving into the state after more than 24 hours away, you may be asked to self-quarantine for 15 days. (That's one of many reasons I'm not traveling this year - NY would make me self-quarantine.) I'd check what the situation is for your returning in your case.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 1:04 PM on November 24, 2020