Holiday travel: The cost of Thanksgiving flights right now
Gas prices are up and down, regional airlines are here one day and gone the next, lots of sources said buy your holiday flights — last month. I say, let’s look at the actual prices of flights if I booked right now, today. Obviously I can’t look up flights to every location across the U.S., so let me know in the comments where you are trying to fly out to, and I’ll look up the price for you. Until then, here are some round-trip sample fares, including tax.
Tips: Farecast’s early look at holiday travel showed that flying Wednesday–Sunday was considerably more expensive than flying Monday–Thursday. So how do you save money? Flying on the holiday itself, using alternate airports and flying with a stop or stops as opposed to nonstop can also bring the cost down. But let’s test the fares that are available for popular peak travel times.
Round-trip fares (including tax) departing Los Angeles (LAX) to the following cities Wednesday, Nov. 26, to Sunday, Nov. 30, 2008.
Boston (BOS) — $617 on Alaska or American Airlines via Orbitz; Kayak showed cheaper flights via Travelocity and CheapTickets in the range of $560 but seats were few.
Chicago (CHI) —$605 on United via Orbitz and Kayak was similar at $599 for United as well. Southwest was $582, but there weren’t that many seats or time options for the cheapest rates.
Denver (DEN) —$397 on United and Delta via Kayak and CheapTickets. Southwest had a flight for $345 that included one leg as a Web-only fare, and another time had only one remaining timeslot for the return fare at the cheapest rate.
Houston (HOU) —$395 on Continental via Kayak. Other searches were a lot more, example $592 on Southwest.
New York (JFK) —$489 on Delta via Kayak. Other searches were a lot more, example $1,084 on Virgin America (but flying on different dates was cheaper).
San Francisco (SFO) —$220 on United via Kayak. The fare was $211 on Southwest but limited times applied.
Seattle (SEA) — $424 on Northwest via Kayak. The fare was $472 on Southwest and they were just about sold out at that rate.
Washington, D.C. (IAD) —$595 on United via Kayak. It was $681 on Southwest and $789 on JetBlue for flying out of Long Beach.
– Jen Leo, Los Angeles Times Travel & Deal blogger
[Image: Diane Bigda / For the Los Angeles Times]
6 Comments on “Holiday travel: The cost of Thanksgiving flights right now”
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September 3rd, 2008 at 1:20 pm
Can you get round trip fare (economy?) from LAX to Harlingen, TX?
Thanks.
mlk
September 3rd, 2008 at 2:02 pm
how about flights to europe, like sevilla, or berlin?
thanks.
September 3rd, 2008 at 5:51 pm
Hi Melville,
I found flights on Continental between LAX and Harlingen, TX (HRL) Nov. 26-30 for $585 round trip, including taxes with one stop via Kayak.com and CheapTickets.
Good luck safe travels,
– Jen Leo, Los Angeles Times Travel & Deal blogger
September 3rd, 2008 at 6:01 pm
Hi Grace,
I found flights on a combo of flights with Air France and SpanAir between LAX and Sevilla, Spain (SVQ) Nov. 26-30 for $1,087 round trip, including taxes with two stops via Kayak.com and CheapTickets.
Going to Berlin, Germany (TXL) would cost $755 on the same dates via Kayak and CheapTickets.
Good luck and happy holidays,
– Jen Leo, Los Angeles Times Travel & Deal blogger
September 4th, 2008 at 1:15 pm
I was able to book a round-trip flight from LAX to Columbus, Ohio, last month on United, flying on Thanksgiving through Denver and arriving at 6 p.m. It cost $220 and I thought it was too good to be true.
It was. I have been rescheduled instead through Chicago AND Washington DC and now won’t arrive until 11:30 p.m. Oh well: Mom’s turkey will still be delicious and my nephew will still be cute, only I’ll have to wait until Friday.
The return flights haven’t been changed … yet.
November 4th, 2008 at 5:05 am
If you are going on holiday check to see if there are any tourist discount cards available in the area.
I run a small membership in Cyprus for tourists. Cyprus is a great place to visit but boy is it expensive! So with a little discount at selected restaurants, car hire and hotels is always welcoming! My Tourist Card.com works in partnership with selected restaurants, car hire companies, hotels and excursion companies who will give our members discounts.
Look up http://www.MyTouristCard.com to see if we could save you a little money on holiday.