You did book your air travel a couple of months ago, right?   Don’t expect to find much available at this point for holiday travel because airlines are now either blocking their sale fares for those dates or adding a premium to them for certain days.   In short, they intend to maximize the income from peak demand days any way they can.

That said, there are a few strategies you can employ for a less expensive trip.  Traveling with a family?  If so, see if you can send your family ahead of you on a non-peak day while you travel on a peak day later so you can finish your work week.   Look for early departures to your destination.  A 6:00am flight might not sound attractive but if you save $100 per ticket, that’s a tidy sum for a family of 4.   Look for connections through a non-traditional city that might take longer but cost less. 

What if you have a lot of air miles and you want to use them?  Again, you’re likely out of luck but there are some thing you can check into.  See if your frequent flier program has any partners that travel the route you want.  They may have availability.  The Star Alliance now has not 1, not 2 but 3 partner airlines in the US (United, Continental and US Airways) and Sky Team has the rather huge network of Delta/Northwest.  Oneworld, I’m afraid, is limited to American Airlines but if you’re traveling to an international destination, you may still have a chance.

International destinations require some creative thinking for a cheaper fare.   Perhaps if you are traveling to the UK you might ordinarily use American Airlines but they’re rather expensive for the dates you wish to travel.  It might be possible to fly via one of the Oneworld partners using a different hub.  You may make 1 or 2 connections instead of flying non-stop but, again, the savings may be worth it particularly if you have a family.  It might be possible to fly Iberia to Spain and connect via Madrid or Barcelona for instance.  Or if you ordinarily use Northwest Airlines, you may have better luck checking KLM or Air France’s schedules for connections via Paris or Amsterdam. 

Holiday travel is also the time when checking luggage is certainly more of a risk.  Try to send gifts ahead of you via UPS, FEDEX or the USPS.  Consider what you are taking along for clothes.  Maybe you need to wear nice, dressy clothes once on your trip.  If so, considering wearing them for the flight so you can pack an extra shirt and tie into a smaller suitcase that you can carry on instead of checking.   This is a good strategy for taking along a bulky sweater or coat too.  

Finally, consider where your flight(s) may be connecting through.  Try schedule your holiday travel connections through southern hubs such as Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, Memphis, Charlotte or Phoenix.   This doesn’t completely eliminate the risk of bad weather but it does help mitigate it considerably.  Try to leave as early as possible in the day as delays only get worse through the day when weather is involved.   Check your flight status the day before your trip.  Is there weather affecting one of the cities you are traveling to or through?  If so and you find your schedule flexible, try calling the airline and seeing if you can change your schedule to something better without penalty. 

If you find yourself stuck at a connection, look for opportunities to fly to a nearby city instead.  For instance, if you’re traveling to Chicago and weather has massive delays being experienced, perhaps your airline also flies to Milwaukee.  If so, they may let you change your destination to Milwaukee where family can pick you up or you can rent a car to travel down there.   Even if your chosen airline doesn’t fly to someplace nearby, perhaps a partner airline of theirs does.  Suggest that as a option to the gate agent if you are trying to re-book.

Have a strategy.  See what your options are *before* you leave and have a couple of backup plans you can suggest to an airline agent in the event of a cancellation.  Yes, they are supposed to have more resources than you in that situation but they also have limited time to think a problem through.  If you have a suggestion or two they can try, you may make your life and theirs much easier since you are signaling some flexibility and trying to work with the system instead being in war with it. 

I’ll also suggest this service.  It’s Cranky Concierge found HERE.  It is a travel service offered by Brett Snyder of the Cranky Flier blog.  For a low price, you get an ultimate airline geek who will help you with all those strategies I named and more.    I think for holiday travelers, this could be a huge value in the event something goes wrong with your flight(s).    I myself do this kind of thing for friends and family but chances are you don’t have an airline geek in your circle.  The Cranky Concierge can be your own personal airline geek and help get you there more reliably.

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