Travel Experts Claim You Should Book Holiday Travel Right Now

We’ve barely made it to pumpkin spice season, but if you’re not thinking about holiday travel yet, you should start. According to the Founder of Scott’s Cheap Flights, Scott Keyes, Thanksgiving and Christmas flights have already begun to climb, which means now’s the time to grab those fares before they spike even more.

“It’s difficult and somewhat rare to see cheap holiday flights—they do happen, but they happen well in advance…when everyone else is thinking about their summer flights,” Keyes told Travel + Leisure. “The best fares probably were a month or two ago and now most of the fares are just decent but exceedingly likely to get a lot more expensive in the coming months.”

The outlet reports that the best time to book a Thanksgiving flight is typically 36 to 74 days before departure, per Google data. In comparison, Christmas fares can dip anywhere between 20 to 88 days before departure.

“It’s a good idea to book on the early side for any major holiday, especially if you already know your destination and dates of travel,” Group Product Manager for Google Flights James Byers told T+L. “This way you can make sure you don’t miss out on the specific flights that best suit your travel plans.”

Here’s the good news, though. With fewer cancellation and change fees, experts are recommending you book now and change later if a cheaper flight becomes available. Is it sort of the perfect hack.

“It gives you a lot more ability to take advantage if you don’t get the time exactly right,” Keyes said. “It gives you an opportunity to have a ‘heads I win, tails you lose’ situation with the airlines that before this was pretty rare.”