Thanksgiving Flights Cost the Most in a Decade, but the Calendar Can Save You

Booking a flight home for Thanksgiving is getting expensive. Hopper’s latest figures put the average domestic Thanksgiving round trip at $402, up 31% from last year and the highest in ten years. Christmas is not far behind at an average of $452, a 23% increase.

Hopper attributes part of the jump to higher jet fuel costs linked to the conflict in Iran, which airlines have been passing on through fares. That squares with a week of airline earnings warnings about fuel bills, although fares also reflect demand around the busiest travel days of the year.

Timing is where travelers can claw some money back. With Thanksgiving falling on Thursday, November 26, the cheapest day to depart is Monday, November 23, at roughly $370 for the average round trip. Returning is the costly part: flying back on Sunday, November 29 averages about $604.

The gap between a Monday outbound and a Sunday return shows how much the pricing depends on which days you pick. Travelers who can leave early or come back on a quieter day than the holiday-weekend Sunday may avoid the worst of the increase, though these are averages and individual routes will vary.

Sources: Traveltourister (citing Hopper)