Travelers still planning a Thanksgiving or Christmas trip have a narrow window to lock in lower airfares, according to travel experts at Google Flights. Holiday fares typically climb as millions of people fly to visit family and friends, and the company says the cheapest prices for the 2026 season are still available, but only for a limited time.
For Thanksgiving, which falls on November 26 this year, Google Flights says fares are generally lowest between 21 and 57 days before departure. For a flight departing on the holiday itself, that means the most favorable prices fall between September 30 and November 5. Google says the single lowest-priced day in its data is 34 days before departure, which for a Thanksgiving morning flight would be Friday, October 23. Travelers flying on the Wednesday or Tuesday before the holiday would most likely have found the lowest fares on October 22 or October 21, respectively.
Fares are not fixed and shift daily based on demand and other factors, so the same route can cost more or less from one day to the next. Even so, Google says prices should remain at their lowest until about 21 days before departure this year, which leaves shoppers until the first few days of November. The company advises booking sooner rather than later.
Christmas airfare follows a different pattern. Google says the lowest prices for Christmas flights occur 33 to 67 days before departure. For a Christmas Day morning flight, that puts the best window between October 19 and November 22. Because many people travel before the holiday itself, those dates shift earlier. Google says the lowest prices for 2026 hit 56 days before departure, which for a Christmas Day flight would be Friday, October 30.
The company also weighed in on popular airfare tips circulating online, such as clearing browser cookies, using incognito mode, using a VPN, or booking on a particular day of the week. James Byers, a group product manager at Google Search who works on Google Flights, said in a prior interview that clearing cookies or using incognito mode did not affect airfares on Google Flights. He said a VPN might display a lower local fare, but that discount is likely to disappear once a traveler enters a billing address for payment. On the question of booking on a Tuesday, Byers said there was some truth to the idea, but fares were generally only about 1.3 percent lower than on the most expensive day, Sunday.
For travelers who have not yet bought tickets, the message from Google is consistent: the best-value period for holiday airfare is closing, and waiting longer is likely to cost more.