Here are the best times to fly and drive in the Bay Area during busiest Thanksgiving travel season in decades
With over 55 million Americans traveling over the next 10 days, experts share their tips on how to navigate airports and highways
This year’s Thanksgiving travel season is predicted to be the busiest in the past two decades, with 7.5 million Californians expected to travel over the next 10 days, according to estimates from AAA.
“Pack your patience,” said Christie Hudson, a spokeswoman for travel company Expedia.
Airlines for America, an airline industry group, forecasts that a record 29.9 million passengers will travel nationwide between Nov. 17 and Nov. 27 — up 1.7 million passengers over pre-COVID levels, and up 9% over 2022 levels.
Here are travel experts’ tips on how to navigate the highways and airports this holiday season:
Book air travel on off days. Nationwide, the Transportation Security Administration projects to screen 2.6 million passengers on Tuesday, 2.7 million on Wednesday, and 2.9 million on Sunday — making it the busiest travel day for TSA since it was created in 2001. In the 12 days between Nov. 17 and Nov. 28, the TSA expects to screen 30 million U.S. air passengers.
While some families are limited by school vacations and jobs, remote work has made it much easier for many to leave earlier for holiday travel. With such high volumes of people traveling on Wednesday and Sunday, Hudson recommends traveling on off-days if you can. Traveling on Thanksgiving day itself is not only cheaper than tickets the Wednesday before — it’s almost half as busy in most airports, she said.
Don’t check a bag. If your flight does get rebooked, you’ll want to make sure you don’t end up separated from your baggage, like what happened when Southwest’s travel snafu last year landed many customers in one airport with their luggage in another.
“Navigating a cancellation is so much easier if you don’t have to contend with where your bag is,” Hudson said.
Cancelled flight? Don’t call customer service when you can text. To save yourself the headache, Hudson said, and chat with a customer service agent directly through an airline’s app instead.
“You can start a chat versus having to get on the phone and sitting in a long wait queue,” she said.
Book parking ahead of time, or ditch the car and take BART. Bay Area regional airports say they expect parking garages to be at capacity during the holiday travel season — if you can’t take public transit to the airport, they recommend booking your parking ahead of time online. You can find those sites here: (SFO, OAK, SJC).
Check your credit card benefits. Some credit cards offer travel benefits like credits on a Clear or TSA Precheck membership, which can help move you through security faster, said Becky Blaine, travel industry editor at The Points Guy, a website for information on maximizing travel benefits.
Other cards even offer access to special airport lounges — a refuge on a busy holiday travel weekend.
“Since the perks come with premium travel cards that you might already have in your wallet, it will help you escape the crowds of the main terminals,” Blaine said.
Don’t drive Wednesday night. Wednesday from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. is expected to be peak travel time, said John Treanor, a spokesperson for AAA. Leaving a day early, or in the morning on Wednesday, is advised.
Leave early on Sunday. AAA also anticipates to see high traffic on Sunday night from 2 to 8 p.m.
“We are urging people to get out early and avoid the traffic headache,” Treanor said. “Hit the road before 11 a.m.”
Avoid 101. Highway 101 between Monterey and San Francisco is expected to see the biggest increase in traffic, according to AAA, with the trip is expected to take around 3 hours and 15 minutes on Sunday from 2 to 8 p.m. — a 63% increase from normal driving time.