As anyone who travels frequently knows, airfare costs around the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays can be significantly higher than those for the same route at other times of the year. It’s little surprise why: the year-end holiday period sees millions traveling to visit family and friends, creating demand for flights; the more demand, the more airlines can charge.
The good news, according to travel experts at Google Flights, is that if you are planning to fly for Thanksgiving or Christmas, you still have a small window of time to get the lowest airfare possible for the winter holiday 2026 period before prices go up—but you have to act fast.
When is the best time to purchase airfare for Thanksgiving 2026?
If you know you are going to be traveling by plane this Thanksgiving—and you haven’t purchased your tickets yet—you shouldn’t wait much longer. As a matter of fact, the ideal time to purchase your Thanksgiving flights may have just passed.
According to a blog post from the travel experts at Google Flights, the search giant’s flight aggregator and comparison tool, there is a period before the holiday when flights are generally at their lowest. This period is generally 21 days to 57 days before departure.
So, if your Thanksgiving flight departure date is actually on Thanksgiving—November 26 this year—that means airfares will be at their lowest between September 30 and November 5 (adjust those dates accordingly to your actual Thanksgiving departure plans).
The prices during this period, of course, are not fixed. They’ll change by the day based on demand and other metrics. On some days, the same flight could be more expensive or cheaper.
But Google Flights notes that there is one day on which its data shows that Thanksgiving flights are generally at their lowest. That day, for 2026, is 34 days before departure.
Using flying on Thanksgiving morning as an example, the 34-day prior mark means airfare was most likely lowest on Friday, October 23. If you’re planning on flying on the Wednesday or Tuesday before Thanksgiving, the cheapest fares for you were likely on October 22 or October 21.
Does that mean you’re out of luck if you haven’t already purchased your Thanksgiving flights? Not necessarily. Remember, Google says flights should remain at their lowest until about 21 days before departure this year. That gives you until the first few days of November to purchase your airfare—but the sooner, the better.
When is the best time to purchase airfare for Christmas 2026?
If you haven’t purchased your Christmas airfare yet, you should do it soon. That’s because, according to Google, the lowest prices for Christmas flights occur much farther out than they do for Thanksgiving flights.
According to Google, the lowest prices for Christmas flights are 33 to 67 days before departure. Given Christmas is on December 25, and assuming you would be flying that morning, that means that the lowest prices for Christmas flights would generally be found between October 19 and November 22. Of course, since most people travel before Christmas Day, those dates shift even earlier.
If you’re looking for the day with the statistically lowest Christmas airfare prices this year, Google says the “lowest prices hit 56 days before departure” in 2026. If you are traveling on Christmas Day, that means the day you are likely to find the cheapest flights will be this coming Friday, October 30.
Can popular airfare hacks save me even more money on Thanksgiving and Christmas flights?
When it comes to airfare, the internet is full of advice that purportedly shows you how to save even more—from using VPNs to buying tickets on a Tuesday to clearing your browser’s cookies.
But could these so-called hacks actually save you money on your Thanksgiving or Christmas flights?
It’s unlikely, no matter what time of year you are flying. That’s according to Google Flight’s James Byers, who is a group product manager at Google Search. Last year, I asked Byers if Google Flights data showed whether any of the three most common bits of conventional wisdom about buying airfare held up—at least when searching for flights on Google’s aggregator.
Byers revealed that clearing cookies or using Incognito mode didn’t impact airfares on Google Flights. When it comes to using VPNs to try to trick airlines into thinking you’re in a country where prices may be lower, Byers said it may work—until you have to turn over your billing address for your payment method. At that point the VPN-adjusted local fare will likely no longer be available to you.
As for buying flights on a Tuesday, supposedly the day of the week airfare is cheapest, Byers said there was some truth to that. But airfares were generally only about 1.3% lower than on the most expensive day, Sunday.
As for this holiday season, Google Flights data show that the best time to buy, if you want the lowest airfare possible for your Thanksgiving or Christmas trip, is quickly approaching its end.