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For the New Year’s holiday, thousands of travelers will drive or fly the skies to their favorite places. Hopefully you’ve already booked your ticket for travel during the holidays.

This article will show you how to save money on travel for new year if you’re an apprehensive traveler. Here’s what you need to know about flying this holiday season.

New Year Travel: How To Save Money And More

For the winter, there have been some good sales, especially with Southwest Airlines, so you can save money if you want to. The real issue is whether you’re ready to risk it all to fly to a vacation destination or home for the holidays.

If you want to know what safety measures airlines have put in place, here’s what to know:

Typically, you may be asked to quarantine from 10 to 14 days, so you’d better have some vacation days to spare.

How To Save On Holiday Travel

Let’s talk about some ways you can save on holiday travel. Always check Southwest’s Fare Calendar for days with cheaper prices. If you’re traveling abroad, I love Scott’s Cheap Flights as well. Also…

1. Be Flexible With Your Travel Dates

The Sunday after a holiday weekend is always the most expensive day to travel. Make sure you remain flexible so that you can book the cheapest travel days, which are typically a few days earlier or later than the weekend.

The cheapest days to buy travel is typically a couple days before a holiday — except when those days happen to fall on any of the three weekend days. So that means buying on Tuesday through Thursday is typically your best bet.

Read about the best days to book a flight.

2. Pack One Bag Only

If you want to save money, always only take one travel bag with you. Most airlines charge between $30 to $40 for a carryon bag. That’s up to $80 coming and going.

For example, Delta Air Lines charges $40 for a second checked bag.

Even if you have to wear the same thing for a day, it’s worth it to save on baggage fees.

3. Look For Travel Bundles

If you need a rental car, you can save money if you bundle that purchase with your airfare. The same is true for hotels, although you typically won’t need one if you’re going home for the holidays.

Travel sites like Priceline and Orbitz has deals galore on trip bundles that include flights and hotel itineraries.

4. Plan For Cancellations

The holiday travel period is the most vulnerable time for airline cancellations. The sheer volume of passengers makes it almost inevitable that cancellations will happen.

What you can do is prepare by planning alternate travel plans, including a road trip.

Final Words

If you plan on traveling for the holidays this year, now is the time to book your ticket. Airfare is likely to increase in the weeks ahead as the airline industry tries to make grow profits for the holidays.

The main thing you need to remember is that airline travel has changed drastically since early in the pandemic. You will need to pack differently, including bringing plenty of masks and gloves.

You will also need to adjust your eating habits as many restaurants close their kitchens earlier or still have limited menus.

Whatever you do, try to have fun and be safe on your travels.

As America’s airlines get ready for the holidays, one way you can save on airfare is to get familiar with the Southwest Low Fare Calendar. 

The Southwest Low Fare Calendar identifies some of the cheapest fares that you can find online.

This article is going to show you how to save money when booking airfare by using the Southwest Low Fare Calendar.

What Is The Low Care Calendar On Southwest?

Southwest Airlines is known for cheap fares, so it makes sense that they would have a low fare calendar on their website.

This tool shows you a month-by-month grid that identifies where the cheapest fares are. 

To get the best results out of the low fare calendar, you can’t be set on a specific date. You’ll save more if you have flexible travel plans.

Here is a screenshot of the Southwest Low Care Calendar.

How To Use The Southwest Low Fare Calendar 

To use the Southwest Low Fare Calendar, go to the page and follow these 6 steps:

1. Fill in the Depart box
2. Fill in the Depart Month
3. Fill in the Arrive box
4. Fill in the Arrive Month
5. Fill in the number of passengers
6. Click Search

Once you fill in your dates, you will see all the dates of the month and their fares. 

For example, we put in Atlanta airfare to Los Angeles (LAX). This is what it showed:

From there, you just select the cheapest fare that works for your travel plans. Once your dates are selected, you have to choose between three class fares:

• Business Select
• Anytime
• Wanna Get Away

Once your class fare is selected, you have to select a time of the day.

Restrictions

There are some restrictions with Southwest fares that you need to know about. Here are some of the major ones.

• Until purchased, all fares are subject to change.
• The fares don’t apply to multiple persons (there may be only one flight left at a particular price).
• “Unavailable” indicates the corresponding fare is unavailable for the selected dates.
• “Sold Out” indicates that Southwest has no more seats in the particular fare type.
• “Invalid w/ Depart or Return Dates” indicates that Southwest can’t return a valid itinerary option(s) with the search criteria submitted. 

Sign Up For Southwest Rapid Rewards

One way to save on a flight is to take advantage of Southwest’s Rapid Rewards program.

With Rapid Rewards, you earn 2 points per $1 spent on Southwest and 1 point per $1 on all other purchases.

To maximize your savings, you may opt to buy your fare with cash rather than use your Rapid Rewards points

Are Southwest Fares Cheaper On Tuesdays?

Final Thoughts

Cheap fares can be found online, and Southwest is a great place to start.

The airline’s Low Fare Calendar is the type of basic tool that should be a starting point for a price-conscious traveler.