The best holiday travel tip of all time? Arrive early at the airport. The second best tip? Use Google Flights to avoid busy airports in the first place.

Get familiar with some timely Google Flights tips because holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas are among the worst days to travel (and much more expensive too).

One of the ways to avoid the holiday rush is to pick an off-peak day. The Google Flights team went through two years of American travel trends and came up with this historical data:

". . . flight searches over the last two years indicate that Friday Nov. 17, Wednesday Nov. 22, and Sunday Nov. 26 will be the busiest days to fly, so pick other travel days if possible."

That might not fit your travel plans. So what's the next best thing you can do?

Swap Busy Airports for Less Busy Ones

A simple shift in Google Flights can help you swap busy airports for less busy ones. Just view alternate airports near your destination and pick one that fits your travel plans.

Google calls it Flight Insights. In the iOS and Android apps, once you select your travel dates, you can then customize a few things with Flight Insights:

  • Dates: Explore the dates with the best fares.
  • Airports: Show fares for alternative airports.

These two customization options are immediately applicable. There are two more options called "Tips" and "Price graph."

From the Insights tab, you can see how your fare would change if you flew on a different day, chose a different airport, or booked at a different time during the day.

Google Flights Insight is rolling out to the desktop too. Until then, you can use the Nearby Airports option in the dropdown for selecting a cheaper or less busy airport. The flight route map changes to reflect your choices.

Thanks to Google Flights, you can choose an alternate (often cheaper) airport for both your departure and arrival.

Holiday travel plans should start early to save time and disasters. Have you started yours? Did Google Flights or any other tool help you out last year?

Image Credit: ZinaidaSopina via Shutterstock