Flights on Thanksgiving Day have historically been some of the best airline bargains of the year. Airlines kept their schedule intact and dropped prices to try and fill the airplanes. This year, airlines are simply cutting flights rather than discounting them. Or are they?
Admittedly, planes flew quite empty during Thanksgiving days of yore while would-be passengers ate turkey, yams and pumpkin pie. I remember early-morning Thanksgiving US Airways flights I took over the years from Boston to Charleston, SC, that were just about private jets. Flying these almost empty planes didn’t make a lot of sense to me at the time and it still doesn’t.
A recent USA Today article noted that “Airlines will offer almost 3,000 fewer domestic flights a day during the Thanksgiving season, promising fewer choices, fuller planes and higher fares for millions of Americans.”
My initial reaction was that the airlines finally figured out that they were losing money by flying these planes on Thanksgiving. I was wrong. The dramatic cuts in flights are due to the airlines’ realization that they are losing money flying many of these routes everyday, not only on Thanksgiving.
On this Thanksgiving holiday the mass of American travelers will feel the full impact of the reduction in capacity and higher airfares that domestic airline service is facing. And this is only the beginning of capacity cuts.
Combined with the reduction in capacity and the accompanying increase in airfares are the now ubiquitous checked-baggage charges that will come into full effect across airlines. The American traveler will have a rude awakening. After this Thanksgiving holiday travel season, airlines that do not have extra check-baggage fees and other fees, like Southwest, will begin to get more traction and see load factors grow.
Thanksgiving travel will be the big introduction of the US’s new airline world of fewer flights, higher costs and more fees. So far, airlines have sustained a slight-of-hand operation and succeeded at fooling many airline consumers as the baggage charges have been phased in. At the end of November, the new airline travel reality will hit the flying public smack between the eyes.
As for those bargain Thanksgiving Day airfares? Some say don’t hold your breath. I still think travelers looking for flights on turkey day will be finding far more bargains than normal.
Charlie Leocha is the President of Travelers United. He has been working in Washington, DC, for the past 14 years with Congress, the Department of Transportation, and industry stakeholders on travel issues. He was the first consumer representative to the Advisory Committee for Aviation Consumer Protections appointed by the Secretary of Transportation from 2012 through 2018.
