Are airports busy 7 days after Thanksgiving?

[minnie79&mickey75]

I know they are probably really busy a few days before and a few days after, but what about the Thursday after TG day?

I ask because we are attempting to fly 5 people on Southwest with buddy passes from Houston (Hobby) to Orlando. Just wondering what our chances are of getting all 5 on 1 flight.

In your experiences at that time, do we have a chance, or they gonna be all full?

Thanks!

 

[disnut8]

You have a good chance but I'd book it now. The day before Thanksgiving is the worst day to fly and fares will reflect that this year. I know you are flying Southwest and I don't think they are charging extra for heavy fly days but check prices. If the price is much higher, it's going to be a busier day.

 

[Brian_WDW74]

I've moved this thread to the Transportation board.

 

[minnie79&mickey75]

You have a good chance but I'd book it now. The day before Thanksgiving is the worst day to fly and fares will reflect that this year. I know you are flying Southwest and I don't think they are charging extra for heavy fly days but check prices. If the price is much higher, it's going to be a busier day.

NO, re-read.

We have BUDDY PASSES. free tickets, but only if there is space. It's also 7 days after TG we are leaving --- DEC 3....

 

[DISNEY FIX]

NO, re-read.

We have BUDDY PASSES. free tickets, but only if there is space. It's also 7 days after TG we are leaving --- DEC 3....

How heck can I get some of those??????

 

[Drusilla]

DH used to work for an airline and we flew standby all the time before we had kids. His sister works for American and we flew on her buddy passes quite a bit. IDK if Southwest works the same but DH's airline and Amercian worked on seniority. So if there was a waiting list, paying passengers who missed a flight or something were at the top of the list, then buddy passes by seniority. So if there were 5 buddy passes on the wait list already when we checked in, DH's sister's 28 yr seniority would almost always be higher than the other buddy passes seniority and we would bump the lowest seniority off the plane if there wasn't room for everyone.

Even with all that said, it's a crapshoot b/c you never know how many paying passengers are on the standby list that will be boarded before you and you don't know how many other buddy passes are waitlisted for that flight too. Oh, and we always tried to take the first flight out in the morning b/c previous flight buddy passes that didn't make it on that flight were moved to the top of the buddy pass standby list for the next flight. There were times that we would sit at the airport for 15-16 hrs before actually getting on a flight, even when the flight we originally tried to get on looked pretty good (quite a few seats open) when we checked before we left for the airport. I've always been amazed at how quickly things can change with these flights. Oh, we even gotten our boarding passes and been on board the flight and been called off the flight b/c a paying passenger showed up and they needed to get them on the flight, so we were bumped.

Free is great but what you actually deal with to fly free is a pain. If you can swing buying tickets, do yourself a favor and buy tickets.

As far as getting 5 people on the same flight together, it could happen but I wouldn't hold your breathe - the more in the party the longer you'll be waiting. You may very well have to split up if you want to get to your destination in a timely manner. Have a back up plan and be prepared to sleep at the airport. If all 5 people must fly together, I would buy tickets.

Good luck!

 

[minnie79&mickey75]

Yeah, we have flown (only 2 of us) in June, and had no problems at all (to California). Just wondering from people who fly during that first week in December, are your flights normally full or do you see some empty seats?

DH used to work for an airline and we flew standby all the time before we had kids. His sister works for American and we flew on her buddy passes quite a bit. IDK if Southwest works the same but DH's airline and Amercian worked on seniority. So if there was a waiting list, paying passengers who missed a flight or something were at the top of the list, then buddy passes by seniority. So if there were 5 buddy passes on the wait list already when we checked in, DH's sister's 28 yr seniority would almost always be higher than the other buddy passes seniority and we would bump the lowest seniority off the plane if there wasn't room for everyone.

Even with all that said, it's a crapshoot b/c you never know how many paying passengers are on the standby list that will be boarded before you and you don't know how many other buddy passes are waitlisted for that flight too. Oh, and we always tried to take the first flight out in the morning b/c previous flight buddy passes that didn't make it on that flight were moved to the top of the buddy pass standby list for the next flight. There were times that we would sit at the airport for 15-16 hrs before actually getting on a flight, even when the flight we originally tried to get on looked pretty good (quite a few seats open) when we checked before we left for the airport. I've always been amazed at how quickly things can change with these flights. Oh, we even gotten our boarding passes and been on board the flight and been called off the flight b/c a paying passenger showed up and they needed to get them on the flight, so we were bumped.

Free is great but what you actually deal with to fly free is a pain. If you can swing buying tickets, do yourself a favor and buy tickets.

As far as getting 5 people on the same flight together, it could happen but I wouldn't hold your breathe - the more in the party the longer you'll be waiting. You may very well have to split up if you want to get to your destination in a timely manner. Have a back up plan and be prepared to sleep at the airport. If all 5 people must fly together, I would buy tickets.

Good luck!

 

[minnie79&mickey75]

My wife used to work with (and became great friends with) someone who's husband works for Southwest. They get a bunch of tickets each year to use or give away.

How heck can I get some of those??????

 

[duffy]

I know they are probably really busy a few days before and a few days after, but what about the Thursday after TG day?

I ask because we are attempting to fly 5 people on Southwest with buddy passes from Houston (Hobby) to Orlando. Just wondering what our chances are of getting all 5 on 1 flight.

In your experiences at that time, do we have a chance, or they gonna be all full?

Thanks!

NO, re-read.

We have BUDDY PASSES. free tickets, but only if there is space. It's also 7 days after TG we are leaving --- DEC 3....

Explaining what a buddy pass is, in the first post, would have been nice. I'd never heard of them.

 

[LSchrow]

You have a good chance but I'd book it now. The day before Thanksgiving is the worst day to fly and fares will reflect that this year. I know you are flying Southwest and I don't think they are charging extra for heavy fly days but check prices. If the price is much higher, it's going to be a busier day.

NO, re-read.

We have BUDDY PASSES. free tickets, but only if there is space. It's also 7 days after TG we are leaving --- DEC 3....

perhaps you should "re-read" disnut's helpful post.
high prices are indicative of heavy travel times. you don't need to actually book a flight, just look at the prices.

 

[minnie79&mickey75]

While I do appreciate the reponse, it wasn't that helpful. Buddy passes don't require you to "book" the flight. In fact, you can't. You just show up and hope you make it on.
Also, the prices don't look like they change at all except for the day after TG. Other than that, all the prices pretty much look the same. That's not a great indicator.

perhaps you should "re-read" disnut's helpful post.
high prices are indicative of heavy travel times. you don't need to actually book a flight, just look at the prices.

 

[minnie79&mickey75]

I'd say a lot of people do know what they are. Didn't explain in the first post, but covered it in post #8.

Explaining what a buddy pass is, in the first post, would have been nice. I'd never heard of them.

 

[duffy]

I'd say a lot of people do know what they are. Didn't explain in the first post, but covered it in post #8.

Yes, thank you. And thanks to the other posters here, who've done a good job describing buddy tickets, as well as describing how to gauge how busy the airports will be. Since I'm flying around the same time, it's nice to know how to judge this.