Last year I booked 18 of us, some left the Sunday before Thanksgiving, some left the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. We all returned the Sunday after Thanksgiving.
We all had non stop flights. We all left out of EWR, and half returned into EWR, the rest flew into LGA.
I booked one way fares for all. The price was $99.00 each way for a total of 200.00 round trip non stop per person.
I booked 330 day advance. I watched our flights go up & up in price.
Hope this helps
Patricia