Holiday fares hit a 10-year high. A Black Friday deal may only get you back to last year’s price
A promotional price may only bring a surge-priced room back to last year’s rate.
Key points
- airfares were up 22.4% in September from a year earlier, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, as airlines chose higher fares over fuller planes.
- “Some airlines apply discounts to airfare but leave fuel pricing, taxes, and other fees the same.” Her advice is to arrive with a reference point rather than be swayed by a lower sticker price.
- Hopper reports that Thanksgiving rates are running about $170 a night, comparable to 2025, while Christmas rates average $197 a night, up 18% from a year ago.
Fuel costs are keeping fares high According to Hopper’s 2026 Holiday Travel Index, domestic round-trip Thanksgiving flights are averaging $402, up 31% from 2025.
A 15% Black Friday discount on a Christmas hotel room this year comes to about $167 a night.
Additional details
- “While I think you can genuinely find legitimate savings, I have found that prices are sometimes inflated to appear cheaper during the sale periods.
- “Most of the deals are attached to packages rather than flights alone, so it’s hard to say whether there are huge fare deals or not.” That distinction matters for anyone hoping to save on airfare alone.
- So it’s more of a marketing campaign than anything, especially for travel.” She says Travel Tuesday tends to offer the best deals of the three days but cautions that most of them are bundled.
- CEO Ed Bastian said in July that he expected Delta to pass close to 100% of its higher fuel costs on to customers in the third quarter, and the airline’s revenue per seat mile rose 15%.
- “If you don’t buy on any of these marketed ‘discount days,’ there will definitely be other chances to catch a discount,” she says.
How this summary was made: extractive summary — built from the sources' own reporting. It is drawn only from the reporting of the sources listed below — read the originals for full detail. How we summarize →
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