Flying on Thanksgiving Day?
 

Is this a good day to fly in terms of airport crowds? I'm assuming the Wednesday before is one of the most hectic days in airports across the country and by Thursday most people are where they're supposed to be.

It might be busy in the morning with people trying to get to their destinations by dinner ;)

We're also flying on Thursday SFO-ORDso we'll see. We're not planning to be there any earlier than normal.

The flight would be at 5:00pm, so am I OK?

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This year I'm flying on Monday, but I did fly on Thursday (early morning) in '07 and '08. Flights were full and airports were busy but certainly not a madhouse.

Which airport are you flying out of? I think by 5pm traffic will start to wind down. It definintely wont be the "madhouse" of Wed evening. Also, will you have any type of status for premier checkin?

I fly out of SFO a lot and even on the busiest days, the security line moves very quickly. I've never been in line for more than 15 minutes.

OTOH if you fly out of IAD, we've heard postings of hour long waits.

EWR and no status.

The seatmaps (I know, I know...) were completely full for Y- on Thursday morning RDU-IAD / IAD-LGA when I booked last week but Y+ was completely empty except for maybe 2 seats. Looks like a tremendous amount of non-status flying is in order for Thanksgiving morning.

Small datapoint, but I'd put money on that being a general trend.

EDIT: And F9 still, so hopefully my expiring e500s will actually clear for once!

I've flown (BOS-IAH-GIG) the last two Thanksgiving days and it's been fine. It wasn't really "busy", not crowded and not hectic. I think the general moods I encountered were more relaxed.. not stressed as it would have been the previous two or three days...

my flight back from FCO on Thurs has almost all of the middle rows in coach with 3 seats across being empty :D who needs Biz

We flew SMF-PDX-YVR-NRT on Thanksgiving Day a couple of years ago and there weren't any crowds at SMF or PDX. Of course at YVR it was just another Thursday.

This will be the first time in four years I haven't been at EWR on Thanksgiving day. If the past is any indication, you'll be fine. It will be like a Saturday - busy, but not crazy.

For what it's worth, flew out of SFO on Thanksgiving (10:50am flight SFO-ORD). Airport was very empty, emptier than weekend flying. No line at all at the premier check-in or through security. Even our flight wasn't full. About a dozen or so empty seats in E+. C wasn't even full.

I know this won't help you now, but I think it really depends and changes from year to year.

Last year I flew on Thanksgiving Day from PHX to SNA and the airport was moderately busy and the night before was a madhouse (from news and reports from friends).

Last Wednesday, I did the same trip and PHX was dead at 5 PM. My ride dropped me off curbside at T4 and I had to check a bag with WN and proceed to my gate. From the time I was dropped off until I reached my gate was less than 15 minutes.

A friend traveled out of PHX on Thanksgiving Day itself and said that PHX and DFW were packed and chaotic.