Originally Posted by lisan
Normally, I would agree that Xmas day is much better (if your goal is less full flights) than Xmas eve; EXCEPT, this year, Xmas Eve is on a Saturday...so, most people will probably fly out Friday night and/or Sat. morning...so I would think that Xmas Eve evening would be as open as Xmas day.
This is a good point. It probably won't affect Xmas day travel too much (maybe a slight bump up in traffic vs usual on that evening since it's Sunday evening, but not much). But since Xmas Eve is Sat, it should be pretty quiet flying that evening.
Only Xmas experience I remember was IAD-AMS on UA several years ago. This was in the evening on Xmas day. I think there were maybe 30-40 pax total on the 777. Didn't get a good count, but we had people trying to sleep across the blocks of 5 seats in the middle. (Kinda difficult; the in-seat entertainment equipment prevented the armrests from going up all the way.)