I'm (reluctantly) headed to Houston for Thanksgiving; outbound from SFO Thursday morning, inbound Sunday morning. I'm reluctant because holiday flying usually is so awful -- high time for crowds, delays and cranky flyers.

So, what will it be like this year?

I'm not flying this week for business (first break in 8 weeks), but generally I've looked forward to collecting those volunteer bumping compensations around the holiday season. You can even feel warm and fuzzy about it when your volunteering allows some family to board the flight together rather than get split up....

Did anyone watch King of the Hill on FOX TV last night? It was the absolute best show ever.

The Hill's were stuck at the airport trying to get out of town for Thanksgiving weekend. Flight delays and cancellations, lack of food at the airport, shuttle busses to complimentary hotel accomodations that never appear, etc. Lots of references that compare novice travelers (Hill family) to saavy travelers (the Kang family). It's great laughing at someone else's travel miseries instead of living them for myself for a change.

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I'm leaving Thursday, returning Saturday. I think Thursday won't be as bad, other than finding parking space since most will be taken on Wednesday. The day before Thanksgiving is the bad day to travel, from what I understand. Sunday might be pretty bad too.

What are the odds -- I'm going to Houston too! <G>



[This message has been edited by dg1 (edited 11-22-1999).]

I don't usually watch King of the Hill, but I did last night and it was funny. A traveler's nightmare for sure. I'll be flying from DEN(where it's currently snowing) to MIA this week and I couldn't help but think that'll end up happening to me.

Having traveled from PIT-BOS every Thanksgiving save one for the past 6 (going on 7) years, Thursday morning and Sunday morning shouldn't be too bad. SFO-Houston will also avoid one of the worst aspects of travel at this time of year, namely inclement weather. Allow some extra time, stay calm (nothing worse than the panicked infrequent traveler complaining that his/her flight is leaving in an 45 minutes and he/she STILL hasn't checked in), and don't check any bags. Also, smile and be nice to the airline personnel.

Actually Thursday (Thanksgiving day itself) is one of the easiest traveling days.

Some years ago we (Gisela and I) did fly UA from LAS-DEN on Thanksgiving day (for early season skiing in the Rockies) and all FOUR passengers in total (all in eco) were invited by the crew, after boarding, to join in in First for Thanksgiving celebrations (real First then, no Shuttle yet!).

My only concerns about flying to PVG (the new Shanghai airport) from BUF via ORD and NRT on Wednesday and returning on Monday are parking and whether I'll get the operational upgrade.

I'll probably take a cab to the airport to solve the first one, and the second one is something I think about on all international flights.

Last year, when travelling for Thanksgiving, I departed on Wednesday evening (argh!) and returned on Sunday morning on US Airways. DCA-IAH. At the Preferred check-in line, the ticket agent commented that she saw very few elites flying over the holidays... I had easy upgrades and a non-full First Class cabin to Houston and full First Class cabins on the way home (operational upgrades from coach).

my $.02 tip on surviving holiday travel: upgrade or load up on mini-bottles for your carry on.

[This message has been edited by geo1004 (edited 11-22-1999).]

SEA will be a mess this year because of the World Trade Organization meeting next week. So Sunday is a day to stay away from SEATAC if you can... Thanksgiving travelers will be coming home, and WTO delegates (most countries send delegates on commercial carrier, according to the news last night) will be coming in to town.

I travelled to Palm Beach on pleasure this week.

If I'm going to have to travel, I'd do it on Thursday.

I also almost had to do some business trips and the flights are very full making it hard. I am in Florida and almost had to go to NY or Boston. The trip from Florida to Boston or NY would be easy, it's the trip back (on the Dreaded Wednesday Before Thanksgiving) that would be impossible right now.

Thanksgiving Day is traditionally a low travel day. I have traveled US from DCA-CLT the last few Thanksgivings and it was a breeze. Christmas Day is very low. I'm coming back Saturday night. Sunday afternoon is usually very heavy.

Overall Thanksgiving might be a low travel day, but whenevern I've travelled in the morning on Thanksgiving I've always found it to be extremely busy. I think before 1:00 PM or so Thanksgiving Day is as busy as any other travel day, especially because you'll invariably have overflow from the night before from anyone who missed their flight, got bumped, or had flight cancellations.

If you are traveling on Delta and want to know if your flight is oversold, send me an e-mail with your flight number and date of travel. I have a relative who works for Delta and she has given me her employee number and work date, with this information I can access Delta's VRU line.
The advantage of this system vs looking at a seat map on the internet, is that it gives the actual number when a flight is oversold.
For example a flight I checked for this Sunday afternoon has 3 seats left in First, but was -19 in coach. The system also gives the number of seats which they intend to sell, in this case Delta was selling 1 more coach seat which would make coach -20!
The VRU line also gives inventory for ASA and Comair.

dansil -- what a thoughtful offer, thank you. We're on UA (changing in Denver). Here's the good news: both Jim and I are upgraded for the outbound flights; doesn't look so great for the Sunday a.m. return, however.

I, too, have a feeling the early-morning period at SFO will be busy so we're having the limo service pick us up 15 minutes earlier than usual.