Travelers should prepare to spend extra money this holiday season. AAA Alabama is expecting thousands of travelers on the roadways and skies this Thanksgiving weekend. Inflation has caused the price of holiday expenses to go up. Hotel prices have increased due to labor shortages. Airlines have increased prices because of higher demands. Clay Ingram is with Triple-A Alabama. He says there are tips travelers can use to save money throughout the holiday travel season.
“We actually have a free phone app,” said Ingram. “It’s just the AAA app, and it’s got a fuel price finder function that helps you find the cheapest price gasoline in your general vicinity no matter where you are. But if you’re traveling by air or some other form of public transportation, the secret is to plan way ahead for any holiday weekend.”
Gas prices within the state are slightly fluctuating for travelers. Ingram says this is usually the time of the year where gas prices neither drastically increase nor decrease. Ingram says that could complicate things as Thanksgiving travelers hit the road.
“Everything over the last couple of years has gone up in price and gasoline and travel is certainly no exception,” said Ingram. “Our state average for gas prices today is $3.26 per gallon. That’s actually down six cents a gallon from just a week ago and down about a $1.40 a gallon from mid-June.”
Alabama Triple-A expects about fifty five million Americans will travel for Thanksgiving this year. That’s just shy of pre-pandemic levels of traffic. It’s also a slight uptick of 1.5% compared to last year.