The Alabama Triple-A is predicting a busy day on the roads following New Year’s Day. The travel agency went into the busiest Christmas travel season expecting one hundred and nineteen million people driving somewhere. That’s about three million more than last year. Triple-A Alabama spokesman Clay Ingram says the earlier you leave for your trip home, the better…
“We try to come up with sort of the best time of the day to travel for anyone that's traveling, and we do that for most all the holidays. And, the mornings are going to be by far the better time of day to be out on the roads,” said Clay.
The two weekends on either side of Christmas look to be some of the most crowded times on the road and at airports. Trade group Airlines for America also foresaw record travel, expecting U.S. airlines to carry fifty four million passengers during a 19-day period that started Thursday and ending on the first Monday of 2025. As for picking a good day to driving home, the AAA’s Clay Ingram says Christmas Day and New Years Day are typically quiet.
“New Year's Day typically is not as busy as you might think that it would be people that are kind of taking it easy that day from maybe staying out late on New Year's Eve. So typically, the second and sometimes the third tend to be the busier days,” he said.
For airline customers, this will be the first holiday season since a Transportation Department rule took effect that requires airlines to give customers an automatic cash refund for a canceled or significantly delayed flight. Most air travelers were already eligible for refunds, but they often had to request them. Passengers still can ask to get rebooked, which is often a better option than a refund during peak travel periods. That's because finding a last-minute flight on another airline yourself tends to be very expensive.
