The best days to fly for Thanksgiving are Monday, November 23, or Thanksgiving Day itself, November 26, going out, and Friday, November 27, Saturday, November 28 or Tuesday, December 1, coming back. The worst days are Wednesday, November 25, and Sunday, November 29, according to travel guides drawing on last year’s patterns.
Last year set records on both fronts. AAA counted 81.8 million Americans travelling at least 50 miles from home over the 2025 Thanksgiving holiday, and the Transportation Security Administration screened about 3.13 million people on the Sunday after Thanksgiving, the most in its history. Thanksgiving Day itself was the quietest day of the week, with 1,559,165 screened — less than half the Sunday figure.
Nine in ten travellers drive
The flying advice matters to a minority: about 73 million people drove last Thanksgiving against about 6 million flying domestically, out of the 81.8 million total. For drivers, the pattern repeats every year — leave in the morning and the roads are fine, leave after late morning and you are in it — and Thanksgiving Day morning is the easiest drive of the week if hosts can wait until lunchtime.
Book now or pay later
Fares usually climb fast in the last two to three weeks, so the guides advise having flights booked by about November 10 — which is today. The busiest airports are expected to be Atlanta, Chicago O’Hare, Los Angeles, New York JFK and San Francisco, and the Sunday return remains the single hardest day of the year to fly.
Hotels tell the same story of a busy week. US hotels ran 54.9% full on Thanksgiving night last year and 57.9% across the weekend after, according to CoStar, which benchmarks hotel performance, and the firm counted 19.8 million room nights over that week, the third highest since it began keeping daily records. That means accommodation is as tight as the flights, and anyone who has not booked a hotel yet should do so before the fares and the rooms both climb. The pattern is consistent: Thanksgiving is the busiest travel week of the American year, and the Sunday return is its hardest day.
