(Radio Iowa) – Record travel is predicted in Iowa and nationwide for the Thanksgiving holiday, and those who are flying somewhere else for the long weekend have likely already bought their tickets. Last-minute fliers might still be able to find some deals, and Gunnar Olson with Thrifty Traveler-dot-com says the best way to save money and time at this point is to avoid flying on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. “No matter what time of year, flying on Sunday is always where the pain is,” Olson says. “It’s going to be the most expensive to fly on Sunday, and everybody wants to be there at the same time, so the airports are going to be more busy, passengers tend to be more tense on Sundays. Everybody’s trying to get home. Flights are overbooked. I try to avoid Sundays like the plague.”

Olson says now is a good time to shop for Christmas airfares. He says if you look around, there’s still some value out there, even if you want to head to warmer places like Orlando and Los Angeles.”Because Christmas is in the middle of the week this year, it’s actually helping keep some fares low, travelers are not all traveling on the same days for Christmas this year,” Olson says. “So it’s going to make for a much more competitive flight pricing environment.” If you’re wanting to think even further ahead, he says the best travel deals right now could be for the summer of 2025. Olson says this past summer was disappointing for some of the airlines, so they’re testing the waters with cheaper airfares for next summer. “They haven’t pulled back yet and some fares for July, August, September of 2025 are really cheap right now, especially in the U.S.,” he says.

Olson says you can find cheap airfares for the summer on both coasts, and even normally expensive places like Nantucket Island in Massachusetts.