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CNN Saturday Morning News
Discussion on Thanksgiving Holiday Travel
Aired November 23, 2002 - 07:26 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KRIS OSBORN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, the Thanksgiving holiday, of course, is less than a week away, and you want to visit friends and family but think you just can't afford the air travel.
Clark Howard says there is a way, and he explains it in this week's edition of Pocketbook Protector.
CLARK HOWARD, AUTHOR, "GET CLARK SMART": Have you thought about flying to see family or friends or having them come to visit you, and you don't know how you're going to get the best deal this holiday season?
Well, let me tell you, there are two things you got to have to get the very best deal on your holiday travel.
One, you need a map, and two, you need a calendar.
Let me start with the calendar. The airlines divide holiday travel times into three windows. There are the extra-expensive days that they expect a lot of people to fly, there are the other days that are kind of mid priced days that they expect, oh, pretty good turnout. And then there are the bargain-basement travel days when they don't have anybody.
The neat thing, if you'll go on the bargain-basement days, you're going to get the lowest fare, and a lot of the planes are going to be fairly empty. What a deal to have seats to stretch out on!
Now, let's move to the geography. Why do I want you to have a map? If you will think about how the airline industry works now, fares can be so different from one place to another, and they can be really close by. Think about in south Florida. Fares into Fort Lauderdale can be completely different than fares into Miami.
Go to California for a minute. Do you know the L.A. metro area has five airports? And San Francisco, three airports. In the New York City metro area there are six airports. You may think of only La Guardia, Kennedy, and Newark, but how about going to Newburgh Field or White Plains as alternatives?
So you've got a lot of opportunity if you'll think about other ways to travel. Oh, one other before I forget. Milwaukee, Chicago Midway, and Chicago O'Hare, those three, you never know which one's going to be the cheapest for where you're going from or to. You want to use that to your advantage.
So use the calendar, use the map, and you're going to get a much better deal this holiday season.
OSBOURNE: Well, Clark can't be with us live every week, but he will be back soon, so go ahead and send us your consumer questions to wam@cnn.com.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired November 23, 2002 - 07:26 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KRIS OSBORN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, the Thanksgiving holiday, of course, is less than a week away, and you want to visit friends and family but think you just can't afford the air travel.
Clark Howard says there is a way, and he explains it in this week's edition of Pocketbook Protector.
CLARK HOWARD, AUTHOR, "GET CLARK SMART": Have you thought about flying to see family or friends or having them come to visit you, and you don't know how you're going to get the best deal this holiday season?
Well, let me tell you, there are two things you got to have to get the very best deal on your holiday travel.
One, you need a map, and two, you need a calendar.
Let me start with the calendar. The airlines divide holiday travel times into three windows. There are the extra-expensive days that they expect a lot of people to fly, there are the other days that are kind of mid priced days that they expect, oh, pretty good turnout. And then there are the bargain-basement travel days when they don't have anybody.
The neat thing, if you'll go on the bargain-basement days, you're going to get the lowest fare, and a lot of the planes are going to be fairly empty. What a deal to have seats to stretch out on!
Now, let's move to the geography. Why do I want you to have a map? If you will think about how the airline industry works now, fares can be so different from one place to another, and they can be really close by. Think about in south Florida. Fares into Fort Lauderdale can be completely different than fares into Miami.
Go to California for a minute. Do you know the L.A. metro area has five airports? And San Francisco, three airports. In the New York City metro area there are six airports. You may think of only La Guardia, Kennedy, and Newark, but how about going to Newburgh Field or White Plains as alternatives?
So you've got a lot of opportunity if you'll think about other ways to travel. Oh, one other before I forget. Milwaukee, Chicago Midway, and Chicago O'Hare, those three, you never know which one's going to be the cheapest for where you're going from or to. You want to use that to your advantage.
So use the calendar, use the map, and you're going to get a much better deal this holiday season.
OSBOURNE: Well, Clark can't be with us live every week, but he will be back soon, so go ahead and send us your consumer questions to wam@cnn.com.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
