November 2021 – ClaimDream

2021-11-29

HSK 3 Week 7: Words 331-335

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2021-11-16

6 Tips for Low-Stress Thanksgiving Travel

Turkey trotting. Turkey stuffing. Turkey carving. Thanksgiving traditions bring us together—and this year, many people will be reuniting with loved ones they didn’t get to celebrate with in 2020.

But a return to holiday travel can also mean a return to the stress that comes along with it. To help, I’ve rounded up six tips that can mitigate the potential stressors associated with traveling during the busy holiday season.

1. Fly on off-peak days

According to recent TripIt data, the busiest days for Thanksgiving flight departures will be the Friday (14% of departures), Saturday (15%), Tuesday (16%), and Wednesday (17%) before Thanksgiving—making the Sunday, Monday, and Thanksgiving Day itself the most desirable days to fly if you’re looking to avoid crowds.

Read more: TripIt Data: Thanksgiving 2021 Travel Volume Nearly Triple 2020

2. Plan ahead for long lines at airport security

Recent data from TripIt also shows that some airports will be busier than others for Thanksgiving travel. If you’re planning to fly to, through, or from one of these airports, you’ll want to plan ahead for long lines and crowds:

How do you plan ahead, exactly? By signing up for an expedited screening program, for starters. While some travelers opt for TSA PreCheck and others for CLEAR, both programs help you more quickly navigate your travel journey. As you gear up for the busy holiday travel season, you may find one program is a better fit than the other, or that their complementary benefits make your life on the road easier.

Read more: TSA PreCheck, CLEAR, or Both? A Guide to Help You Decide

Also, once you’re on your way to the airport, check current security wait times via TripIt Security Wait Times (for select airports) or the My TSA app so you know which checkpoint line is shortest.

3. Know how to easily navigate to your gate (and more)

Flying to, through, or from an unfamiliar airport? You can use interactive airport maps to easily navigate from the security checkpoint to your gate, get gate-to-gate directions for a connection, or look up how to get to myriad other points of interest.

For example, take the guesswork out of whether you can get a meal (or a book, or a beverage) before your flight or during your layover by searching for restaurants or shops right in the airport map.

You can also search interactive airport maps to find information about on-site amenities related to health and safety, as well. For available airports, TripIt Pro users can search interactive maps for the locations of COVID-19 testing sites, stores that sell face coverings, hand sanitizer stations, and personal protective equipment (PPE) vending machines—all right in the app.

Interactive airport maps are available to TripIt Pro users for more than 105 global airports.

Supplemental reading: Remember Navigating the Airport? These Tips and Tools Can Help

4. Reconfirm your rental car booking

If you rented a car at all during 2021, you’re likely already familiar with the rental car shortages and price hikes that took the U.S. by storm this year. And Thanksgiving may be no different.

According to TripIt data, rental car bookings for Thanksgiving increased 400% compared to last year.

So, that’s your cue to give your rental car provider a friendly check-in call about your booking—just. in. case. Especially if you’re renting a car in any of the top 10 destinations for rental cars this Thanksgiving: Phoenix, Orlando, Kahului, Las Vegas, Honolulu, Denver, Los Angeles, Tampa, Chicago, and San Francisco—respectively.

5. Understand your risk level before your trip

If you’re heading to an unfamiliar destination for the holidays, you can better understand potential risk factors for travelers, including those related to your health, as well as those related to political unrest, environmental conditions, and more, with TripIt’s Neighborhood Safety Scores.

TripIt shows safety scores for a variety of categories in neighborhoods spanning the world. This information is available in the Neighborhood Safety Scores section within each location on your TripIt itinerary with an address.

To help you make the best decisions for you as you travel, and to better understand the areas in which you’re traveling, you can also set a personal risk level within the Neighborhood Safety Scores feature. Then, TripIt will warn you if you’re planning on visiting an area that exceeds your threshold.

6. Have a game plan in case you get stuck at the airport

Getting stuck at the airport is always annoying, but it’s especially so when traveling during the holidays. Fortunately, there are steps you can take to mitigate the amount of time you spend stranded—and act on what’s within your control.

Communicate with the airline. If you’re stuck at the airport on a busy holiday, the first thing you should do is communicate with your airline. Once you hear your flight is canceled or significantly delayed, immediately get in line at the ticket counter to see if they can book you on a different flight. Then, call the airline’s customer service number while you’re standing in line. You can also consult TripIt Pro’s Alternate Flights feature to figure out what your options are for getting on a different flight. Pro members can search for alternate flights right in the Pro hub.
Know your travel credit card benefits. If you booked your flight with a travel credit card, you might be eligible for travel protection benefits. (Hint: Now’s the time to double-check what your card provider offers.) These benefits can help recoup some of the costs you might incur while stuck at the airport.
Look up a nearby lounge. For elite status members, you likely already know where to go. For those travel credit card-toting flyers, this is the time to pull up the Priority Pass app on your phone (or head to their mobile site) to find a lounge you may already have access to. For those travelers without elite status or a Priority Pass membership, fear not. You can usually buy a day pass (or even a membership) at a lounge’s entrance.

With these tips, you can be better prepared for some of the busiest travel days of the year—and with a bit of luck, arrive on time to the turkey trot start line, the kitchen to carve the turkey, or both.

The post 6 Tips for Low-Stress Thanksgiving Travel appeared first on TripIt Blog.

2021-11-09

TripIt Data: Thanksgiving 2021 Travel Volume Nearly Triple 2020

As the first Thanksgiving approaches since vaccine rollouts began in the United States, we were eager to dig into TripIt reservation data to see if we should expect yet another highly traveled holiday. And what we found is that cooling U.S. concerns around the Delta variant paired with increasing traveler optimism could make for the most highly trafficked holiday since the pandemic began.

TripIt analyzed U.S. origin lodging, rental car, and flight reservations made by our TripIt users for Thanksgiving travel and compared the findings to equivalent booking periods in 2020 and 2019. 

Our data shows Thanksgiving 2021 travel will be nearly triple the volume of last year across most categories, and while still not quite at pre-pandemic levels, flight (52% vs. 2019), lodging (65% vs. 2019), and vacation rental (59% vs. 2019) volumes are at the highest rates we’ve seen for holiday travel this year.

We also found that Americans are starting to return to their more usual holiday destinations and more usual stay lengths. See what else we uncovered in the analysis below.

Current Percentage of Flight Reservations Compared to Years Prior

	2021 Flights (All)	2021 Flights (Domestic)	2021 Flights (Int’l)	2021 Car Rentals	2021 Lodging	2021 Vacation Rentals
Compared to 2020	298%	299%	292%	390%	258%	175%
Compared to 2019	52%	54%	44%	78%	65%	59%

One third of travelers plan to fly in the two days preceding Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving travelers fall into two groups—those that make a week of it, and those who just dip in for the holiday. And more travelers fall in the latter group, with 33% of flight departures booked for the Tuesday (16%) and Wednesday (17%)—Wednesday being the most popular travel day—before Thanksgiving. Though, only slightly less will leave the Friday (14%) or Saturday (15%) before the holiday week and stick around.

As for the least popular day to travel? No surprise there: It’s Thanksgiving Day itself (just 7% of travelers).

And while all airports can expect to be busy (more on that below), there are some that will be busier than others: San Francisco International Airport (SFO) ranks #1, followed by Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) (#2), Denver International Airport (DEN) (#3), Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA)(#4), and Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD) (#5).

Flight reservations hovered at around 50% of pre-pandemic levels during the holidays this past year, but for Thanksgiving they are at their highest level—52% when compared to 2019. Same goes when looking at domestic and international flight reservations separately—54% and 44%, respectively. However, when comparing flight volumes to 2020 levels, we see nearly triple the volume. This isn’t entirely surprising to us as 19% of respondents in our recent survey told us they were planning to travel for Thanksgiving, and nearly 50% said they were planning to fly.

While the act of traveling might look a bit different than it did pre-pandemic, top Thanksgiving destinations look more like 2019 than 2020. Nearly half of the top 25 destinations moved one spot or less compared to 2019 rankings, while overall rank changes compared to 2020 are more significant. Major metros like New York, San Francisco, Boston, Seattle and others plunged down the list in 2020, but are back at their more usual spots for 2021.

Flight Destination Rankings and Rank Changes Compared to 2021

2021 Ranking	City, State	2020 Ranking	Rank Change (2020 to 2021)	2019 Ranking	Rank Change (2019 to 2021)
1	Las Vegas, NV	5	4	1	0
2	New York, NY	11	9	3	1
3	Chicago, IL	9	6	2	-1
4	Orlando, FL	2	-2	8	4
5	Los Angeles, CA	6	1	4	-1
6	Phoenix, AZ	3	-3	6	0
7	Denver, CO	1	-6	7	0
8	San Francisco, CA	19	11	5	-3
9	Boston, MA	16	7	10	1
10	Seattle, WA	12	2	9	-1
11	Dallas, TX	8	-3	12	1
12	Cancun	4	-8	20	8
13	Miami, FL	25	12	19	6
14	Fort Lauderdale, FL	7	-7	14	0
15	Newark, NJ	27	12	11	-4
16	San Diego, CA	13	-3	16	0
17	Tampa, FL	10	-7	18	1
18	Washington, DC	31	13	21	3
19	Austin, TX	20	1	22	3
20	Atlanta, GA	14	-6	13	-7
21	Honolulu, HI	17	-4	25	4
22	Houston, TX	18	-4	17	-5
23	Puerto Vallarta	30	7	46	23
24	Fort Myers, FL	21	-3	33	9
25	London	47	22	15	-10

As usual, we see a fairly even mix of warm weather and winter adventure destinations. Over the summer, California, Florida, and Hawaii captured the majority of bookings. However, perhaps travelers heard the request of the Rainbow State this summer and planned accordingly: For Thanksgiving, destinations in California (15%), Florida (14%), and Texas (7%) claim the majority of domestic flights. (Things could look different for Christmas and New Year’s as the governor of Hawaii recently re-extended his welcome.)

Rental car bookings continue to cover more ground

Rental car shortages and price hikes were extreme this past summer, but it looks like they could be even more pronounced this Thanksgiving. Rental cars remain the travel mode closest to pre-pandemic levels at 78% of 2019 levels. They’ve even increased nearly 400% compared to last year!

While yet again, Florida (15%), California (14%), and Hawaii (10%) claim a large majority of rental car bookings, there are some new entrants to the top 25 list. Nashville, TN (#19), Palm Springs, CA (#22), and San Jose, CA (#25) appear in the top 25 for the first time in the past two years. It does seem that travelers are more likely to rent a car in warm weather destinations, however we also see some winter adventure destinations in the top 25 as well: Denver (#6), Boston (#15), and Salt Lake City (#21).

Car Rental Destination Rankings and Rank Changes Compared to 2021

2021 Ranking	City, State	2020 Ranking	Rank Change (2020 to 2021)	2019 Ranking	Rank Change (2019 to 2021)
1	Phoenix, AZ	3	2	2	1
2	Orlando, FL	1	-1	1	-1
3	Kahului, HI	5	2	5	2
4	Las Vegas, NV	7	3	3	-1
5	Honolulu, HI	8	3	10	5
6	Denver, CO	2	-4	6	0
7	Los Angeles, CA	12	5	4	-3
8	Tampa, FL	9	1	13	5
9	Chicago, IL	15	6	8	-1
10	San Francisco, CA	21	11	7	-3
11	Lihue, HI	10	-1	16	5
12	Fort Lauderdale, FL	4	-8	9	-3
13	Kailua-kona, HI	14	1	20	7
14	Dallas, TX	24	10	25	11
15	Boston, MA	23	8	12	-3
16	San Diego, CA	20	4	11	-5
17	Miami, FL	11	-6	17	0
18	Fort Myers, FL	6	-12	26	8
19	Nashville, TN	26	7	34	15
20	College Park, GA	16	-4	14	-6
21	Salt Lake City, UT	25	4	27	6
22	Palm Springs, CA	32	10	45	23
23	Houston, TX	18	-5	15	-8
24	Austin, TX	13	-11	22	-2
25	San Jose, CA	57	32	27	2

Thanksgiving lodgers eat and run

While our recent survey data showed that most of those who are traveling for Thanksgiving are planning to stay with family and friends (*65%), some are planning to stay in a hotel (*31%) or a vacation rental (*15%), contributing to the continued tick back toward pre-pandemic booking levels for lodgings (*note: respondents could choose multiple accommodation types.)

And for those who’ve booked their own place to stay, most plan to (turkey) trot in and out.

Throughout this summer we saw as much as a 10x increase in the number of reservations for 8+ day trips. We also saw that for Thanksgiving 2020, there was a big shift toward longer stays as well, with 40% staying 5-7 days and 2.4% staying 8+ days. But is the ‘work from vacation home’ trend over? For Thanksgiving 2021, we are seeing the shift back toward shorter stays with the majority (64%) staying 3-4 days, 21% staying 5-7 days, and only .6% staying 8+ days.

Percentage of Lodging Reservations by Length of Stay

	1-2 Days	3-4 Days	5-7 Days	8+ Days
2021	14%	64%	21%	.6%
2020	13%	45%	40%	2%
2019	13%	72%	15%	.5%

Even vacation rentals (a subset of lodging), where we have seen even stronger trends toward longer stays over the past year, have started to shift back toward shorter lengths. In fact, there is a lower percentage of people staying 8+ days this year than in 2019—5% vs. 8%. However, the majority are staying in vacation rentals longer than when compared to lodging trends overall; the majority (56%) will stay for 5-7 days in a vacation rental.

Percentage of Vacation Rentals by Length of Stay

	1-2 Days	3-4 Days	5-7 Days	8-13 Days
2021	7%	32%	56%	5%
2020	8%	36%	46%	11%
2019	7%	46%	46%	8%

Overall lodging reservations continue to inch back toward normal (65% compared to 2019), as do vacation rentals (59%), and both well surpass last year at close to double 2020 levels.

Lodging Destination Ranking and Rank Changes Compared to 2021

2021 Ranking	City, State	2020 Ranking	Rank Change (2020 to 2021)	2019 Ranking	Rank Change (2019 to 2021)
1	Las Vegas, NV	2	1	1	0
2	New York, NY	3	1	2	0
3	Orlando, FL	1	-2	3	0
4	Chicago, IL	16	12	4	0
5	Honolulu, HI	6	1	7	2
6	San Diego, CA	9	3	8	2
7	Los Angeles, CA	15	8	6	-1
8	San Francisco, CA	12	4	5	-3
9	Miami, FL	23	14	13	4
10	New Orleans, LA	19	9	9	-1
11	Boston, MA	44	33	15	4
12	Washington, DC	22	10	10	-2
13	Austin, TX	28	15	17	4
14	Nashville, TN	11	-3	24	10
15	Anaheim, CA	21	6	18	3
16	Scottsdale, AZ	5	-11	20	4
17	Fort Lauderdale, FL	14	-3	16	-1
18	Miami Beach, FL	24	6	25	7
19	Lahaina, HI	4	-15	12	-7
20	Philadelphia, PA	38	18	14	-6
21	Houston, TX	78	57	22	1
22	Dallas, TX	55	33	30	8
23	Tampa, FL	45	22	29	6
24	Denver, CO	13	-11	23	-1
25	Seattle, WA	54	29	11	-14

However, while the top lodging destinations (Las Vegas, New York, Orlando, and Chicago, respectively) match those of Thanksgiving 2019, the top vacation rental destinations are still a bit in flux. Indeed, the top 25 list for vacation rentals shows significant rank shifts from both 2019 and 2020.

Vacation Rental Destination Rankings and Rank Changes Compared to 2021

2021 Ranking	City, State	2020 Ranking	Rank Change (2020 to 2021)	2019 Ranking	Rank Change (2019 to 2021)
1	San Diego, CA	3	2	2	1
2	Portland, OR	67	65	15	13
3	Chicago, IL	138	135	16	13
4	Palm Springs, CA	1	-3	19	15
5	New Orleans, LA	46	41	4	-1
6	Los Angeles, CA	21	15	1	-5
7	Seattle, WA	14	7	8	1
8	Kissimmee, FL	4	-4	14	6
9	Nashville, TN	5	-4	13	4
10	Sedona, AZ	2	-8	17	7
11	Joshua Tree, CA	22	11	23	12
12	Kihei, HI	31	19	12	0
13	Washington, DC	43	30	18	5
14	Houston, TX	389	375	33	19
15	Austin, TX	11	-4	5	-10
16	San Francisco, CA	102	86	22	6
17	Kailua-kona, HI	96	79	114	97
18	Princeville, HI	95	77	45	27
19	Honolulu, HI	68	49	11	-8
20	Tucson, AZ	29	9	33	13
21	Brooklyn, NY	184	163	6	-15
22	Scottsdale, AZ	7	-15	10	-12
23	Philadelphia, PA	79	56	7	-16
24	Charleston, SC	77	53	44	20
25	New York, NY	44	19	3	-22

We hope that you and yours enjoy a safe and healthy Thanksgiving—whether you gather virtually or around the same table. TripIt is here to help you stay safe as you venture back out for holiday travel. Make sure to add your travel plans to your TripIt itinerary so that you can see COVID-19 travel guidance by destination and airline, find medical facilities (should you need them) in Nearby Places, and locate local health and medical scores with Neighborhood Safety Scores.

Methodology: TripIt looked at  U.S. origin round-trip  flight, lodging, and rental car  reservations made between October 18, 2020, and October 18, 2021, for travel during  the Thanksgiving holiday (Friday, November 19 – Sunday, November 28, 2021) with a U.S. origin, and equivalent booking periods  in 2020 and 2019. Reservation data in TripIt is provided by users and is booking provider agnostic.

The post TripIt Data: Thanksgiving 2021 Travel Volume Nearly Triple 2020 appeared first on TripIt Blog.

2021-11-07