10 Worst Airports for Thanksgiving Flights, Ranked

Don't joke about airline pilots and alcohol.

Like many people out there, I'm a relatively nervous flyer. I can't sleep the night before a flight, I triple-check everything before I leave, and I even invested in TSA PreCheck after a few almost-missed flights due to over-crowded security lines.

Airport delays are never fun — and that’s just as true for regular people as it is for A-list celebrities like actors Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard.

Actors Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard said they spent $600 on pillows, blankets, and sheets so their family could sleep in the Boston airport after their flight was delayed — then, they were kicked out of the airport.

Bad news for the airlines often translates as good news for travel consumers.

This coming August, all eyes will turn to the beaches and stadiums of Rio de Janeiro, where the 2016 Summer Olympics will be in full swing. The Games are expected to bring athletes and tourists from across the globe to Brazil, and now for Americans, a huge hurdle has been removed. In a move to stimulate the Brazilian economy, the Brazilian government announced that it will waive visa requirements for citizens of the United States, Canada, Australia, and Japan.

When experts name the “best” days to travel, they usually name the days airfares are lowest—which often aren’t optimal for most people once you factor in personal convenience and schedule constraints. There’s typically a reason why these ones are the slower travel days.

Four airlines—United, American, Southwest, and Alaska—have been fined by the Department of Transportation (DOT) for “providing inaccurate information to passengers about how much compensation they could potentially receive for being denied boarding against their will, or “bumped” on oversold flights, and for lost, damaged, or delayed baggage.”

Wondering which airports are most likely to put you behind schedule during the busy summer travel season? If you’re flying to the Boston, Chicago, New York, or San Francisco areas this summer—or even worse, connecting to another flight there—be especially wary.

Could Southwest Hawaii service make way for the ‘Southwest Effect’—increased competition and lower fares for travel to the islands? We’re closer to finding out.

When do you find the lowest fares for Thanksgiving and December holiday travel? Right now, says the latest data from Hipmunk, derived from analysis of historical buying patterns. Specifically, you can find the lowest fares for both Thanksgiving flights and the winter holidays during the first week of September. But don’t give up if you miss that week:

“Best airport” rankings aren’t typically the most helpful in terms of travel planning: If I want to go to Boston, I’m not going to head for Las Vegas instead because its airport is better. But those best airport lists do come in handy in two cases—when you have a choice of airport for your connecting flight, and when you can choose between multiple airports within a single metro area.