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Airfare may be up nearly 43% from last year and gas prices are again on the rise, but millions of Americans are still planning to travel to be with family and friends next week for Thanksgiving.
About 54.6 million people will travel 50 miles or more from home this Thanksgiving, according to an AAA report released on Tuesday. Travel for the holiday season is up 1.5% compared to last year, bringing travel volume back to 98% of pre-pandemic levels, according to the report.
This year is on track to be the third-busiest travel season the agency has seen for Thanksgiving in over two decades.
After years of downsized dinners and Zoomsgivings, families are itching to reunite, making sacrifices in other parts of their budgets to afford trips.
John Williams, a retired elementary school teacher, can’t wait for his grandchildren to jump into arms. Williams, who lives in Tucson, Arizona, has been saving since August to spend the holiday with his daughter and grandchildren, who live about 500 miles away in Los Angeles.
COVID had kept Williams and his wife, Ann, from making the annual trip in 2020, and they celebrated over Zoom.
“We felt that there was a void created,” he said, and they were both happy when the pandemic cloud lifted enough last November to renew their tradition.
Since then, though, inflation has gripped the country and most of the world, with prices rising at their fastest pace in decades. But Williams said he won’t let that be the reason for another Thanksgiving spent apart. Even after hearing horror stories of gas prices of being $7 per gallon in California, he and Ann, a retired orchestra teacher, said they would pay whatever it takes.
