Booking your holiday travel? Here's what you should know

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- The holiday travel season is right around the corner. 

ABC57’s Jordan Tolbert spoke Christie Hudson, a travel expert with Expedia, who says now is a really good time to start locking in your flights for both Thanksgiving and Christmas to save some money.

“The data shows that flight prices do tend to go up the closer we get to the holidays, so around 30 days out, at least, is going to be your rule of thumb. But actually, Expedia data says the sweet spot for booking your domestic trips is before the end of October, so a couple more days is a good time to go ahead and lock those trips in. If you're booking internationally for Christmas, maybe heading to Mexico or, you know, overseas, you have a little bit more time. But like I said, around November 25 is when you're going to want to be done making those holiday flight plans,” said Hudson.

Hudson recommends booking as soon as possible for Thanksgiving.

For both Thanksgiving and Christmas travel, she says booking domestic flights before the end of October can save you around 60 dollars on flight prices, according to Expedia data.

Hudson also discussed travel insurance, if it’s worth it, and what it covers.

“The thing you need to do is read the fine print of the travel insurance that you are considering attaching to your trip. The most comprehensive type of travel insurance is called CFAR, or 'cancel for any reason'. That is going to be probably a little pricier, but it's going to let you cancel for any reason, if you need to change your mind, if your travel dates just don't work, if someone gets sick in your family, you're going to be covered across an array of different events, whereas some of the cheaper, more limited ones, they're really only going to cover you in kind of extreme cases,” said Hudson.

She says travel insurance can be helpful, and you may want to use it for large purchases or big trips, though you may not need it for an economy flight a couple of hours away.

Hudson also provided some additional travel tips:

• Avoid flying during the peak holiday windows (i.e., the Wednesday before and Sunday after Thanksgiving). It can save you money and be less busy.
• Get to the airport early
• Fly direct if you can, instead of connecting
• Opt to carry on a bag instead of checking one if you can
• If possible, take a morning flight. She says the annual Expedia Air hacks Report says flights before 3 pm are 50 percent less likely to be cancelled.