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Day before Thanksgiving expected to be the busiest on Houston roadways this year
Houston is always congested during the evening rush hour, but tomorrow expect the worse you’ve ever seen.
It’s that time of year when many of us will be hitting the road or flying for the Thanksgiving holiday. It’s going to be very congested. AAA estimates there will be about 1.6 million more travelers this year than in 2018.
It is quiet now, but based on travel trends, INRIX predicts that tomorrow from 5 to 7 p.m. will be the busiest time for driving in the Houston area this year.
Houston is always congested during the evening rush hour, but Wednesday expect the worse you’ve ever seen. There will be people wanting to travel early for Thanksgiving whether it’s by car or airplane. Drivers we spoke say they always try to hit the road as early as they can. Passengers at the airports try to do the same.
But more often than not, we travel at the last minute. Sheilah Benoit of Woodlake Travel has suggestions for those that fall into this category.
“If you’re parking at the airport and I definitely suggest you make a parking reservation ahead of time. Get to the airport super, super early. They say normal is two hours for domestic and three for international,” Benoit says.
Checking in 24 hours in advance will let you know if there are last-minute changes, and you’re ahead of the game if you added travel insurance to your reservation.
“Sometimes those extra expenses for a hotel or meals can be paid for through your insurance, so we always suggest clients have insurance,” Benoit says.
It’s too late to add insurance if you’re traveling for Thanksgiving, but if you need to cancel, or are in danger of missing a flight, you still have options.
“It would be worth getting to the airline to let them know so you can cancel, and be able to reuse what would most likely be a nonrefundable ticket. The airline charges you a change fee to reuse it, but again you want to do that before the flight is actually canceled or you lose all the value of your ticket," Benoit said. “Sometimes people are leery of having an agent issue the ticket, or there might be an extra fee involved, but for holiday travel it would be well worth the extra money to be able to reach somebody."
If you are traveling for Christmas, you may want to dig up your reservation and add travel insurance to it to be on the safe side, so you won’t take a financial hit later on if something happens.