We priced Thanksgiving week against the week before for a family of four on six routes. The holiday week cost $400 to nearly $3,000 more on every one. Here's what that buys you, what it costs on the school side, and why spring break is too early to call.
Type
Deals Briefing
Published
Read time
6 min
Written for
A family of four
Today in one glance
The whole briefing in four lines
01Biggest gap: Thanksgiving week. All six routes cost more for four seats than the week before.
02Too early to call: spring break. No gap yet, but it's five months out and the holiday premium may not have formed. Re-price in January.
03The school side. Five days is under 3% of a 180-day year. Chronic absence starts at 10%.
04Tonight's move. Price your own Thanksgiving week against the week before. It takes four minutes.
01The Number
Thanksgiving week, four seats
Cash fares, nonstop, economy, 2 adults and 2 kids. Thanksgiving week against the week before, on six routes from major hubs.
Family of four round-trip fares, Thanksgiving week versus the week before, Oct 6 snapshot
Route
Holiday costs
Holiday Nov 21 to 29
Week before Nov 14 to 22
Atlanta to Cancún
+$2,949
$4,880
$1,931
New York to Rome
+$2,846
$5,745
$2,899
Los Angeles to Honolulu
+$2,597
$4,081
$1,484
Boston to Fort Lauderdale
+$1,958
$2,779
$821
New York to Orlando
+$986
$2,467
$1,481
Chicago to Denver
+$402
$1,052
$650
+$2,278
Median gap for the family. Estimate from Oct 6 cash fares, no checked bags.
~$390
Per missed school day at the average gap. Going the week before means five missed days.
The $390 assumes your district takes all of Thanksgiving week off. If yours only closes Wednesday to Friday, the holiday trip misses days too.
We ran the same searches on Oct 4. The average gap then was $1,508, or about $300 per day. The direction held, but the size moved $450 in two days.
02Where the 92% came from
The survey says something narrower
You've probably seen "92% of families are choosing term-time trips." That number comes from one survey, and it doesn't say that.
67%
of parents say they've already taken kids out of school for a trip.
92%
would consider it if it saved money. Any amount. A hypothetical.
19%
named saving money as a reason they did it. 22% said better flight and hotel availability.
Atomik Research for Omio. 1,000 US parents of kids 5 to 18, fielded Jul 30 to Aug 3, 2026. Omio sells travel, so read it with that in mind. There's no prior-year comparison, so "shift" is a headline word. Nothing in the data shows a trend. Read the release
03Break by Break
Thanksgiving is the real case
Every route cost more on Thanksgiving week, both days we checked. Christmas costs more too, but the gap is smaller and swings. Spring break shows no gap today, and that's not the same as no gap.
AChristmas · Dec 19 to 27 vs Dec 5 to 13
More expensive on all six routes, but it swings
Median gap
+$665, roughly $130 per missed day
Watch out
Boston to Fort Lauderdale fell from +$736 to +$100 in two days
Family of four round-trip fares, Christmas week versus early December, Oct 6 snapshot
Route
Gap
Christmas Dec 19 to 27
Early Dec Dec 5 to 13
Los Angeles to Honolulu
+$2,138
$3,605
$1,467
New York to Rome
+$2,038
$5,248
$3,210
Atlanta to Cancún
+$847
$2,787
$1,940
New York to Orlando
+$483
$1,889
$1,406
Chicago to Denver
+$175
$863
$688
Boston to Fort Lauderdale
+$100
$1,597
$1,497
The call
Worth pricing for your route. On its own, it isn't a reason to pull kids out.
BSpring break · Mar 13 to 21, 2027
No gap today. Check again in January.
Today
Flat against late Feb, and cheaper than late April
Catch
It's five months out. The premium may not exist yet.
Against the week of Feb 27: flat. The median gap was close to zero, and two routes were cheaper on spring break week.
Against late April (Apr 24 to May 2): spring break was cheaper on all five routes that returned fares. Late April is 200 days out and some airlines haven't loaded those flights yet. Chicago to Denver returned no nonstops at all.
The bigger catch: Thanksgiving is six weeks out, so most of its premium is already priced in. Airlines raise fares on busy weeks as seats sell, so the spring break gap may not exist yet. Our data can't tell you what it looks like in February.
The call
No spring break premium today. That doesn't mean there won't be one. Price it again in January.
04The School Side
What five days actually costs
The savings pitch skips this part. Here's where the line is, why schools are watching it, and what the research says about trips specifically.
10%
of the school year is where chronic absence starts. In a 180-day year, that's 18 days.
22.6%
of K-12 students were chronically absent in 2025, up from about 15% before the pandemic.
2.8%
of a 180-day year is what five days adds up to.
Why it matters now: with absence rates that high, expect a less relaxed answer from your school than you got five years ago. (AEI)
The research on trips: a Scottish study of 4,419 students found family holiday absences weren't linked to lower grades in its strictest models. Truancy and sickness were. It's one country and a small effect, so it isn't a free pass. (Klein, Sosu & Dare 2022)
Policy varies by district. Some call vacation unexcused. Some excuse it with makeup work. Some excuse it and still count it toward the state's chronic absence number. Your handbook is the only source that matters here.
05When It Works / When to Skip
Pull them out, or don't
Works when
It's Thanksgiving week and your gap is $1,000+ for four seats
Your kids are under the 10% line with room to spare
Your district pre-approves trips and gives makeup work
You'd be adding 2 or 3 days to a break, not swapping a whole week
Skip when
It's spring break and you haven't re-priced since October. Today's gap is zero, and that can change.
A kid is already near chronic absence for the year
It's a testing week, or a grade with state exams
Your gap is under about $100 per missed day. Three of six routes were there at Christmas.
TrapDon't do this
Deciding spring break in October
What you see
Spring break week priced the same as the week before. Looks like an easy call.
Do instead
Write down both weeks' prices now. Decide on January's numbers.
Busy weeks get pricier as seats sell. Thanksgiving, six weeks out, shows what a filled holiday week looks like. Spring break hasn't gotten there.
What it costs
Book either week now on today's math and you may be wrong both ways. You could skip school for a gap that never shows up, or pay a premium that opens later.
06Points Angle
Cheap cash week, cheap points week?
Airline miles: on dynamically priced programs, award prices can move with cash fares, so an expensive cash week may be an expensive points week too. Check the points price on the same dates before you count on a points discount.
Hyatt: free nights now price at five levels per date, from Lowest to Top. The chart page doesn't say which dates get which level. Search your exact dates with points on and look. (Hyatt free night chart)
Four seats still comes first. A cheap week on paper doesn't help if four award seats aren't there. Confirm before you transfer anything.
07Tonight
Three things to do tonight
About 13 minutes total. None of them spend a point.
01 · 4 MIN
Price your own gap
Open Google Flights. Enter 2 adults, 2 children, nonstop. Search Thanksgiving week, then the week before. Write down both totals.
02 · 5 MIN
Find your district's policy
Search your school district's site for "attendance policy" or "pre-arranged absence." Note three things: is vacation excused, how much notice is needed, and whether it counts toward chronic absence.
03 · 4 MIN
Check your hotel's price level
On Hyatt, search both weeks with "Use Points" on. Compare the points per night.
Points & miles intelligence for families of four. Free, twice weekly, and written by someone who has to book four seats too.
Cash fares, 2 adults and 2 children, economy, nonstop only, cheapest available fare. Eight-day trips, Saturday to Sunday. Pulled Oct 4 and Oct 6, 2026 from a public flight search. No checked bags. Boston to Miami returned no nonstop results, so we used Fort Lauderdale.
Savings figures are cash retail airfare only. They don't include hotel, food, activities, or what you'd give up at work. The cash fares are estimates; real fares vary by date, booking window, and departure city. The savings number is the right order of magnitude, not a guarantee. Availability is dynamic. Confirm seats before transferring. Transfers are irreversible. Not financial advice.
Our grading system prioritizes one thing: can a family of four actually book this?
