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 A record number of travelers are expected to hit the road this holiday season. CNN's Jason Carroll takes a look at what you can expect.
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NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - U.S. highways, airports and train stations will be jammed with the largest number of travelers in five years during the Thanksgiving holiday, according to projections for the busiest travel period of the year.
This is expected to be the first time that the number of Americans traveling more than 50 miles will top pre-Sept. 11 levels since that attack resulted in a sharp drop in travel.
The AAA says that even with gasoline prices up 30 percent from year-ago levels, the number of auto travelers is expected to be up about 3 percent from a year earlier. About 82 percent of those traveling 50 miles or more are driving, according to the organization's forecast.
"When most of us drive 200 to 300 miles one way for Thanksgiving, it's usually only means an extra 10 or 12 bucks from higher gas prices, which isn't a deal breaker," said Justin McNaull, AAA spokesman.
By comparison, air travelers are seeing bargains this year, leaving the industry trade group, the Air Transport Association, to project a record 16.3 million air travelers over the holiday. That's up 2.5 percent from last year's 15.9 million air travelers. About 12 percent of holiday travels go by plane.
The ATA doesn't have any figures for average air fares during the holiday. But its calculation of fares from the eight largest carriers shows flyers paying an average of 11.06 cent a mile in October. That's down more than 10 percent from average fares a year ago, and is off more than 25 percent from October 2000 fares, just before the last pre-Sept. 11 holiday travel season.
With airlines paying significantly higher fuel bills, up 56 percent in September compared to a year earlier, coupled with the low fares, that means that most of the major airlines will continue to lose money this quarter, even with the busy holiday travel.
Tom Parsons, president of Bestfares.com, said there are still some bargains available for those making reservations this late, since many airlines have waived advance purchase requirements and Saturday stay requirements for the holiday period.
But to find the better fares, flyers would likely need to travel on the off-peak days, such as Sunday, Nov. 21 or Monday, Nov. 22, or perhaps even Thanksgiving morning, and return on either Thanksgiving Day, Friday, Nov. 26 or Wednesday, Dec. 1.
Finding seats on the two heaviest travel days -- Wednesday, Nov. 24 or Sunday, Nov. 28, will be difficult and relatively expensive, although Parsons said some coast-to-coast round-trip fares are available for about $500 round-trip even on the busy days.
Amtrak is expecting about 600,000 passengers over the course of Thanksgiving week, a forecast less than 1 percent above the 595,000 carried last year.
The biggest change for Amtrak is that its conductors will now be checking the ID's of about 10 percent of the passengers, based on their ticket number. That's a security measure begun by the railroad on Nov. 1, at the direction of the Transportation Security Administration.
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