Yes, everybody’s finally catching up with RickSeaney.com and FareCompare.com, at least when it comes to our insider predictions picked up over a month ago by the CBS Evening News — that Thanksgiving travel could get ugly. But as you’ll see, there’s some good news to report (including, more airline employees on the job this holiday season). And be sure to see our list of MUST-HAVE LINKS inside!

Yes, you read it here, first!

We told you 2-months ago that Thanksgiving travel was going to be tough. And, now, finally, the Air Transport Association of America (ATA), the organization that represents the big U.S. airlines, is finally onboard. Yes, it’ll be bad, but, there’s good news, too!

According to the ATA’s own statistics, Turkey Day travel will see many planes 90% full (we say some will be close to 100% occupancy).

But FareCompare readers already knew that. Still, here’s the surprisingly good news: the airlines are adding employees and services.

To help ease the crunch factor, the ATA says carriers will be following new “initiatives” which include the following:

• Adding more employees over the holidays

• Blocking seats in key markets on peak holiday dates to re-seat passengers whose flights are cancelled or delayed due to weather
• Waiving change fees for customers whose itinerary is impacted by weather delays, irregular operations or mechanical difficulties
• Increasing connection times during peak travel periods

We applaud these efforts, and add 3-important things passengers can do for themselves:

1. Carry your bags onboard, if at all possible
2. Pre-print your boarding pass before you head for the airport
3. Get to the airport early. Early! EARLY!

And, plan for problems. Pre-print and carry these handy lists with you:

• Link to a list of airlines, their websites and phone numbers
• Link to a list of hotels, their websites and phone numbers
• Link to a list of rental car companies, with websites and phone numbers
• Link to airlines’ contracts of carriage, so you’ll know your rights, if things go wrong

Some destination/departure notes: some airports will be much busier than usual, while others will be relatively easy to navigate. Below are our nominees for the busiest cities:

And now, our picks for better cities to fly in and out of:

Finally, let’s give a nod to FareCompare’s early media supporters, who followed up on our data, and did terrific reports for their organizations. These include KXAS, NBC Channel 5 in Dallas (here’s a link to their story) and CBS Evening News’ report.

And Happy Thanksgiving.