Yes, it probably will be a little less congested in the nation’s airports this year - but face it, a crowd is still a crowd - and Thanksgiving is always the busiest air travel time of the year, so it will be mobbed.

And you have to plan accordingly.

I’ve listed five “do’s and don’ts” that will make your airport experience as smooth as possible. And yes, some of these are golden-oldies - you’ve heard them before - but this time, follow the advice. Trust me, you’ll be glad you did.

1. DO - Get to the Airport Early. This is especially important if you’re flying out the Friday, Tuesday and Wednesday before Thanksgiving - or the Sunday after.

SURVIVAL TACTIC: Arrive 2 hours before domestic flights, and 3 hours before international flights during “peak travel times”: 6am to 9 am, 11am to 2pm, and 7pm to 10pm.

2. DON’T - Drive Yourself to the Airport. It’s not about saving gas, it’s about finding a parking space - don’t waste valuable time looking for one in that huge long-term lot.

SURVIVAL TACTIC: Take mass transit, carpool, taxi, or bribe a neighbor to drive you.

3. DO - Bring the Fun Stuff. If you arrive in plenty of time or run into delays, you (and especially the kids) will need a diversion; think movies on laptops, electronic games, and best of all - a good book.

SURVIVAL TACTIC: Be sure to charge all batteries completely the night before (and that goes for your cell phone battery, too).

4. DON’T - Break the TSA Rules. You know all this - no liquids or gels larger than 3oz - don’t delay yourself and others by forgetting at such a crucial time.

SURVIVAL TACTIC: Use the new “family lanes” at security checkpoints if you’re traveling with your tribe.

5. DO - Set Airline Alerts Before You Leave. Go on your airline’s website and sign up for “alerts” so you’ll be notified of any delays. NOTE: Even if you’ve been notified of a 3 hour delay, get to the airport at the scheduled departure time anyway; if the delay only lasts an hour, that plane will take off - with you or without you. And if there is a long delay, at least you’ll be psychologically prepared for it.

SURVIVAL TACTIC: Be sure the person picking you up is also signed up for these alerts; no sense having Grandpa waiting around the airport for hours.

I guess they got tired of all the screaming.

However, a US Airways official says the decision to reverse themselves and restore its bonus miles as well as the “500 mile minimum” for short hops - was merely prompted by “customer feedback”.

And mind you, it’s only being restored to the airline’s top-tier frequent fliers - though it is retroactive - which is a nice touch.

This announcement comes in the wake of first Continental’s, then United’s decision to restore that 500 mile minimum perk.

This just in from CTV: The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that airline passengers who are obese or disabled and need another seat can get that second seat for free.

The court effectively upholds Canada’s “one-person, one-fare” policy. In practical terms, it means that if a disabled person requires an attendant, that attendant gets a seat for free — and an obese person who needs extra room is allowed a second seat at no additional cost.

Air Canada and WestJet had appealed a lower Canadian court’s ruling, which was rejected today.

It should be pointed out that this continuation of the “one-person, one-fare” policy applies only to Canadian domestic flights, and will not apply to the domestic portion of an international flight.

I’m sure we’ll get some comments on this post - who’s first?

I love a good fight. But this one’s getting nasty.

It all began as I perused a press release on the decline of global business travel. It seems, passengers buying first class or business travel airfare fell 8% in September, compared to September 2007. And it was worse in the Middle East, where the high-end airfare was off 14%.

But what really struck me were the comments - from both road warriors and family travelers - that showed an incredible degree of animosity on both sides.

For example, one commenter accused the “arrogant airlines” of treating his family as “second class citizens” adding that, “We EXPECT you to transport a suitcase with every traveler! Quit nickel and diming travelers to death!” Where have I heard that one before?

In response, a road warrior pointed out that business travelers often don’t pay for bags partly because they pay so much more for their tickets - and then it got uglier: “Passengers should STOP whining for things they can’t afford…YOU are NOT entitled to fly CHEAP. Stay home!”

My goodness, all that shouting. It’s almost like watching a class war unfold - which I suppose is exactly what it is.

Any comments?

Three airports are opening up new and much needed runways - Washington Dulles, Chicago’s O’Hare and Seattle-Tacoma. Millions were spent, and officials say the runways will eventually make these airports safer, more efficient - and may even cut down on delays.

But where are the new runways where they’re really needed? I speak, of course, of the greater metropolitan New York City airports - LaGuardia, JFK and Newark.

The problem is, the realities of real estate - there just isn’t room for much expansion.

Then there’s what a CNN report called, “local opposition”. Tough to beat in New York. Just like the delays at all the airports…

This almost sounds like something out of one of the old “Airport” movies. Except the “real life” flight attendant in this incident didn’t fall apart.

The story took place last January. It seems, somewhere over the Atlantic, the co-pilot of an Air Canada jet heading from Toronto to London, apparently had a breakdown of some kind - and had to be “forcibly” removed from the cockpit.

Fortunately, one of the flight attendants had a pilot’s license and stepped in to fill the breach. And helped land the plane safely in Shannon

There are a lot more details in our sister blog, StandardUprightPosition - just click here.

Here’s a stunner - this, from Southwest’s blog:

“Brace yourselves. Today Southwest Airlines announced our intention to bid to begin service to New York City’s LaGuardia Airport.”

Southwest is seeking to buy 14 take-off and landing sites at LaGuardia that had been owned by the now bankrupt ATA. According to Dow Jones/CNN, Southwest “submitted a $7.5 million bid to the Indianapolis bankruptcy court that’s overseeing the sale of assets owned by Southwest’s former business partner, ATA Airlines.”

The Southwest blog cautions that this is not a done deal - and it’s not even clear where or when Southwest would fly to and from New York City if they get the slots — perhaps next year - but there’s an undeniable sense of excitement in the air, which we haven’t seen much of in this bleak economic climate. Here’s Southwest’s CEO:

“Even in this volatile environment, we have said we must monitor the competitive landscape and take advantage of prudent market opportunity.” –Gary Kelly, Southwest

So far, the closest Southwest has come to cracking the Big Apple has been Long Island’s MacArthur Airport which is about 50 miles away. If they get the ATA slots, they will have really hit the big time.

Small groups of American Airlines flight attendants picked up their protest signs and marched at the Dallas/Ft. Worth, JFK and Reagan airports yesterday. Their message: raise our pay - or else.

The flight attendants are in the midst of negotiations with American for a new contract; what they’d like to see are raises that in effect restore what they lost when they agreed to concessions back in 2003 - when it looked like the airline might go bankrupt.

“There is a lot of anger and frustration.” -Laura Glading, Assn. of Professional Flight Attendants

American Airlines, for its part, told the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram that ” American attendants are among the industry’s highest paid and still have pensions and retiree health benefits.”

According to a flight attendant union rep, the situation is very close to what happened in 1993 - when flight attendants walked off the job for 5 days - an action that reportedly cost the carrier about $20 million dollars a day.

Want to be part of history? If you are going to be in D.C. this January 20^th for the swearing in of our 44^th President - you will not be alone.

The figures keep rising, even as I write this - but last I heard, officials in Washington are now expecting - four million people!

I’ve already explained that airfares will be up sharply for flights heading to the nation’s capital [see my chart that shows the price hikes] but now it seems, accommodations are going to be in extremely short supply - and the best rooms will come with presidential price tags - including a special package at the Mandarin Oriental that goes for more than $200,00 (to be fair, that’s for 4 nights - plus, you get a chauffeur-driven Maserati, as well).

If you’d like to see more fun facts (how big was that snowfall for JFK’s inaugural?), check out my latest ABCNews.com column - there’s a new one out every Wednesday.

Last year, the President opened up military airspace along the Eastern Seaboard to Thanksgiving travelers.

Today, as expected, Mr. Bush did it again - only on a much broader basis - by expanding the effort to include the Midwest, Southwest and the West Coast of the U.S.

These extra lanes allow aircraft more room to maneuver in order to avoid bad weather, and subsequent delays. However, a spokesperson for the air traffic controllers’ union said this is nowhere near what is needed:

“It is all for show and, frankly, this show is getting quite tiresome to the American traveling public that has gotten fed up with mounting delays and FAA mismanagement that has degraded the system during the current administration.” –Doug Church, National Air Traffic Controllers Association

Ah, but here’s something everyone will like: starting in December, the federal government is increasing the compensation airlines must pay passengers when an airline loses a bag - the amount jumps from “up to $3,000″ to “up to $3,300″.

Great news for travelers heading to the U.S. from Ireland.

U.S. and Irish officials will sign an agreement next week that will allow U.S. Customs screenings and immigration checkpoints to be set up in two Irish airports, Dublin and Shannon.

What this means is, travelers can get through the often hectic process of going through U.S. customs in these quiet airports (as opposed to say, JFK - or massive European airports like London’s Heathrow) - and the travelers will be done with all that fuss and bother before ever setting foot on U.S. soil. Another plus: this means the planes can fly to U.S. domestic terminals.

Shannon will begin offering the service starting this summer; Dublin’s airport will see it sometime in 2010.

This should be a real boon to the Irish airports and the airlines that serve them, and could prove a tremendous boost to Ryanair - which has said it will begin trans-Atlantic service to the U.S. sometime this coming year - for as little as 10 Euros, one-way.

An enthusiastic hat tip to Gadling.

I’ve just read a press release touting the somewhat radical-ish thoughts of Robert Crandall, former CEO of American Airlines. The veteran airline exec made the comments at the Airline Strategy Summit in London.

Among his suggestions:

• Take the Train: Flying should be banned between cities that are already linked by a good railway system, such as New York City and Washington D.C.
• Too Many Hubs: Crandall appeared to suggest letting “second tier hubs” fade away, as they’ve been “a drain on airlines’ resources for years”
• Mandate Binding Arbitration: Said Crandall, “I’m constantly astonished by the level of animosity between trade unions and management,” adding that better labor relations could be achieved in part through binding arbitration

Now it’s your turn - leave a comment, telling me what you think.

Officials had said they were expecting a crowd of more than a million to converge on our nation’s capital for our new president’s swearing-in ceremony on Jan. 20.

Now they say, it’ll be more like 4-million.

Good News: During the week of Jan. 16 through Jan. 23, Virgin America will operate 3 extra roundtrip flights from San Francisco and Los Angeles to Washington Dulles.

According to a Virgin America spokesman, “the flights will operate on new Airbus A320s which will allow for a 23% increase in seats available to guests that week”.

If anyone goes, we’d love to hear about it.

Virgin America was supposed to be flying in and out of Chicago this fall, but that’s been pushed back to late February.

Now, according to the Chicago Tribune, officials with the discount carrier are wondering if Virgin America has any future at all in Chicago.

It’s not the landing rights - the airline already has that. It’s the gates. Other airlines have control of all the gates, through 2018, and talks between Virgin America and American, United and Delta have apparently gone nowhere.

You would think there might be room to negotiate - after all, the legacy carriers in question have undergone deep capacity cuts this year - but apparently none want to part with any gates, at least for now. And that could lead Virgin America to forget about Chicago altogether.

Meanwhile, city officials in Chicago are trying to broker a deal for Virgin - so it would be premature, I think, to count Virgin America out yet.

President Bush will speak to employees of the Dept. of Transportation tomorrow, and announce new measures to ease air travel during the holidays, along with some consumer protection measures.

You’ll remember last year, the president opened up some of the unused military airspace from Maine to Florida - one benefit of that is it gives airlines more leeway, i.e., more room to maneuver, if they need to skirt bad weather.

I suspect we’ll see something similar this Thanksgiving.

Procrastinators, this is truly your lucky day.

This is a REAL Thanksgiving airfare sale from Southwest - for one thing, there are no…

No Blackout Dates!

And, only a 3-day advance purchase is required.

You must purchase by Nov. 29, and travel anytime from Nov. 22 through Dec. 2, and again, this travel is valid for all the days of the week.

See our post on our deals page for more information and sample airfares.

No surprise here: the number of Americans visiting the United Kingdom this past summer was down - down a brutal 21% from the summer before.

Of course, this summer the pound was strong, and the dollar was weak. But things are changing.

The British currency has now lost about a quarter of its value against the dollar - due to the economic crisis - and people who make their living off tourists overseas are hoping that’ll entice Americans back to Britain.

Unfortunately, that same economic crisis has hit the U.S. (and everywhere else), and it remains to be seen if American travelers feel flush enough for an overseas jaunt. But, there are deals: several airlines are featuring winter sales to Europe and there are even bargains on business class airfare to Europe.

See all the sales on our Deals page, and our First Class blog.

We told you that AirTran is adding a $15 fee to check a first bag.

And Midwest and Frontier already have that same fee in place. Which begs the question:

Who’s next?

Southwest had centered a popular advertising campaign around the catch-phrase, “Fees don’t fly with us” (see one of those amusing ads here), and Virgin America and JetBlue have also held out against fees. But for how long?

Are you planning to go to the Super Bowl in Tampa this year? Or maybe looking for a special Valentine’s Day escape? Let us know.

This year, I’d like to hit the “big events” that are important to you - and provide you with information on airfare trends and sales - in plenty of time for you to take advantage of any deals.

Earlier this week, I wrote that many people heading to Washington for the inauguration of our new president will pay an “inaugural airfare surcharge” (and frankly, if you’re in the Northeast, your best bet is probably - take the train). Of course, there will be some decent prices - and the new and improved FareCompare.com is where to go to find them.

Want to go to Hollywood for the Oscars? Let me know. Are you a March Madness fan? Tell me about it. Want to see the Indy 500? I’m here to help.

Leave your comments below - tell me where you’d like to go — and I’ll get busy, doing what I always do - helping you find the very best airfares available.

No real surprise, I suppose, that a federal aviation task force recommended no specific time limits on how long passengers can be kept waiting on the tarmac - without an opportunity to return to the gate.

After all, that task force that submitted these recommendations to Dept. of Transportation Secretary Mary Peters, is - according to the AP report in USA Today - dominated by the airline industry.

It has been pointed out that a strict time limit could actually hurt passengers - for example, if a plane has to return to the gate, even though it will be ready to fly a short time later - the aircraft will have lost its place in the take-off line — and could actually further delay passengers.

However, some of the other recommendations seem awfully “loose” to me, like this one:

“Airlines should make reasonable efforts to be keep airplane restrooms usable.” –Task Force recommendation

You have to wonder - what’s a “reasonable effort”? And please - someone define, “usable” for me.

I got a comment on the blog yesterday from Marilyn - who is rightly upset that I recommended buying holiday airline tickets early this year - she followed that advice, and then watched as prices plummeted in the past 2 weeks.

In hindsight, I have to admit I blew the call - although I did follow my own advice, and bought my Thanksgiving tickets back in June, firm in my belief it was the right call. And back then, it was the right call - but things changed - did they ever!

I don’t think anyone anticipated all the late summer/fall drama on the economic front. But let me go back, and review for you what led me to my “buy now” recommendation:

• Attempted airfare hikes: There were 21 attempted airfare hikes - almost one a week in the first half of the year - corresponding to the run-up in fuel prices to nearly $150 a barrel. And remember, major financial institutions were predicting $200 a barrel oil by the end of the year. At that point I expect to see at least 5-8 more airfare hikes before the end of the year
• Seat cutbacks: airlines announced massive seat cutbacks for holiday travel - cuts of 200,000 seats daily which are now in place. Full Planes = Higher Airfares
• Airline losses: airlines had lost billions of dollars and were very unlikely to be in the holiday spirit this year as they struggled, not so much for profits - they struggled to survive
• Checked bag fees: fees for bags (and other services) - which were not all completely in force at the time - would have tacked on as much as $130 roundtrip to a ticket

I wish I had known that oil was going to drop in 4 months from $150 to $60 a barrel - and not increase to $200 as energy experts predicted. Although that in itself wasn’t going to drive down prices as the cutbacks in seats were already in place.

I wish had known that there would be an epic global meltdown sending us into financial crisis that may take years to climb out of - a crisis that no one seemed to anticipate (and if they did, they sure didn’t raise the alarm). This caused millions of potential travelers to re-evaluate - and forget about flying.

Believe me, had I known about the financial crisis, I sure would have taken steps on behalf of my 401K - which I guess today should be more properly referred to as a 201K.

So what can Marilyn do now?

• Rebook to the New Lower Price for Free: Some airlines don’t charge a fee to rebook for the same flight at a new lower price, up to the date of departure - these airlines include Alaska, JetBlue, Southwest and United
• Rebook to the New Lower Price at Discount: As long as you are staying on the same flight most other airlines have a lower “rebooking same flight fee” rather than the normal (and steep) $150 domestic change fee (change = different flights); these airlines include AirTran - $15; Northwest - $50; Delta - $100; Midwest up to $100; and Hawaiian (note that the fee is $150 on American and US Airways for any changes).
• Rebook for the $150 Change Fee if Savings are Greater — If the price has dropped more than $150, for the same days or even other days, Marilyn should change her ticket and pocket the difference in a voucher - almost all non-refundable domestic tickets now have a $150 change fee (up from $100 in the past year); note that Southwest doesn’t have any change fees - while Virgin America charges just $75 and JetBlue charges $100

We spend countless hours each month working on technology to help people make better buying decisions and we will continue to do so and make recommendations that we feel are in the best interest of every air traveler.

In the new generation of flying, procrastinators will generally not be rewarded - outside of unforeseen external events.

Marilyn, I apologize for being off on my call, but I promise to work even harder for you and your fellow air travelers to make sure they make the best purchasing decisions year in and year out - with a combination of both technology and educational information - on FareCompare.com.

Lower-cost carrier AirTran has joined the ranks of the airlines that now charge a fee for checking any luggage: $15 for a first checked-bag, and it will maintain its $25 for a second bag fee.

When asked why the airline is doing this, an AirTran spokesman was blunt:

“We need all the revenue we can get.” –Tad Hutcheson, AirTran

The new fee goes into effect for new bookings, for travel on Dec. 5 or later. Those who bought tickets before today will not be charged a new fee. There is more information regarding this on AirTran’s website.