How to survive business travel during the holiday season

Business travel during the holiday season is very different than it is for vacation because you do not necessarily get the option to avoid flying on busy days. A year-end client visit can land during the busiest travel weeks of the year. This is also the season most prone to weather disruptions — a January kickoff falls in the riskiest window.

This guide focuses on how to best prepare for travel during this season, and how to recover when plans change.

The risks of holiday travel for business travelers

Holiday travel concentrates a year's worth of disruption into a few weeks, and work trips do not pause for it. AAA projected that 81.8 million people would travel at least 50 miles from home over Thanksgiving 2025, a record for the holiday.[2]

For the leisure traveler, those crowds are a one-time choice; for the working traveler, this could mean multiple trips booked between late November and early January. You are competing with record volumes for the same seats, the same security lines, and the same rebooking agents.

The system also has no slack in this window. When winter weather hits a major hub, cancellations cascade across the network, and every stranded passenger races for a shrinking pool of alternate flights.

3 risks for working travelers during the holiday season:

• Volume: Record passenger numbers mean longer lines, fuller flights, and fewer open seats to rebook into.[1]
• Weather: Winter storms at connecting hubs trigger delays and cancellations that ripple far beyond the storm itself.
• No buffer: A cancelled leisure flight costs a day of vacation, whereas a cancelled work flight can cost the whole reason you traveled.

How to prepare for holiday travel

The most useful holiday travel tips are the ones that remove decisions before you ever reach the airport. Preparation pays off at crunch time, when the system is under stress and you have less time to think.

Start with the booking itself

The choices you make weeks out determine how many options you will have if problems arise:

• Book changeable fares, not basic economy: A changeable or refundable ticket gives you room to move when flights cancel. Basic economy locks you in exactly when flexibility matters most.
• Fly nonstop and early in the day: Every connection adds a failure point. Morning departures sit ahead of the day's cascading delays, so they are cancelled and delayed less often.
• Pad the schedule: Build in a buffer day before anything you cannot miss. A delay you can absorb is not an emergency.

Reduce the friction you will face at the airport

These holiday travel safety tips keep your attention on recovery, not logistics:

• Carry on when you can: A bag the airline never checks is a bag the airline cannot lose, and you can rebook onto any flight without waiting on luggage.
• Keep everything in one place: Store your confirmation numbers, loyalty accounts, and the airline's phone number where you can reach them in seconds.
• Know your status before you go: Elite status, lounge access, and a flexible points balance are only useful if you remember you have them when a flight drops.
• Getting TSA Precheck: Speed up airport security by granting access to dedicated lanes where you don't have to remove your shoes, laptops, or liquids.
• Arrange Global Entry: Add expedited customs re-entry when returning from international travel.

The goal is not a longer checklist, rather fewer choices to make at the gate, so if something happens you are reacting from a plan instead of from stress.

What to do the moment your flight is cancelled or delayed

When a cancellation notice hits, it's a little like a contest, because everyone on your flight just got the same message and are chasing the same finite pool of seats. The travelers who know their options can rebook faster.

Here's what travelers usually find themselves scrambling to do:

• Get in the phone queue immediately: Call the airline the second you see the alert, even while you walk toward the desk. Whichever connects first wins.
• Open the airline app and self-rebook: The app often shows open seats before an agent can, and you can lock in a new flight without waiting in line.
• Find your own alternate routes: Search other connections and nearby airports yourself. You might not need to accept the first rebooking offered by the airline if it strands you for a day; you can ask for the specific routing you found.
• Decide whether to rebook or refund: If nothing gets you there in time, switch to claiming a refund (covered next) and book the best available alternative.

A more efficient alternative: Book (and if needed, re-book) with Navan Edge

This is where a personal travel assistant changes the game. Navan Edge is a personal assistant for business travel, powered by AI and supported by human travel experts, that lets you book flights, hotels, and restaurants through a single chat based on your preferences and real-time inventory.

When a holiday flight falls apart, that means you can search and book live alternatives and access a human expert all in one conversation if needed, rather than holding on three apps and a phone line at once. Navan Edge always asks for your confirmation before it books, changes, or cancels anything, so you stay in control of the recovery.

Know your refund and rebooking rights

Knowing your refund rights in the event of a cancellation is the difference between panic and a quick decision. Under a U.S. Department of Transportation rule, airlines must automatically provide a cash refund when they cancel or significantly change your flight and you choose not to accept rebooking or a travel credit.[3]

The Department of Transportation defines a "significant change" specifically as a departure or arrival that moves by more than 3 hours for a domestic flight or more than 6 hours for an international flight, among other changes such as a different airport or added connections.[3] Refunds for card purchases must be issued within seven business days, and they are automatic, so you should not have to fight for them.[3]

The practical question during a disruption is whether to rebook or refund:

These guidelines matter most when paid fares have spiked. Declining a bad rebooking and taking the automatic refund frees you to use points or another airline instead of overpaying. Treat the refund as a backup plan you can trigger fast, not paperwork you chase weeks later.

Protect the status and points that make peak travel possible

The status and points you have already earned are at their most valuable during the holidays, when they buy real relief during a disruption. They're especially good for:

• A lounge: A quiet place to work through a long delay instead of camping at a crowded gate
• Priority lines: A shorter wait at security and the rebooking desk when every minute counts
• Elite status: A better chance of moving up the rebooking queue when seats are scarce

This information is easy to lose at the moment it matters most. Navan Edge's Loyalty Wallet brings your connected airline, hotel, and credit card programs into a single view, showing statuses, points, and progress toward the next tier, so you can factor rewards into a rebooking decision.

Navan Edge also stacks rewards on eligible bookings, including 5% back in Amazon Gift Cards on hotel stays. Before any trip during the holiday season, confirm your status tiers, note your lounge access, and make sure you have enough points to be a real backup.

Make your next holiday work trip easier to handle

You cannot control the weather, the record crowds, or an airline's staffing in late December. You can control how many decisions you face under pressure and how fast you can act when plans change.

Reduce the friction before you fly, implement a rebooking plan the moment a flight drops, know your refund rights, and keep your status and points visible. Do that, and holiday travel stops being something you endure and becomes something you handle seamlessly.

Sources

• Transportation Security Administration, "TSA prepared to screen more than 3 million Thanksgiving travelers," 2025
• AAA, "Nearly 82 Million Americans Projected to Travel over Thanksgiving," 2025
• U.S. Department of Transportation, "What Airline Passengers Need to Know About DOT's Automatic Refund Rule," 2024

Navan publishes this guide as part of its Navan Edge content series; Navan Edge is a Navan product referenced throughout this post. Loyalty program requirements and earning structures are accurate as of June 2026 and change frequently; verify current terms directly with your airline or hotel program. Amazon Gift Card rewards are subject to Navan Edge Terms, for eligible hotel bookings.