Best travel dates for Thanksgiving

According to NerdWallet, the best days to fly for Thanksgiving are:

• Saturday, Nov. 23

• Monday, Nov. 25

• The holiday itself, Nov. 28

If you're flexible, Thanksgiving Day is actually the lowest-traffic travel day of the holiday period; only 1.5 million people passed through U.S. security checkpoints last year.

If you take the first flight out, you might even land in time for Thanksgiving dinner anyway, plus, flying on Thanksgiving Day is often less expensive than other travel days.

For returning home from Thanksgiving travel, according to NerdWallet, the least busy travel days will be:

Wednesday, Dec. 4

Tuesday, Dec. 3

Black Friday, Nov. 29

On average, Black Friday is the third-least crowded day to fly for the holiday week.