August 27, 2025 • 8 mins
Clara breaks down popular destinations that you can travel to this upcoming Labor Day holiday weekend. Additionally, Larry and Clara discuss how to prepare for travel during the busy holiday weekend.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I tell you what.
Speaker 2 (00:00):
For the traffic on the highways, I think most people
already are on their vacation. It's just there's so few cars,
a lot less than normal. So if you took this
week off, congratulations, you picked a good one, and then
you have the vacation right through the Labor Day holiday.
But if you haven't traveled yet, if you need to
(00:23):
fly somewhere, if you need to drive somewhere, and I
know a lot of people will be doing that this weekend.
Maybe you took off Friday to get out early. Maybe
you took off Thursday and Friday. Clara McMichael from ABC News,
she is the transportation reporter. She has some tips for you. Clara,
thanks for joining us.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
A Hi, good morning, thank you.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Let's talk about travel. How many people are expected to
be on the roads, how many people are expected to
fly this weekend.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
So I'll start with saying, you know, I sound like
a broken record, but it's another record breaking holiday for travel.
United an American airlines are both expecting their busiest Labor
Day ever, and things really start heating up tomorrow. So
let me throw some numbers at you. THEFA says we'll
be seeing the most planes in the Earth Thursday with
over fifty two thousand plates taking off, and then TSA
(01:13):
says Friday will be their busiest day with about three
million travelers passing through checkpoints and over seventeen millions throughout
the whole holiday weekend. Monday is going to be busy too,
so lesson right, you're not going to miss the crowds.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
So if you didn't take your flights yet for some reason,
can you get a flight at this point?
Speaker 1 (01:34):
So the biggest advice there is to think outside the box.
You know, everybody's going to be traveling, you know, Friday
to Monday, or maybe Thursday to Monday. Maybe you can
find a good deal Saturday or Sunday and check destinations
that might be you know, not people's first the first
thing that comes to mind when they think about Labor
Day travel. So Expedia says, you might want to look
(01:55):
at Oklahoma City or Greenville, South Carolina. They're affordable and walkable,
so you know, give everything a shot and you can't
go wrong when you have good company.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
You know, I don't mean to put down Oklahoma City,
but if you're traveling, you want to go see relatives, right,
or you want to go to the beach. Oklahoma City?
What is Oklahoma City? Have you been there? Is Oklahoma
City a good place to go for Labor Day weekend?
Speaker 1 (02:21):
Hey, I'm not gonna I'm not gonna knock Oklahoma state.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
It's just I've looked at a lot of travel lists.
I've never seen Oklahoma City listed as a top travel destination,
that's all. And it's probably pretty hot this time of year. Greenville,
South Carolina. That's not bad. But uh, but if you
didn't want to go to let's say, Oklahoma City at
this point, if you wanted to do last minute travel,
it's going to be difficult or it's going to be expensive, right.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
Yeah, it couldn't very well be. But you know, there
is good news on the gas crisis front. So Triple
A says drivers should expect gas stay relatively low. I
just checked a little while ago. The national average is
about three twenty one, so we're looking okay. Especially last
year it was about it was over ten cents higher.
So some good news. All hope is not lost?
Speaker 2 (03:14):
Yeah, are there more? I don't mean to be a
Debbie downer on all this kind of stuff, but the
gas prices are great, and I know a lot of
people are driving, especially in this area as they drive
down the shore, or they drive down to the Carolinas,
or they drive up to Maine. But are there more
accidents this time of year because there's many more people
(03:35):
on the roads.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
You know, I can't speak to accidents specifically, but Triple
A said last year they responded to nearly four hundred
thousand roadside assistance calls. So the moral of the story is,
be prepared before you leave. Check your vehicle before hitting
the road, Make sure you have a spare tire and
some tools in the trunk for a worst case scenario.
(03:58):
Most importantly packed the snacks. But anything could happen out there,
so so be prepared and leave early.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Aside from Oklahoma City, what are the most popular destinations?
Speaker 1 (04:09):
Wow, you're not gonna let Oklahoma City go. Just domestically,
we're seeing some some you know, classic vacation destinations Vegas, Miami,
New York here of course, you know, also some other
destinations like Seattle, Boston, Anchorage, Chicago, and then air Ferry
(04:33):
Europe this year is down, so we're seeing people head
across the pond to Rome, Dudlin, London happens, So maybe
those are more to your tastes than Oklahoma City.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
Yeah, although I heard Oklahoma City is wonderful. A reporter
from ABC told me it's the place to go.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
You confirmed you heard it here first.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Do a lot of people head out to Europe this
time of year. I guess you'd need to take off
the week It's not a weekend trip.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
Is it. I don't. You can do it however you
want it. You could do a quick hit over there,
for sure. Yeah, I mean you probably want to take
some more time off. But yeah, a lot of people
are are heading over there, and the airlines are both
expecting their busiest labor days ever. So just attesting to
the number of people in the skies.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Are there. There's been problems at the airports over the
last year, some real problems, especially here in the New
York area. There's been some extensive product project, extensive problems
at Newark Airport. Is there any reports so far? Because
I know people are already flying out, Are there any
(05:43):
reports of any problems at the airports?
Speaker 1 (05:47):
Things have been looking really good at the airport so far,
and the problem we saw Newark earlier this summer have
gotten a lot better and weather is looking pretty good
for the holiday too, So I you know, I don't
want to be the final voice on this, but I'm
cautiously optimistic that travel is looking okay. We haven't seen
a major airline meltdown lately. I'm knocking on wood as
(06:08):
I say that, But yeah, I'm hoping this goes well
for travelers.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
Right And will the gas prices? Will they Now? If
there is a lot of travel right now, does that
affect gas prices and the supply of gas or are
they going to continually go down? It seems like we
have a huge supply. It seems like the gas prices
just continue to go down.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
Right. The gas prices I think should stay pretty stable
where they are. The one you know thing that could
change that is weather. But as I said, pretty stable
so far, so things are looking okay.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Let's wrap it up with just travel tips. Any tips
for people.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
Yes, as I said, leave early. That applies whether you're
heading to the airport or hitting the road. If you're flying,
download your airlines app so if your flight gets canceled
or delayed, you might have a little more control over
rebooking and you can hopefully skip that long line in
the airport to talk to an agent at some places
you can reserve parking ahead of time so you're not
(07:09):
circling the parking lot. And yeah, bring the snacks.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
Yeah, bring the next especially if you're traveling with kids.
Clara McMichael, ABC News Transportation reporter, thanks so much, I
guess the thanks a lot. Thanks for joining us travel
you too, you too. I guess the big tip out
of all of that was, if you haven't left yet,
if you haven't booked your flights yet, either drive or
(07:37):
go to some place you'd never thought of going before.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
I think if you haven't booked yet, you the thing
you should be focused on is getting better at planning.
I mean, I mean, it's it is the Wednesday before
of Labor Day weekend, and if you haven't booked a
flight yet, that's a little I'm a procrastinator and that's
a little that's a little little iffy.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
I think that most people are just from the roads,
just from the traffic on the roads. I think most
people have taken off, you know, the teams like days
off this week. It's amazing out there right now. I
mean Natalie Vaka, who Chris Schweitzer is in for today,
she she had this week off a while ago. She
was very smart in doing that. But yeah, it's going
(08:23):
to be some record travel, there's no question about that.
I tell you what.
Speaker 2 (00:00):
For the traffic on the highways, I think most people
already are on their vacation. It's just there's so few cars,
a lot less than normal. So if you took this
week off, congratulations, you picked a good one, and then
you have the vacation right through the Labor Day holiday.
But if you haven't traveled yet, if you need to
(00:23):
fly somewhere, if you need to drive somewhere, and I
know a lot of people will be doing that this weekend.
Maybe you took off Friday to get out early. Maybe
you took off Thursday and Friday. Clara McMichael from ABC News,
she is the transportation reporter. She has some tips for you. Clara,
thanks for joining us.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
A Hi, good morning, thank you.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Let's talk about travel. How many people are expected to
be on the roads, how many people are expected to
fly this weekend.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
So I'll start with saying, you know, I sound like
a broken record, but it's another record breaking holiday for travel.
United an American airlines are both expecting their busiest Labor
Day ever, and things really start heating up tomorrow. So
let me throw some numbers at you. THEFA says we'll
be seeing the most planes in the Earth Thursday with
over fifty two thousand plates taking off, and then TSA
(01:13):
says Friday will be their busiest day with about three
million travelers passing through checkpoints and over seventeen millions throughout
the whole holiday weekend. Monday is going to be busy too,
so lesson right, you're not going to miss the crowds.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
So if you didn't take your flights yet for some reason,
can you get a flight at this point?
Speaker 1 (01:34):
So the biggest advice there is to think outside the box.
You know, everybody's going to be traveling, you know, Friday
to Monday, or maybe Thursday to Monday. Maybe you can
find a good deal Saturday or Sunday and check destinations
that might be you know, not people's first the first
thing that comes to mind when they think about Labor
Day travel. So Expedia says, you might want to look
(01:55):
at Oklahoma City or Greenville, South Carolina. They're affordable and walkable,
so you know, give everything a shot and you can't
go wrong when you have good company.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
You know, I don't mean to put down Oklahoma City,
but if you're traveling, you want to go see relatives, right,
or you want to go to the beach. Oklahoma City?
What is Oklahoma City? Have you been there? Is Oklahoma
City a good place to go for Labor Day weekend?
Speaker 1 (02:21):
Hey, I'm not gonna I'm not gonna knock Oklahoma state.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
It's just I've looked at a lot of travel lists.
I've never seen Oklahoma City listed as a top travel destination,
that's all. And it's probably pretty hot this time of year. Greenville,
South Carolina. That's not bad. But uh, but if you
didn't want to go to let's say, Oklahoma City at
this point, if you wanted to do last minute travel,
it's going to be difficult or it's going to be expensive, right.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
Yeah, it couldn't very well be. But you know, there
is good news on the gas crisis front. So Triple
A says drivers should expect gas stay relatively low. I
just checked a little while ago. The national average is
about three twenty one, so we're looking okay. Especially last
year it was about it was over ten cents higher.
So some good news. All hope is not lost?
Speaker 2 (03:14):
Yeah, are there more? I don't mean to be a
Debbie downer on all this kind of stuff, but the
gas prices are great, and I know a lot of
people are driving, especially in this area as they drive
down the shore, or they drive down to the Carolinas,
or they drive up to Maine. But are there more
accidents this time of year because there's many more people
(03:35):
on the roads.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
You know, I can't speak to accidents specifically, but Triple
A said last year they responded to nearly four hundred
thousand roadside assistance calls. So the moral of the story is,
be prepared before you leave. Check your vehicle before hitting
the road, Make sure you have a spare tire and
some tools in the trunk for a worst case scenario.
(03:58):
Most importantly packed the snacks. But anything could happen out there,
so so be prepared and leave early.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Aside from Oklahoma City, what are the most popular destinations?
Speaker 1 (04:09):
Wow, you're not gonna let Oklahoma City go. Just domestically,
we're seeing some some you know, classic vacation destinations Vegas, Miami,
New York here of course, you know, also some other
destinations like Seattle, Boston, Anchorage, Chicago, and then air Ferry
(04:33):
Europe this year is down, so we're seeing people head
across the pond to Rome, Dudlin, London happens, So maybe
those are more to your tastes than Oklahoma City.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
Yeah, although I heard Oklahoma City is wonderful. A reporter
from ABC told me it's the place to go.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
You confirmed you heard it here first.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Do a lot of people head out to Europe this
time of year. I guess you'd need to take off
the week It's not a weekend trip.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
Is it. I don't. You can do it however you
want it. You could do a quick hit over there,
for sure. Yeah, I mean you probably want to take
some more time off. But yeah, a lot of people
are are heading over there, and the airlines are both
expecting their busiest labor days ever. So just attesting to
the number of people in the skies.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Are there. There's been problems at the airports over the
last year, some real problems, especially here in the New
York area. There's been some extensive product project, extensive problems
at Newark Airport. Is there any reports so far? Because
I know people are already flying out, Are there any
(05:43):
reports of any problems at the airports?
Speaker 1 (05:47):
Things have been looking really good at the airport so far,
and the problem we saw Newark earlier this summer have
gotten a lot better and weather is looking pretty good
for the holiday too, So I you know, I don't
want to be the final voice on this, but I'm
cautiously optimistic that travel is looking okay. We haven't seen
a major airline meltdown lately. I'm knocking on wood as
(06:08):
I say that, But yeah, I'm hoping this goes well
for travelers.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
Right And will the gas prices? Will they Now? If
there is a lot of travel right now, does that
affect gas prices and the supply of gas or are
they going to continually go down? It seems like we
have a huge supply. It seems like the gas prices
just continue to go down.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
Right. The gas prices I think should stay pretty stable
where they are. The one you know thing that could
change that is weather. But as I said, pretty stable
so far, so things are looking okay.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Let's wrap it up with just travel tips. Any tips
for people.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
Yes, as I said, leave early. That applies whether you're
heading to the airport or hitting the road. If you're flying,
download your airlines app so if your flight gets canceled
or delayed, you might have a little more control over
rebooking and you can hopefully skip that long line in
the airport to talk to an agent at some places
you can reserve parking ahead of time so you're not
(07:09):
circling the parking lot. And yeah, bring the snacks.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
Yeah, bring the next especially if you're traveling with kids.
Clara McMichael, ABC News Transportation reporter, thanks so much, I
guess the thanks a lot. Thanks for joining us travel
you too, you too. I guess the big tip out
of all of that was, if you haven't left yet,
if you haven't booked your flights yet, either drive or
(07:37):
go to some place you'd never thought of going before.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
I think if you haven't booked yet, you the thing
you should be focused on is getting better at planning.
I mean, I mean, it's it is the Wednesday before
of Labor Day weekend, and if you haven't booked a
flight yet, that's a little I'm a procrastinator and that's
a little that's a little little iffy.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
I think that most people are just from the roads,
just from the traffic on the roads. I think most
people have taken off, you know, the teams like days
off this week. It's amazing out there right now. I
mean Natalie Vaka, who Chris Schweitzer is in for today,
she she had this week off a while ago. She
was very smart in doing that. But yeah, it's going
(08:23):
to be some record travel, there's no question about that.
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