Guides · Timing
The two weeks when parking near RDU sells out
Twice a year the lots genuinely fill, the rates rise, and the usual advice about booking late stops working.
For about fifty weeks of the year you can reserve parking near this airport two days ahead and be fine. This note is about the other two.
The weeks in question
The Wednesday before Thanksgiving through the Sunday after. The single busiest stretch in American travel, and the lots near this airport fill completely.
Roughly the eighteenth of December to the second of January. Longer, slightly less intense, and harder because everybody leaves for a fortnight at once, which occupies bays for the whole window rather than turning them over.
What actually changes
Availability. Lots that always have room simply do not. The long stay lot goes first because it costs least, then the fenced lot, and the deck holds out longest because it is dearest.
Rates. Operators raise their own daily rates in these windows. This site publishes starting figures from ordinary weeks, and the desk quotes the real number for your dates rather than pretending the November figure applies in December.
Shuttle waits. Add ten minutes. Every vehicle is full, every stop takes longer, and the loading at the terminal end is slower.
Cancellation terms. Most operators want 72 hours in these windows rather than 24, and may charge the first day inside it. That is on the cancellation page, and it is worth knowing before you hold something you are not sure about.
How early to reserve
Three weeks for Thanksgiving. Four for the Christmas fortnight.
That is earlier than feels necessary and it is what the desk has actually seen. A request that arrives four days before Thanksgiving is usually answerable, but the answer is often the deck at its peak rate, which is not the conversation anybody wanted.
What does not help
Checking half a dozen parking sites. They are all reselling the same lots. The space either exists or it does not.
Turning up hopeful. In these two windows the barrier will genuinely turn you away, and the alternative at that point is the airport's own parking at whatever it costs that day.
What does help
Fixing your dates early even if the flight is flexible, and telling the desk if they move. A reservation adjusted three weeks out is trivial. One adjusted on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving is a new search.
Send the dates on the booking page as soon as you have them.