KANSAS CITY, Mo. —

The upcoming Thanksgiving weekend is expected to be the busiest travel holiday in more than two years. Experts, like travel insurance expert Omar Kaywan, say travelers need to plan ahead.

“This particular Thanksgiving weekend we are expecting about 80 to 90% pre-COVID traffic,” Kaywan said.

As things start to get back to normal, the travel expert says it will be some time before airline travel gets there.

“The last couple of weeks we’ve seen thousands of people stranded in airports and not know what to do,” Kaywan said.

He says airlines are doing all they can to handle the return to normal levels, but it’s been a struggle.

“Flights are getting delayed. Airlines are dealing with a lot of different issues, shortage of staff is just one of them. The vaccination mandate, although it has been delayed until January 1, it’s still out there and still a problem for them to be dealing with,” Kaywan said.

He says travel insurance makes more sense now than ever.

“One thing that COVID has been teaching us more so than ever before is that you need to travel with travel insurance,” Kaywan said.

Kaywan says insurance can get you rooms in local hotels if flights are canceled. It can also get refunds you might not get from the airline.

“We also recommend using a flight tracker or Flight Aware so you know exactly where the origin of your flight is,” Kaywan said.

The expert says this year, if possible, travel a day before or a day after the peak on Thanksgiving weekend. He says the most important thing is to stay patient before the flight.

Kaywan says the best bet is just to download a travel insurance app and use it as you need it.

Southwest Airlines canceled hundreds of flights over the weekend, blaming the woes on air traffic control issues and weather. The airline canceled more than 1,000 flights, or 28% of its schedule as of 2 p.m. ET Sunday, according to flight tracker FlightAware. The cancellations mark the highest rate by far of the major U.S. airlines. Next in line are Allegiant and Spirit, both of which had canceled 5% and 4% of its flights respectively, according to the flight tracker. American Airlines canceled 2% of its flights.Asked why Southwest had more disruptions than other airlines, the company said that on Friday evening, it saw a significant impact in the Florida airports after "an FAA-imposed air traffic management program was implemented due to weather and resulted in a large number of cancellations."Officials said they hope to return to normal operations as they move into Sunday.Hearst station KCRA contributed to this report.

After the US House moved a $1.9 trillion stimulus bill to the desk of President Joe Biden on Wednesday, airlines began informing employees on Wednesday that they will be able to avoid layoffs.

In the last year, air travel has been cut by more than 50% at the nation’s airports as public health officials have recommended that Americans avoid non-essential travel. The airline and travel industry is not expected to fully recover anytime soon as the CDC recommended earlier this week that even those fully vaccinated against the coronavirus avoid non-essential travel.

The legislation includes $14 billion for airlines through the Payroll Support Program. The stimulus bill stipulates that the money can only be used for the pay and benefits of airline workers. By accepting stimulus funds, airlines agree not to furlough or layoff employees through Sept. 30.

The Association of Flight Attendants welcomed Wednesday’s vote.

“This program is a testament to the power of working people acting in solidarity,” said union President Sara Nelson. “At the beginning of the crisis, we asked ourselves, ‘What do workers need?’ We didn’t allow what was ‘possible’ to constrain our demands. Our union has been through a crisis before, and we knew we had to prevent this crisis from being put on our backs. Aviation workers came together through our unions, found common ground with airlines, and worked with allies in Congress to pass this critical aid.

“It’s no mistake that this happened in aviation, where nearly eighty percent of the workforce is unionized. Speaking with a united voice, we enacted the PSP and have now successfully extended it twice.”

The Air Line Pilots Association also was joyed by Wednesday’s vote.

“ALPA is grateful for the dedication by congressional leaders to ensure that the U.S. aviation industry remains positioned to help our nation recover from the COVID-19 crisis,” said Joe DePete, president of the Air Line Pilots Association. “By passing the American Rescue Plan, tens of thousands of aviation workers will remain on company payroll and off unemployment as intended by this worker-first program. This important aspect of the overall legislation will help keep our aviation industry poised to quickly respond to increased operations as demand returns.”

American Airlines CEO Doug Parker also celebrated the bill’s passage.

“There is much work left to do before we can all put the pandemic behind us, but with today’s news and the steady progress being made against the virus, we have a hopeful eye on the horizon,” Parker said.

Although air travel has remained depressed in the last year, data is indicating travel may be starting to pick up. On Sunday, 1.28 million people passed through TSA checkpoints, marking the largest travel day since March 15, 2020.