USPS, FedEx & UPS 2024 Holiday Shipping Deadlines
The Q4 holiday shopping season is kicking into high gear with USPS, FedEx, and UPS all announcing recommended shipping deadlines to make sure your Christmas packages arrive on time.
USPS
The following are recommended send-by dates for expected delivery before Dec. 25.
2024 Holiday Mailing and Shipping Dates for Items Sent to Addresses in the Contiguous United States (Lower 48 States):
- USPS Ground Advantage service: Dec. 18
- First-Class Mail service: Dec. 18
- Priority Mail service: Dec. 19
- Priority Mail Express service: Dec. 21
2024 Holiday Mailing and Shipping Dates for Items Sent to Addresses in Alaska and Hawaii:
- USPS Ground Advantage service: Dec. 16
- First-Class Mail service: Dec. 18
- Priority Mail service: Dec. 19
- Priority Mail Express service: Dec. 20
For customers sending packages internationally, or to military addresses, USPS suggests checking the complete list of recommended holiday mailing and shipping dates at usps.com/holidayshippingdates.
FedEx
The information below provides the last shipping dates for select services to help ensure your package is scheduled to arrive by December 24, 2024.
Parcel Services
- FedEx SameDay: December 24
- FedEx First Overnight, FedEx Priority Overnight, FedEx Standard Overnight, Extra Hours: December 23
- FedEx 2Day & FedEx 2Day AM: December 20
- FedEx Express Saver: December 19
- FedEx Ground: 5 day shipping, 4 day shipping, 3 day shipping, 2 day shipping, 1 day shipping
- FedEx Home Delivery: 5 day shipping, 4 day shipping, 2-3 day shipping, 1 day shipping
- FedEx Ground Economy: December 13
Delivery times for Ground and Home Delivery vary based on origin and destination. For specific times, visit: https://www.fedex.com/grd/maps/ShowMapEntry.do
For freight, international and other services, check the complete list of FedEx holiday shipping deadlines: https://www.fedex.com/en-us/holiday/last-days-to-ship.html
UPS
These are the recommended UPS 2024 Holiday Season last days to ship for Dec. 24 delivery.
U.S. Domestic Shipping Services
- UPS Ground: Check ups.com/ctc for details
- UPS 3 Day Select: Dec. 19
- UPS 2nd Day Air: Dec. 20
- UPS Next Day Air: Dec. 23
For international and other services, check the complete list of UPS holiday shipping deadlines: https://www.ups.com/assets/resources/webcontent/en_US/2024-Year-End-Holiday-Schedule.pdf
Of course as usual, weather delays or delays due to increased volume are always a possibility so - it's best not to wait until the last minute!
I had a customer open THREE separate INAD cases back to back in Feb. She told a bunch of falsehoods in her comments on the case and refused to provide pictures to back up what she was saying, so I called her out on in it with proof that her statements were untrue.
Even though I knew she was trying to scam me, of course, I approved the returns [all 3] and provided a pre-paid shipping label.
She never sent anything back. I got 3 messages from eBay's system saying "We've closed your buyer's return because we have no record that they shipped the item back to you."
However, eBay's system counted all of them against me in my Service Metrics, causing my "Item not as described returns" rate to be: 0.98% even though the buyer was an obvious scammer and didn't return the items.
I didn't have to refund her since she never shipped anything back so there's not a problem there and eBay did remove her feedback, but eBay still counted the cases against me in my 'service metrics' percentage making me look bad in comparison to my peers.