Every Shipping Deadline You Should Know If You Want Your Gifts to Arrive on Time

To avoid shipping delays related to COVID, you’ll want to get your holiday shopping done and mail your gifts earlier this year. To help you do that, the USPS, FedEx, and UPS have released their recommended ship-by dates for...

Nov 11, 2021 - 19:36

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To avoid shipping delays related to COVID, you’ll want to get your holiday shopping done and mail your gifts earlier this year. To help you do that, the USPS, FedEx, and UPS have released their recommended ship-by dates for gifts to be delivered in time for Christmas. Here are the dates, based on carrier.

If you’re shipping with USPS

Like covered in a previous Lifehacker post, the USPS recently announced some price hikes for postage and they’ve increased the time it will take to send mail. Generally speaking, mail previously expected to arrive in three days can now be expected to take three, four, or five days, depending on how far it has to travel. Below are the drop-dead dates for sending out mail, based on the type of service and destination.

Continental U.S.:

USPS Retail Ground service: Dec. 15 First-Class Mail service (including greeting cards): Dec. 17First-Class packages (up to 15.99 ounces): Dec. 17Priority Mail service: Dec. 18Priority Mail express service: Dec. 23

USPS Alaska and Hawaii:

Alaska ground service: Dec. 2Alaska to/from Continental U.S. for First-Class and Priority Mail: Dec. 18 Hawaii to/from mainland for First-Class and Priority Mail: Dec. 17 Alaska and Hawaii to/from mainland, for Priority Mail express service: Dec. 21

Air/Army/Fleet/Diplomatic post office addresses:

Retail Ground service: Nov. 6Priority Mail and First-Class mail: Dec. 9Priority Mail express military service: Dec. 16

For ship-by dates for international destinations, consult this chart for more information (it’s near the bottom of the page).

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If you’re shipping with FedEx

Ground Economy: Dec. 9 Ground and Home Delivery: Dec. 15Express Saver: Dec. 212day AM: Dec. 22 Overnight Shipping: Dec. 23 Same-Day Delivery: Dec. 24

For ship-by dates for international destinations, consult this chart for more information.

If you’re shipping with UPS:

For Ground shipping: get a quote hereThree-Day Select: Dec. 21Second-Day air services: Dec. 22 Next-Day air services: Dec. 23

For ship-by dates for international destinations, check out this webpage for more information. Note that the UPS service guarantee is still suspended for most services due to COVID.