This year it’s a seller’s market when it comes to buying airline tickets, reports the New York Times, so if you must travel via plane, buy early and try to be as flexible as possible.

Rick Seaney, chief executive of FareCompare.com, wrote in his online Holiday Travel Guide, “Holiday travel procrastinators do so at their own peril this year, and practical travelers should be shopping now and buying before the end ofOctober.”

The problem (for consumers) is that since airlines have cut back on the number of flights this year, they have fewer unsold seats to fill—and that means no more last minute fare drops to top off the plane.

“Essentially, that’s creating a sellers’ market,” said Jeff Pecor, a spokesman for Yapta.com, which alerts fliers to price drops even after the ticket has been bought so travelers can call the airline to claim a travel credit.

“While we’re tracking roughly the same number of flights for this holiday season as last year, we have issued fewer price drop alerts on flights,” he added.

“In Shift From ’08, Holiday Airfare Is Soaring Daily” [New York Times]
(Photo: kynbit)

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