“By and large, the holiday season is the most expensive time to fly to destinations large and small, particularly to ones in the U.S,” she said. “This is prime travel time no matter where you are going, and so the need to plan ahead holds true for smaller markets as well.”
Take calculated travel guides like this one with a grain of salt, though, said George Hobica, president of fare-tracking site Airfarewatchdog.com. In a June post, he warned consumers, “There is no magic formula.”
Instead of blindly buying your ticket during a suggested week, Hobica said, sign up for fare alerts and pay attention to sales. Be prepared to buy when a good price pops up.
“Start tracking prices as they go up and down — and they will certainly go up and down,” he said.
But don’t wait too long. Although you may still see sale alerts even a few weeks out from the winter holidays, last-minute fares can be pricey. Plus, you run the risk that those late sales may leave you with a middle seat, a long layover or route through a winter-storm-prone city.
“The risk of waiting too long is fairly straightforward: you’re likely to pay more,” said Hinkle at Cheapflights.com. “That’s not to say there won’t be one-off fare sales across travel newsletters and social media channels, but this is a time of high travel demand so there isn’t much incentive for airlines to offer deals for holiday season travel.”
— By Abigail Summerville, special to CNBC.com