This year it's a seller's market when it comes to buying airline tickets reports the New York Times so if you must trip via plane purchase early and try to be like flexibcb1le 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 cost drops even behind the ticket has been bought so travelers can call the airline to assert a travel credit.

"While we're tracking about the same number of flights for this vacantion 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)