Is it too early to book Christmas fares? Right now the fares appear very high - should I expect them to come back down to earth in the next month or two?

Depends on where you're going. Fares to Europe will be sky-high right now, but as the high season comes to a close they'll drop way down. There will generally be fare sales to any destination closer to the date. I usually have the best luck booking about three months out.

I agree, depends on where you are going. Christmas travel tends to be busy. I know we book hawaii only and if that is the destination you are going to then definately DO NOT wait. They will only get worse and if you need accomodations..well it's extremely hard to find at the last min. for christmas in hawaii..some properties are already sold out for that week and have been...but again my experience is with hawaii..not sure where you are going! GOOD LUCK to you!

I appreciate the input. I'm only interested in domestic airfares within the continental US.

Anyone have knowledge about holiday air in the continental US from east to west coast? Too soon to book?

Again, as everyone has tried to point out it depends on where you are travelling to and from. The East coast and west cost cover big areas with 100's of potential destinations and even more different fares especially if you factor in fare differences between travel days (i.e flying weekdays vs. week-ends, flying on Christmas day itself or flying several days before and after peak travel days.

With the exception of the first sentence, the rest of my original post was referring to airfares in general, regardless of destination.

A_Traveller, perhaps you are misunderstanding my question. I am not in need of someone telling me what the best time to purchase a ticket from say, Boston to SFO, would be on Dec 23-27. I am simply asking if anyone understands the system - scheduling and pricing over the holidays.

For example, I love to travel to Europe in the Spring (March). They run reasonable deals to Europe that you can purchase in Nov. for the spring but by far the best prices will not be posted to Europe for Spring travel until after the first of the year.

I have not travelled over the Christmas holidays for domestic travel in a few years. It seems to me from recollection that the best time to purchase holiday fares were in mid-August. I am just hoping that with the wealth of knowledge from people using this site that I could get a clear cut answer.

Karameli, thanks for the clarifying. I think I probably should wait a little longer.

Banff,

Depending on where you're coming from and where you're going, you may also want to try signing up for an alert like Expedia's Fare Alert -- I think most of the airlines have their own programs, too. You'll get an email when airfare goes on sale.

The US is so vast, the best times to buy vary dramatically depending on from and to where. For example, from Chicago to Florida, the earlier you buy, the better. In my experience, the fares never go down between now and Christmas. But Chicago to LA, the fares will go up and down many times between now and then.

great ideas - use to be signed up for the travelocity "alert" but I may need to renew that. And hills27 I think you may be right. In my vague recollection since I last kept up on holiday fares I do think the north/south routes along the east coast were more steady while the east/west routes went up and down.

As of right now the fares are higher than I want to pay so I think I will roll the dice and just wait it out.

Try the alerts at farecompare.com too. They're sent out a few hours in advance of when the fares become available.

As well as where you are going, it also depends on when you are going.

Fares are often high the week before Xmas Day but drop to low for travel on Xmas and Boxing days.

If you are flexible with dates, go fare shopping!