Thanksgiving and Christmas seem so far away -- it's not even Labor Day, after all. But now is the time to book flights for holiday travel if you want to have any money left over to buy a turkey or gifts.
An easy way to find airfare deals without spending hours scouring the Web is to sign up for e-mail alerts from airlines and travel sites. The more alerts you sign up for, the better, says George Hobica, founder of Airfarewatchdog.com.
At Airfarewatchdog.com, you can sign up for alerts on fares on flights from particular cities, to cities or between two cities. It's the only site that includes fares on Southwest and Allegiant Airlines.
Sign up for Kiplinger’s Free E-Newsletters
Profit and prosper with the best of expert advice on investing, taxes, retirement, personal finance and more - straight to your e-mail.
Profit and prosper with the best of expert advice - straight to your e-mail.
At Yapta.com, you can sign up to receive alerts when prices drop on flights to a particular city on certain dates. You also can get alerts when the price of your airline ticket drops below what you paid and whether you can get a refund.
Tripadvisor.com sends alerts when fares drop on the route of your choosing. You'll receive an alert when the price drops by a certain dollar amount (say, $25) or below a certain level.
Travelocity's FareWatcher Plus will let you choose up to ten destinations and will notify you when there are price changes or special offers on fares.
Orbitz's DealDetector lets you set a price for a flight to a particular destination and will alert you when it finds a match. You can even narrow the search to your preferred airlines.
Expedia.com only lets you enter a departure city and sends alerts on fare deals from that city. (The alert sign-up is on the lower left-hand side of the Deals & Offers page.)
Kayak.com lets you sign up to receive deal alerts on flights from your home airport.
Another way to find deals is to sign up for Twitter feeds. Listen to Kiplinger's Stacy Rapacon and SmarterTravel.com's Anne Banas discuss on this podcast which feeds are best to follow.