Get ready to play holiday airfare game

Two days after Labor Day, my sister asked if I had booked airline tickets for Christmas, which felt like rounding the corner on a back-to-school supplies display and running smack into Santa Claus.

No, I haven't booked a ticket for Christmas, made plans for Thanksgiving or even put away my summer clothes. But it probably is time to lock in a flight for Thanksgiving, and it can't hurt to start tracking fares for December or New Year's trips.

The million-dollar question is whether prices are likely to go up or down — and the answer is: No one really knows.

Airfares are definitely rising, and holiday fares are likely to be higher this year than they were in 2009. But if the economy sputters and people aren't willing to pay the prices airlines are charging now for late-December travel, fares might decline as we get deeper into the fall.

Since most people who fly home for the holidays know what they usually pay, let that price be your guide — and don't book too soon if you feel as though you're being gouged.

"If your ticket is running $350 to $400, go ahead and snap it up," said Rick Seaney, chief executive of FareCompare.com, referring to a hypothetical holiday round-trip domestic fare. "The key is to pay $300 or $400 for your tickets and not $600 to $800."

Although Seaney warned last year about the perils of booking late for the holidays, in retrospect, he said, "last year turned out to be OK for procrastinators."

So whether you're shopping for the holidays or just want to sneak in a weekend getaway this fall — a cheaper offseason time to travel — here are some ways to find more affordable flights.

Use flexible date tools

"Be flexible with your travel dates" is advice everyone has heard, but technology is finally making it easier to find those cheaper dates without spending days on a computer.

Some airlines, like Continental and United, now offer a "my dates are flexible" or "search plus or minus 3 days" option on their home page. Others, like JetBlue, Southwest and Spirit, automatically show prices for nearby days when they display results for the dates you search.

So if you're not seeing this type of calendar — showing you, for example, that a $139 fare on Monday is only $119 on Sunday — look for an "advanced search" link that may include this feature, or try shopping somewhere else.

Travel search engines like Travelocity, Orbitz, Kayak, FareCompare and Expedia all offer some type of flexible search option.

When it comes to booking holiday travel, comparing dates is especially important because most airlines are now levying "peak travel" surcharges of $10 to $30 on the most popular days to fly. FareCompare's peak travel chart shows when these fees are lower.

Check multiple airports

Another often-cited tip is to compare prices to or from different airports, but it's a step people sometimes skip because it can be such a chore. Once again, technology can save you the trouble of multiple searches or suggest airports you hadn't considered.

For instance, if you're flying to Los Angeles, there are five airports you might check: Los Angeles International, Burbank, Long Beach, Orange County and Ontario.

On Delta.com, you have to select the "advanced booking" link to see the "my airports are flexible" option. American lets you select on its home page airports within 30, 60 or 90 miles of the ones you enter.

Kayak offers the choice to "include nearby airports" on its home page.

Sign up for fare alerts

Services that alert you when there's a good deal on a flight have been around for a while, but the tools are getting better, offering more ways to track prices.

AirfareWatchdog lets you sign up for fare alerts from specific airports.

FareCompare offers a similar e-mail fare-alert service, as well as an iPhone app and a Twitter feed. Expedia has a downloadable fare-alert application for your computer desktop, as does Southwest, which also has an iPhone app for its alerts.

Travelocity's FareWatcher Plus service will watch up to 10 destinations and notify you about any deals.

Let your budget guide you

Henry Harteveldt, an analyst with Forrester Research, said that nearly half of leisure travelers let their budget dictate their destination, but websites don't generally help customers answer questions like, "Where can I go for $1,000?"

There are a few attempts to move in that direction. Kayak lets travelers looking for inspiration choose a departure point, a budget and when they'd like to travel, and then view a map showing prices to destinations that fit those parameters.

But travel websites have a way to go before they can match a travel agent's ability to pair a budget with an ideal itinerary.

As for holiday travel, Harteveldt, too, cautioned not to jump the gun. "Don't buy a ticket now if the price seems to be too high," he said. "It's possible a holiday travel-period fare war may start."