Trip Tip: It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

Stop the presses! We've got waity issues to deal with. You know how you're always complaining how Christmas decorations and store displays come up way too early before Thanksgiving? Well, you're going to love what you'll find on your favorite travel Web site -- airline Santa has come to town and the up-to-$100 decreases in December flight costs means you'll be home for the holidays, or wherever color you dream your Christmas and Hannukah in.

Apparently, the wait to buy late will get you to the flight gate. BestFares.com found that over the last six weeks, flight prices have plunged 25 percent with seats to fill across all major airlines, which means it's time for us to take off. At Southwest, a three-day sale has been extended to December 8 -- starting at $90 round-trip, you don't need a parachute with this bailout.

Still, keep your seatbelts fastened as long as you're sitting because the fare drops don't necessarily apply to popular destinations such as New York City. But as long as you've got high hopes, you can take flight. Joy to the world!

Trip Tip: Turkey Trot

Not quitting Thanksgiving travel cold turkey!

Congratulations, America -- you appreciate turkey, cranberry sauce, stuffing, pumpkin pie, candied yams and roast pork, perhaps more than you're afraid of the Big Bad Economy. Despite the old stock market avalanche and New Depression, not everyone's staying home for the holidays -- the travel discount site, Hotwire, found that 39 percent of you will pack and schlep for invaluable happy family time. That's the same number of Thanksgiving travelers as last year, when Lehman Brothers was still in business, even though 74 percent will try to stay within a radius of 200 miles. Less planes and trains, more automobiles.

Still, good news or at least digestible statistics don't make Thanksgiving travel any less thankless, so here are some nuggets to make it more gravy:

- If the credit crunch has you feeling claustrophic about jamming in with the p's and everyone else, business travelers are checking out, so you'll get in for cheaper at hotels, even in major cities.

- Pinch yourself -- airfares, even between major cities, are making a landing. For example, Expedia reports that ticket prices between New York and Atlanta are down six percent and three percent from Seattle to Los Angeles, as compared to last year.

- Travel light, because everyone and their brother is charging at least $25 for checked baggage. No, that spare tire you bring home after feasting doesn't count as excess luggage, a holiday miracle in today's cut-throat travelsphere.

- If you've got time, buy it. And by that we mean scheduling travel for dead days which could shave more off ticket prices and hotel rates. Everyone loves a little help clearing up the leftovers!

So if the upcoming holiday is beginning to look a lot more like all the trimmings in the right places, here's the cherry on top: you've still got a week to work some magic with these aces in your sleeve, so take heart and take leave.