Summer Travel Deals Fly Fast

July 1, 2009 — -- Being the almost 21st century guy that I am, I'm on Twitter -- and the most common "tweets" I get these days are questions like this: "When should I buy my airline ticket for summer vacation if I'm traveling from XXX to YYY?"

Since I know I only have 140 characters or less to answer with, I keep it short and sweet: When it comes to U.S. domestic travel, I have recently changed my tune and am saying, "Buy now!" -- if we're talking international travel, I say, "It depends!"

Are you kicking yourself because you haven't made plans yet? Despite what I just said, you can still find deals -- even out-and-out steals -- if you know how to look. And that's what I'm here for.

But first, a bit of background.

For more air travel news and insights visit Rick's blog at: farecompare.com

We've been spoiled -- and if you've flown in the past seven months, and packed lightly, you know it. Airlines have been discounting their tickets so fast and furiously during this time period that it actually got hard to figure out what a true "airfare sale" was -- since sale prices were the new "norm." But airlines didn't have much choice.

Imagine you're running a business that depends on passenger traffic -- and one day, many don't show up. Not just for that day, but for days on end: Once the tsunami-like recession hit full-force, people simply quit traveling.

Well, a lot of them did, especially those travelers so dear to the wallets of the airlines -- the business brigade -- who pay so much more than the low-rolling leisure travelers for the same seat.

Suddenly, revenue was out the window, down between 10 percent and 20 percent from the year before. Yes, indeed, that was one hard landing. The only bright spot was that oil prices dropped from last summer's per barrel high of $145 down to a relatively civilized $35 this past February.