If you still want to get home for the holidays, you may be in luck. Most of the major airlines have dropped their advance-purchase requirements, so we are seeing decent Thanksgiving fares, even at this last-minute deadline.

If you are flexible, you can leave Monday and come back on Friday, or leave on Thanksgiving Day and come back Dec. 1 or later. If you try to leave this Wednesday and return the Sunday after Thanksgiving, Nov. 29, you could pay as much as $300 more for your tickets, so

those are definitely the days to avoid. This Tuesday, Saturday and Nov. 30 are tossup days that could be good or bad, depending on your route.

If you are still looking for December holiday fares, we've found that travel departing during the week of Christmas is cheaper than travel departing the week of New Year's. Good travel- departure days are Dec. 21 or 22, or even on Christmas Day, returning Dec. 28 or 29.

If you are thinking about going to Cancún or the Caribbean over the December holidays, you may want to think again: We've found packages from Dallas to Cancún for $4,000 per couple if you depart Dec. 26 and return Jan. 3. If you depart Dec. 29 or 30 and return Jan. 5 or 6, you'd pay around $2,000 per couple. If you wait until the first couple of weeks of 2010, you could take three other couples with you for the same price; we've seen packages as low as $1,000 per couple.

There is an airfare sale going on for purchase through Monday; act fast. If you miss this sale, which was launched by Southwest and matched by others, just make sure that there's another sale when you buy your tickets. We're seeing sale fares from Dallas in the $178 to $198 range to Boston and for $226 to New York. We've even seen short-lived Snooze-You-Lose fares for as low as $143 to both destinations, including taxes and fees. However, if you buy when there is no sale, you'll be looking at fares of $358 to $398 round trip. You've really got to stay within sale periods or you will pay a premium.

If you are looking for fares for travel in January and February, I believe we may see a blowout sale on Dec. 1, the Tuesday after Thanksgiving. Eighty percent of sales start on a Tuesday, so give the other carriers a chance to match and make your purchase that Tuesday afternoon or on Wednesday.

We haven't seen sale fares that allow travel past early March, except from Frontier and on Snooze-You-Lose fares. Southwest's current schedule runs through May 7, and it has some decent regular fares. We've seen good deals if you poke around on those dates past early March.

We have seen some wild and wacky Snooze-You-Lose fares, which you can sometimes book 330 days in advance. If you see a $143 round-trip fare from Dallas to New York for summer, should you wait? No, you should say, "Book me, Danno."

Tom Parsons is publisher of BestFares.com.