Digging For Deals: Holiday Travel Tough This Year

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Story Published: Nov 15, 2009 at 8:27 PM PDT

By Holly Zuluaga

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TRI-CITIES--Travelers that waited until the last minute are having a hard time flying without spending a fortune for the holidays.

There's no shortage of people taking to the sky this holiday season.

"We have not seen a decline in travel this year. Lots of people are traveling they have been all year," Gina Hoyt from Travel Traditions said.

However, even with the help of a trained professional, it's tough to fly cheap if you waited until the last minute.

Usually you can find some sort of last minute deal on holiday travel, but this year if you haven't booked already it's likely you'll be charged an extra chunk of change just to get on board.

"I know in years past they could find that good deal at the last second and we're not finding that as often. People are looking for the deal, but they're not as readily available," Gina Hoyt said.

Gina Hoyt says that's because of what happened last year.

Airlines had to cut costs to cope with sky rocketing oil prices.

"What they did is they cut a lot of their flights back, so where there are not as many flights this year, then that means the seat availability is not there," Gina Hoyt said.

That availability is driving the cost up.

Gina Hoyt says she never recommends waiting until the last minute, but if you're still looking to travel for the holidays and don't want to shell out a small fortune, you have to be flexible with dates and departure cities.

You might have better luck flying out of Seattle or Portland.

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