Travel Expert Offers Tips For Booking Flights During Holiday Season

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- It's time to get your travel plans in order as the holiday season is quickly approaching.

Travel expert and Senior Product Operation Specialist at Scott's Cheap Flights, Daniel Burnham, gave KPIX 5 some tips for how to prepare, especially if you haven't booked flights for Thanksgiving yet.

"I think there's two approaches at this point. For one thing is, it's surprising how many large, wide-bodied aircrafts are still being scheduled on big hub-to-hub routes in the United States," he said. "Actually there's a lot of seats, a lot of capacity there so it's going to be relatively full but the prices are not as high as they might be."

Burnham says the holidays may be the best time to use points or rewards programs.

"If you've been saving those for a long-haul business class trip, you might actually find that the per point cost of using them domestically - if you're trying to go somewhere that's a little bit expensive for Christmas or Thanksgiving - is actually going to be quite rewarding," he said.

With recent cancellation issues on airlines like American and Southwest, Burnham advises to try and avoid peak days or weekend travel and try to get out early in the day to avoid getting stuck at the airport at the end of the day.

Looking ahead to next year's vacations, Burnham says flights to Europe are still cheaper than usual and recommends looking into Asian destinations.

"A lot of bookings are still flexible," he said. "It's easy to get refundable hotel reservations and these kinds of things. Be flexible and willing to change your plans if it doesn't work out."