Winter holiday travel: Pounce now on flights or roll the dice?

(CNN) — The high prices, the canceled flights, the booked-up lodging and rental cars. The summer of travel chaos still seems hot and fresh somehow.

But it’s time to look forward, for there’s another crunch time looming less than two months away: the 2022 winter holiday travel season.

So put away your T-shirts, break out your sweaters and get ready for the winter holidays. Here’s what to know:

When should I buy tickets for winter holiday flights?

Decision-making on when to buy airline tickets seems more complicated that ever. Prices change daily, even hourly. The staffing and capacity ramifications of the pandemic are still being felt.

But October is probably the best window of opportunity. In other words, NOW.

“For the holidays in particular, that’s a real problem because now is actually the best time to be booking your Thanksgiving and Christmas travel,” Berg said.

Hopper suggested in an email to wait no later than mid-October.

It’s not just a pricing issue, Berg said. She also noted another risk by waiting: “Flights may be sold out completely on the dates you want to fly.”

The worst time to book? ‘The last minute’

“The second best time to be booking your flights is now — because the worst time to book them is to wait until the last minute,” Keyes said. “If you haven’t booked those flights already and you’re really hoping to travel over the winter holidays, try to get it booked in the next week or two.”

Keyes thinks air fares are likely to get more expensive, not less, as we get closer to Thanksgiving and Christmas.

“I view Halloween as the cutoff date for getting a reasonable price on a Thanksgiving flight, but aim to get booked before then,” Dengler said in an email interview. “After Halloween, prices will increase considerably as Thanksgiving gets closer. For Christmas flights, you should really book before Thanksgiving, but the best deals are between now and Halloween.”

An Alaska Airlines flight arrives at Los Angeles International Airport on October 2. How you time your ticket purchase can depend on a lot of personal factors in addition to airline prices.

AaronP/Bauer-Griffin/Getty Images

Based on booking data from 2019, 2021 and 2022 so far, AAA found the lowest average fares just seven to 14 days before Thanksgiving, with the highest prices 28 to 60 days before the holiday. However, the data also showed prices rising in the last seven days before the holiday.

So should you wait? A lot depends on personal…