Compete4yourseat.com, another matchmaking site, helps travelers connect with agents to find lower airfares.
Other blog posts have suggested holiday windows to view, top 10 winter getaways (by limo, of course) and 10 tips for getting lower airfares.
Unlike European holidays, American holidays are not normally reduced in price for last-minute bookings, as the lower airfares have already been gobbled up at the beginning of the year.
To that end, they have been fighting to limit access to the American market by major Gulf carriers like Etihad, Emirates and Qatar Airways, which would breed competition, pushing the airlines to improve and to lower airfares.
Still, comments about capacity growth from Southwest prompt memories, both unwelcome (among investors) and fond (among passengers) about what is still known as the "Southwest Effect"— the phenomenon of sharply lower airfares whenever the maverick upstart Southwest entered a market.
Many travelers found that if they waited until shortly before they flew, they were sometimes able to score considerably lower airfares than if they had booked well in advance, as airlines started cutting prices as the holidays neared and they realized a lot of seats had gone unsold.
(The day after the election, Rafat Ali, the founder of Skift, a travel news and research company, tweeted that the industry was "gobsmacked" and that attendees at the World Travel Market London conference were coming up and "offering condolences"). That perception is not good for airlines and hotels, Mr. Leff said, though in the short term it could mean that travelers benefit from lower airfares.
For good reason: The more competition on a route, the lower airfares will drop.
