Traveling for Thanksgiving or Christmas? When experts say is the best time to book your flight

RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) -- While it's still summer, if you plan to travel this Thanksgiving or Christmas holiday, experts say now is the time to start looking for flights.

"Always book opposite season. While everybody right now thinking about summer travel or fall travel if you can look ahead to those winter holiday flights that's when you're most likely to see a good deal and be able to get some of those elusive cheap flights," Scott Keyes with Scott's Cheap Flights said.

Keyes said doing your research is key. You can track flight prices if you know where you want to fly and get alerts when there is a drop in the price. While you've had to pay top dollar for flights this summer, Keyes said prices look to be dropping for travel after Labor Day through early November.

"The good news is that I think some of the sticker shock with airfare is going to be subsiding."

Keyes believes flight prices will go back up the longer you wait to book for those winter holiday travel dates. When it comes to booking hotels and resorts over the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, many resorts are already sold out. If there are openings, be prepared to pay top dollar.

Another tip if you're looking to snag a deal to travel over the week of Thanksgiving, Keyes said to consider looking international. Since Thanksgiving is a U.S. holiday, you can sometimes find really good deals on international travel -- to places like southern Europe.

No matter when you book travel, watch out for scams. We continue to see copy-cat websites that make it appear you're booking directly with the airline or hotel, but they are either third-party websites that charge you extra fees or fake websites that just take your money.