I’d like to thank the folks over at Lipstick Getaways for highlighting our most recent newsletter tip, which is all about “The Best Days to Shop Online for Airfare Deals”.

As I told our newsletter readers, there is no “perfect time” to shop - but here’s a general rule:

The best time to start shopping is Monday at 3:00pm EDT - continuing on through Wednesday

And here’s why:

• Airlines typically file airfare sales Monday morning in the 10:00am or 12:30pm EDT airfare distribution
• Over the next 3 airfare distribution cycles, Monday at 8:00pm and Tuesday at 10:00am and 12:30pm, other airlines typically start matching the sale prices
• These sales tend to expire late on Friday, but even worse, airlines typically file airfare hikes (22 attempts this year) late Thursday, so shopping over the weekend is not the best idea

This is the kind of tip we’re going to be featuring in our weekly newsletter from now on - if you’re not a subscriber, sign up today (the sign up area is just below our “ticket search box”). You won’t want to miss out.

Every Thursday, I like to point out some of the better deals we’ve posted on our Deals Page - and do check out this page everyday - we’re contstantly updating it.

Here’s a sampling of some great deals (click on the airline name for details):

• Virgin America’s Fall Sale - San Francisco to LA, $59+ one-way
• Continental’s THIS WEEKEND Sale - NY to Montreal, $128 roundtrip

Both airlines have lots more flights all over - time to start making plans.

Just thought I’d remind my faithful readers that we have a slew of airfare bargains over on our Deals Page.

You have to act quickly with some of these deals; Spirit, for example, has a great “48 Hour” sale, but those 48 hours are up at midnight tonight, so you might want to check that out first.

And be sure to look at Delta’s website specials, too. They have flights from $59+ one-way.

Do you live in the “Golden State”? Southwest has a wonderfully cheap Northern California/Southern California sale going on.

And US Airways has great vacation packages to Hawaii.

Not in the mood at the moment? No problem. You can check out our Deals Page whenever you like — and you’ll always find something new there.

I know the summer sun is blazing, and you’re more likely to be thinking about a trip to the pool than what you’re doing this Thanksgiving or Christmas, but believe me, there are always reasons to start your holiday airfare shopping early. Case in point: at FareCompare, we’ve found business class seats to Europe over Thanksgiving and Christmas for less then the cost of economy seats.

Joe Brancatelli of Joe Sent Me wrote about unexpected holiday business class deals on Continental Airlines, and we discovered while scouring our airfare feeds for the best deals for our Travel Deals blog is that these BusinessFirst airfares were filed by Continental Airlines on June 6th. There are some restrictions involved, but if you’re flexible on travel dates, you can still take advantage of them.

You’ll find deals to a wide range of European destinations from Newark, Houston, and Cleveland. Deals are good for travel on selected days around Thanksgiving and Christmas — prices are a bit higher for Christmas than Thanksgiving. Remember, you can book these business class seats right now for less than you can book economy seats on Continental.

I just booked 4 for my family and father in law to London over Thanksgiving (from Houston) — Check out how first clsss can be cheaper than coach and the list of non-stop first class deals from Newark below:

I have been chatting with several reporters about European travel recently, including Michelle Higgins at the New York Times who had a good article this past weekend on one of my favorite subjects: “Open Skies” (get ready — it starts March 30th).

As you know, I spend a good portion of my day reviewing all sorts of airline ticket pricing information and it has been astounding and gratifying to see base airfare prices to Europe as low as $400 roundtrip for summer travel.

But then…the other shoe drops. By that I mean, reality dawns — and it becomes clear that this “astounding” deal does not include taxes, fees and fuel surcharges. However, even with these fees and surcharges, you can still find good travel deals to Europe. In order to make the best buying decision, though, it’s important to understand what makes up the total cost of an airfare. Keep reading; I’m about to show you a real airfare example, and how it all breaks down. You’ll be amazed.

I love to share my tips and tricks on finding cheap airfare, and I’ve been doing it for years.

Now, I’ve gathered together my 5-best tips (what I consider to be an essential list), and present them to you here.

Some of these tips are very “basic”; others are a little more sophisticated. But one thing they all have in common is, they work.

But don’t take my word for it. Test them for yourself.

Just click “more” for…THE LIST.

You may have noticed on our “Cheap Airline Ticket Air Travel Deals Blog” that a number of airlines are running “one-day” airfare sales; we even did a post on these short-lived airfare sales a week or so ago.

Since then, we’ve seen more of this, including a Northwest Vacations airfare sale that only lasts 20-hours!

Clearly, the airlines are up to something. But what? Let me explain.

Starting in May, JetBlue will begin flying out of Los Angeles International Airport (LAX).

The lower cost carrier will add 3-flights a day between LAX and New York and one between LAX and Boston.

But, wait just a minute! Doesn’t JetBlue already fly out of Los Angeles??? Keep reading!

See Rick Seaney’s new column on ABCNews.com on merger mania!

Starting today, I am a weekly columnist for ABCNews.com; you can see my first column by clicking here. It’s all about the potential merger between Delta and Northwest, and I explain how it may affect all of us financially, and in terms of the number of flights available to us, as well as the whole “flight experience.”

ABCNews.com recruited me to share my “wisdom” and my tips & tricks with their website readers, so I’ll be talking about everything from cheap flights to First-Class travel and news about, well, future mergers and more.

But…I’m going to need your help with comments (please keep reading, and I’ll explain).

Anyone who is a member of a frequent flier program knows that there are a lot of emails involved. Generally, it’s “Come to Vegas,” “Sign-up for this Credit Card,” or “Fly to Europe.” Pretty standard airline marketing stuff. But I must admit, Delta SkyMiles threw me for a loop today.

Forget about Orlando. New York is a thing of the past. Never mind about Vegas. Come to Eureka! Yep, Delta contacted all of its SkyMiles members (millions) to get them jazzed about dropping everything and heading out to Eureka…

The nationwide sale is one in a line of Southwest Airlines airfare sales that have hit the market of late. This latest Southwest Airlines Nationwide sale offers airfare for $49+ to $99+ one-way to cities all over the country, and it’s good for travel on Tuesdays and Wednesdays between February 19th and June 25th.

Well, other major airlines don’t seem to be wasting any time in matching Southwest. Some competition is stirring, and this can mean great savings and a variety of options for travelers. Keep reading for a breakdown of all the action…

Many air travelers have been pinging me with complaints about how hard it is nowadays to find a great airfare deal.

I agree! it is getting harder to find a deal, there are several reasons for this (just peruse down the blog) — but there is hope if you are flexible and start shopping earlier than in the past.

I get the luxury of seeing the best of the best airfare email alerts we send out each day (hundreds of thousands) and there are incredible airline ticket deals each and every day.

Just today for example Washington DC to Honolulu, Hawaii $358+ roundtrip in April (Mon-Thur) …

Answer: Arnold Palmer

Yes golf is a passion of mine and no, I haven’t gone crazy — let me tie up these “very” tenuous loose ends.

Tiger just recently tied Arnold Palmer’s record for PGA tour wins (62) and whilst I was reviewing our internal 12:30 domestic airfare report for deals…

I noticed Northwest Airlines today appears to be celebrating this achievement by dropping prices up to 75% to/from Latrobe, Pennsylvania.

Yes Latrobe, the airport maybe better known as “Arnold Palmer Regional Airport” (after it’s native son …)

Latrobians should checkout these new low airline ticket prices …

I don’t have to tell you it’s getting late.

But you can still create a Valentine’s Day getaway…or, a Presidents Day weekend…or even combine the two (a vote for love?).

You have to act fast, though, AND, follow my 5-Last Minute Tips. To see them, just click “more”.

In a word, yes. But, how about any tickets at all?

Well, I suppose you could find a ticket on eBay, and you could take a last minute flight to Phoenix, but chances are, it won’t come cheap.

Only one thing to do: Hello, Super Bowl XLIII! …

I’ve been perusing the transportation analysts’ reports on several airlines’ 4th quarter financial results as well as reviewing some of the future looking guidance from airlines to investors — and it is pretty simple: demand is still firm — even in the wake of a “possible” economic downturn and record fuel prices.

Several airlines note firm demand in the U.S. domestic markets, and legacy airlines are also pleased about the demand for seats on transatlantic and Latin American flights…

Liked this? Then check out “Good News, Bad News”

I’ve got some great tips for those of you who are thinking of taking a vacation during the upcoming Spring Break.

There’s not much time left (as I’m sure you know).

But you’ve come to the right place for cheap airfare sales info ; check out these great tips here.

Liked this story? Check out all our great deals, here.

Making a good airfare purchasing decision requires a healthy dose of technology and education.

Today I want to broaden your insider knowledge of airlines and their prices by chatting a bit about the “invoice” price of an airline ticket.

Since you don’t actually own the seat you fly — the “invoice” price is related to the flights that make up your trip and the easiest unit of measure for comparison is “price per mile”.

As you might imagine airlines have a pretty significant difference in their costs.

Would you shop for a car without knowing the Kelly Blue Book or Edmunds invoice? Keep reading–this will help you find cheap airfare sales.

Some scary news for air travelers: the “m-word.” As in, “mergers.”

Background: I was reading some interesting analysis from Merrill Lynch today; it mentioned that after the Wall St. Journal reported Delta was gearing up for merger talks with Northwest and United, the stocks of the 3-airlines zoomed upward.

Another interesting nugget: if one merger deal is made, Merrill Lynch believes other deals will be done, and soon (deals that could include the airlines named above, as well as Continental).

Good news for the financial community, but what about the rest of us? What about cheap airfare sales? Here’s a couple of simple formulas: Mergers = Less Competition; Less Competition = Higher Airfare.

I think we can all do this math.

Attention, New Yorkers! Yours truly will be featured on radio station WABC this coming Sunday.

Listen for me on Erik Hastings’ Travel Show, at about 3:50pm (EST). I’ll be on for about oh, 5- to 8-minutes, dispensing my “wisdom” which will no doubt include plenty of info about cheap airfare sales, and lots of my patented travel tips.

Hope you’ll tune in to “77 WABC-AM” this Sunday and yes I’ll be done before the Cowboy game

United Airlines is starting the new year off with a bang. They’re offering a range of deals on airfare for both domestic and international travel. You can also find cheap airfare sales to Europe, Asia, Mexico, Puerto Rico, both coasts of the U.S., and more.

Keep reading to see a sample of some of the airfare deals United Airlines is offering…

This has been a big year for FareCompare, but we couldn’t have done it without you. You took advantage of our Free Airfare Email Alerts, discovered how good they are, and spread the word.

And I like to think we helped you in turn, by finding you the best of the cheap airfare sales, day-in and day-out.

But let me tell you how we’ve grown over the year (and this will include stories about our Top 10 Lists, ABC’s “20/20″ show, some weird myth-busting, and even Playboy).

The conventional wisdom is, if you’re running for office these days, you cannot depend on commercial aviation. The schedules just don’t mesh with the candidates’ schedules (well, obviously they don’t have me and FareCompare plotting their moves, as we did for Grumpy Santa’s marathon flight-fest).

So, the presidential contenders use private jets. That’s expensive. And it just got a lot more expensive, as you’ll see if you click “more.”

Each and every day, airfare changes are made. Sometime, it’s in the tens of thousands. Sometimes, it’s hundreds of thousands a day.

And here at FareCompare, we track them all. A single “research mode query” (your question about a particular fare) hits over 10-computers during this process, but gets you your information in about 2-seconds! That’s how we get you word of the cheap airfare sales first!

We also have over 3-billion “historical” airfares to help you can make the best buying decisions.

Put it all together, with our Email Alerts. You simply sign in, and get the best deals, first.

Don’t let this one slip through your fingers: Virgin America is offering 2-tickets for the price of one. Round-trip airfare for 2-people traveling between Los Angeles and New York for less than $340 (before taxes).

Virgin calls this their “diggNATION” sale, and it ends December 7^th. There are some blackout dates, and you can find out more here. In terms of cheap airfare sales, we call this one a “doozy”!