The other day someone sent me a link to a story on Wired.com (not one of my usual travel haunts) with air travel buying tips that don’t quite “jive” with mine.

I looked over the tips provided based on the observations from Farecast (now a Microsoft Company — I know them well as I spent many an hour in Seattle teaching them the ins and outs of airfare).

The main premise of the article is that “Shopping Early” for airline tickets doesn’t yield any results.

This statement and a few other tidbits in the article — well, I don’t quite agree — so lets break it down …

You’re all set for your trip: everything’s packed properly, there are no bottles bigger than 3-oz on your person, you’ve got your boarding pass and ID out, and…

“Not so fast, sir!”

That’s when you learn, you’re on the fabled “No Fly List”.

Whether you’re on it or not, keep reading; there are surprises ahead.

This is a myth I’ve busted again and again, but it keeps turning up in travel sites that ought to know better.

The latest reference is from a post explaining how never to get “screwed” (their word) by a cancelled flight again. How? By invoking “Rule 240″ because it means “your airline must book you on another airline’s flight if that is available and will get you to your destination quicker.”

Sigh. Chances are, it won’t work. Let me repeat: IT WON’T WORK.

And for a very good reason. Click “more” to find out what it is, and what your REAL rights are (hint: there aren’t many).

I thought I’d turn tables a bit, and instead of presenting you with some good advice, I’d tell you about some of the bad advice I see floating around the internet.

So, I’ve come up with this: 6-Pieces of Air Travel Advice to Ignore…and what you should pay attention to.

I talk about cell phones, passports, First Class and plenty of other things.

Just click “more” for…THE LIST.

Let me put on my myth-busting hat: I just saw this AP article in The San Jose Mercury News, called “When is the best time to book airfare?”

Good question; bad answer. According to the article, late Thursday is the best time to check. WRONG.

The article goes on to quotea source as saying “Our experience with airlines has shown us that they update available seats around 12 a.m. Eastern time every day.” WRONG AGAIN.

So when IS the best time to book? Click “more” to find out…

Liked this? Then check out “How to Buy Intelligently”

Back in 1971, airline hijacker D.B. Cooper jumped out of a plane with $200,000 in ransom money, and disappeared into myth.

Now, the FBI wants our help; they just released new drawings of the mystery man, along with a map of the rugged Washington terrain he parachuted over.

Most folks (including the FBI) don’t believe he survived the jump, but his body has never been found. Meanwhile, the FBI is asking for the public’s help: maybe one of us “remembers that odd uncle.”

You might also want to check out this recent New York magazine story on a possible new suspect.

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).

A couple of weeks ago most of the day at Dallas/Ft. Worth Airport with a crew and producer from 20/20 chatting about a variety of travel myths.

The premise was myths in the form of a true/false quiz (they posted on their site early last week with the answers from the interview now).

We also posted a page on the site with further explanation on the air travel myths topics.

The video for the segment is posted (click more to the right) and take a look at our new “First Class Airline Ticket” blog for more details on discounted first class airfare…

The folks over at ABC News interviewed me a couple of weeks ago for a “20/20″ segment on travel.

Their focus is “travel myths” and I gave them a lot of fun (and practical) information about that.In the meantime, they’ve devised a quiz based on our conversation.

You can try it for yourself by clicking here.

I expect the “FareCompare faithful” will do very well.

But if you get stuck for an answer, no problem; just watch this week’s edition of “20/20″ on Friday, Dec. 14, featuring yours truly.

In a recent Newsweek story on airports around the world, what country’s airports were described this way?

“Citizens queue in interminable lines and suffer humiliating treatment at the hands of surly authorities”

The answer may surprise you!

There’s a lot of junk out on the internet. And I’m sick of it.One thing we pride ourselves on at FareCompare is accuracy; our goal, beyond getting you the cheapest airfare possible, is giving you information you can trust.

So when I saw this recent travel shopping blog post in the Washington Post, a post just riddled with errors, I thought, I can’t let them get away with this. So, here’s the REAL story.

No. You CANNOT open the door of a modern, pressurized commercial airliner in midflight.

That’s a myth. One less thing for you to worry about, okay?

Now, do idiots try to open these doors? You bet.

The latest incident happened aboard an American Airlines flight to Dallas this week; some woman yanked on the handle of an emergency exit door but was restrained by crew members and arrested.

This travel myth drives me crazy, because it misinforms travelers about their rights.

For those of you who haven’t heard the myth, I will let Peter Greenberg put it out there for you. Mr. Greenberg is not the only person perpetuating the Rule 240 travel myth, but since he is the travel editor for The Today Show, a columnist, an author and the “expert” that countless other writers and bloggers turn to for information, I figure he has probably passed the myth on to more people than anybody else:

We’ve all heard it before. Heck, most of us have convinced ourselves that it’s true. Airplane air makes you sick, right? It’s recirculated, it’s “stale,” and there’s that Airborne stuff to specifically protect you from it. It must make you sick. Well, that’s just another travel myth that isn’t quite true…

One of my biggest pet peeves is the notion that shopping “very early” will always get you the best deal. Yes, the early bird does get the worm, but when it comes to air travel the “very early” bird gets punched in the nose.

It should be noted that this discussion is only related to purchasing domestic U.S. airline tickets (not international).

First I want to be very clear that procrastination is not — I repeat NOT — a good idea. If you buy an airline ticket inside 14 days before departure, you are going to pay business rates which can be 3-6 times the rate had you purchased outside 14 days before departure.

So…when to start shopping? Click “more.”