Best days to fly this holiday season

Our friends at Priceline have released their annual holiday calendar of the most fiscally prudent days to travel, and there aren't any surprises: The cheapest days are Nov. 23, 24 and 27 for Thanksgiving, and Dec. 22, 23 and 24 for Christmas; the priciest are Nov. 21 and 26; Dec. 19, 20 and 28; and Jan. 3 and 4.

While those general guidelines are useful, they don't necessarily shed a whole lot of light on the key thing here: what you will need to pay.

But the travel website does offer a Best Days To Fly tool that I find more useful. This is the way it works: Go to the site and click on the Best Days To Fly box on the right hand side of the screen. A dialog box will pop up. Enter your departure and arrival cities. This will generate a calendar showing the lowest published ticket price found by Priceline customers for days around the holiday, and you can use this info to help you figure out when to fly and whether you're getting a good deal.

Brian Ek, a Priceline spokesman, says the site will continue updating the info.