Travel gurus say now is the time to start shopping around for airfares if you plan on flying this holiday season.

"Shopping doesn't mean buying, so you should at least get your tickets before the end of October," said Rick Seaney, CEO of Farecompare.com.

Click here to see cheaper days to fly during the holidays.

Seaney said if you find anything less than $300 for long-haul flights and $225 for the short-haul you should buy those tickets now.

"Prices are firming up a little bit," he said.

Seaney said airfares depend on when you buy your ticket and how full airplanes are.

"If you buy your ticket last minute you're typically treated as a business traveler and you're paying three or four times more," he said. "If you buy your ticket too early, you might pay too much."

He said there are three cheapest days to fly: Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday.

"Most people don't think the weekends are cheap days to fly but definitely Saturday is one of the three days," he said. "The main reason is: everybody wants to leave on a Monday and come back on a Friday if you're a business traveler and if you're a leisure traveler you want to come back on a Sunday."

He said those are the three busiest days and, therefore, the most expensive because the airlines understand that those flights are going to be fuller and they can get a premium for those tickets.

"The absolute best time to start shopping for an airline ticket is typically Tuesday afternoon," Seaney said. "The main reason is that most airlines file their discounts and airfare sales on Monday night and then during the morning on Tuesday the other airlines start matching."

"The sweet spot for shopping is Tuesday afternoon and typically discounts are removed from the air system on Friday so if you're shopping on the weekends, you're typically paying a bit more."

Seaney said prices this year are down from 14 to 18 percent.

"But you also have to remember that oil prices were really high at the same time last year," he said. "Sometime in June the prices bottomed out. We were pretty much in freefall from November of last year all the way through May."