For the straight scoop on how to get discount airfare without having to give up your day job to spend searching the web, don't miss yesterday's New York Times article, 'Online Airfare Battle Heats Up as Carriers Remove Listings.'

We broke out their best links below, with an explanation of what they do for your quickie reference:

• ITA Software.  This site lets you peruse a month's worth of airfares to identify the cheapest days to travel.  You then book directly with the airline's website.
• Kayak, Fly.com, and Farecompare.com, all search hundreds of travel sites for the best deals and show you the cheapest options. Like ITA, you don't actually book with these sites, but at least you can see where the deals are in one place.
• Airarewatchdog.com.  Sign up for travel notifications for the city you want to travel to and get alerts on deals from people who manually do the digging for you.  We keep a steady alert for Paris flights (a girl has to dream, no?) and have gotten alerts on flights as cheap as $292 round trip, including taxes.
• Bing.com.  Bing's "Price Predictor" uses complex algorithms to predict fares—whether they'll go up or down—so you know when to pull the trigger on your ticket.

Savvy Scoop: Airfare is your biggest ticket item when traveling, so the sooner you book, the more you'll save.  Even if you're not going to be traveling until summer, now's the time to set up travel alerts and cheap fare notifications.