When it comes to holiday travel, good things may come to those who waited.

U.S. airlines have cut many fares for the Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons, including fares out of the Islands.

United Airlines yesterday was offering a roundtrip ticket from Honolulu to Colorado Springs, Colo., for $468, and from Honolulu to New York City for $475 for travel in mid- to late November.

Hawaiian Airlines had fares on its Web site from Honolulu to Phoenix for as low as $300 in November.

And flights to Seattle were about $400 on both United and Northwest airlines.

"There are some really unreal airfares," said Rachel Shimamoto, manager of Travel Ways on South King Street. "I've never seen it so low before."

But she pointed out there are blackout dates, especially around Thanksgiving and Christmas.

And don't get your hopes up too high: The deals will disappear fast, travel agents say, and popular destinations — such as Honolulu to Las Vegas, San Francisco or Los Angeles — don't have the dramatic cuts that others do.

Still, even flights to Vegas are cheaper.

Amy Cabral, manager of Hawaiian Travel Club, said she recently found a package to Las Vegas with roundtrip flight and two nights hotel for $540. She also saw a roundtrip ticket to Los Angeles for $300.

"There are some decent deals to Vegas," she said. "But a lot of them are for travel before mid-December."

Her advice: book early.

"The fares are so great. I don't know how long they're going to last," she said.

EARLY PRICE-CUTTING

Airlines, in the midst of their worst year since at least 2005, may see the price-cutting as necessary in the face of a slumping economy that could cut into both leisure and business travel. Airfare experts say they typically don't see this kind of price-cutting until the last couple of weeks before big holidays.

Northwest Airlines started the rush Tuesday night with a broad holiday fare sale, and most other major carriers matched the prices Wednesday, according to Rick Seaney, chief executive of the travel Web site www.FareCompare.com.

"It's by far the most broad-based fare sale we've tracked in at least 18 months," Seaney said, "and this is the earliest I've ever seen one."

Tom Parsons, chief executive of discount travel site Bestfares.com, said travelers should still shop around.

He said the cuts ranged up to 25 percent off the previous price for tickets that must be bought 21 or 30 days ahead of travel. He said travelers using secondary airports that typically have higher prices will get the biggest breaks.

There are cheaper fares available on routes where the big airlines compete with low-cost carriers such as Southwest, JetBlue and AirTran, he said.

Some of the sale fares have blackout dates on Nov. 30 and Dec. 1 — the Sunday and Monday after Thanksgiving — and Dec. 20. And there are only a handful of "super off-peak" days, as Northwest calls them.

For some destinations, the cuts are dramatic. Delta shaved the cheapest price for an Atlanta-Nashville round trip around Thanksgiving from nearly $500 to $238, Seaney said. The cheapest Minneapolis-Seattle flight is $248.

In most cases, the prices are good until at least late November.

HALT IN HIGHER FARES

Airlines aggressively raised fares and fuel surcharges last year and early this year but stopped when the economy slowed noticeably. The last broad fare hike was in early July, Seaney said.

Carriers would rather not be cutting prices now, but demand may be slowing faster than airlines can reduce the supply of available seats.

Southwest CEO Gary Kelly said this month that because of the economic slowdown, "the world has changed" and there is no guarantee about future booking trends.

"We know that fares are higher compared to a year ago," Kelly told analysts. "We know the economy is in a complete recession ... we've got to be prepared for a weak economy and weaker demand, which I think is destined to happen."