As if holiday travel could get any worse, FareCompare.com's chief executive, Rick Seaney, recently uncovered two new snags.

The first is a $10 ``holiday surcharge'' tacked on to fares for travel the Sunday after Thanksgiving (Nov. 29) and the two days after New Year's (Jan. 2 and 3). While airfare pricing can seem erratic, and $10 won't have much of an effect on the average traveler, seat cutbacks might.

On his blog, RickSeaney.com, Seaney compared the number of seats available on flights from airports in Canada and the United States on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving in 2008 and 2009. He found that seats were slashed dramatically in most cities. (See the list here: www.farecompare.com/articles/holiday-travel-flight-cutbacks-for-thanksgiving-2009)

The biggest losers -- with seat-cut percentages in the double digits -- were Cincinnati (down 23.3 percent), Hartford, Conn. (14.6 percent), Tampa (11.9 percent) and St. Louis (11.1 percent). Washington lost 3.5 percent of seats, while Baltimore lost a mere 0.1 percent. The cities with the biggest gains were Milwaukee (28.9 percent), San Juan, Puerto Rico (10.3 percent) and Anchorage (5.5 percent).

The bottom line? Seats are limited, so if you don't have flexibility and need to fly around the holidays, book now.

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