As the holiday season nears, making travel plans is one item on some students' to-do lists.

Margi Erway, branch manager of STA Travel, said holiday travelers should book a flight two months in advance so they can have seat availability and get the best ticket price.

"If they wait too long, they'll have to pay more and [there will be] fewer seats," Erway said.

There are only domestic flights out of University Park Airport.

US Airways recently shifted a majority of its flights from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia. There is no longer a direct flight from State College to Pittsburgh.

Dave Neufer, US Airways Express station manager at University Park Airport, said that even though the number of US Airways flights has decreased, the plane size is larger.

"The main difference is instead of flying to Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, we're just flying to Philadelphia. [In Philadelphia], you can connect to any number of international flights," Neufer said.

There are seven US Airways flights from State College to Philadelphia each day. Three planes can seat 50 passengers each, and four planes can hold 37 passengers.

Christina Mancini (junior-advertising) said the change could be a good thing.

"My roommate is from Chicago, and she prefers to fly out of Philadelphia," Mancini said.

Neufer said he didn't think the shift to Philadelphia would have a big effect on scheduling flights.

"I don't think there is going to be much of a difference, unless people just wanted to go to Pittsburgh. Any connection you made out of Pittsburgh can be made out of Philadelphia, for the most part," Neufer said.

Jeremy Keer (sophomore-mechanical engineering) said US Airways' transition to Philadelphia would affect some students more than others.

"For those without cars, it will be a pain," Keer said. "For people that drive already, it won't be a problem."

Erway said the US Airways' flight change has affected how STA travel agents book flights.

"We tend to sell out of USAir faster because everyone has to go through Philadelphia. We're now using a lot of different airlines instead," Erway said.

She said STA Travel now schedules flights from US Airways, Northwest Airlines, United Airlines, and Delta Air Lines.

Thomas Becker, Northwest spokesman, said Northwest's flights out of State College have changed only slightly from last year.

"The number of [flights] is the same, but the number of seats is down slightly," Becker said.

Last year, there were three planes that seated 34 passengers each and one plane that could carry 44 passengers. This year, there are four planes with 34 seats each.

"We have a number of international destinations. We serve just over 150 destinations from Detroit," Becker said. "They are well-timed to connect to flights for Asia, Europe, the West, and the South."

Becker said Northwest has added 10 new destinations since January, nine of them domestic.