I spent part of my Independence Day weekend planning a Christmas/New Year's getaway with my wife and another couple.

Advance planning doesn't make me smarter than you—after all, do smart people really watch another Fourth of July Twilight Zone marathon? But it does mean that I'm likely to spend less and get more on my winter holiday than you will. Of course, that's cold comfort if you haven't even planned your summer vacation yet. And after a tough winter and uninspired spring, you do deserve a high-season getaway, don't you?

The good news? You can still pull off a last-minute holiday with a modicum of style and without wrecking your personal economy. The bad news? As we discussed two months ago, you will pay a little more than in previous years, and you'll have to make some tough decisions about your options.

Oily Realities

When oil hit $147 a barrel in the spring of 2008, travelers stayed home or hurriedly locked in travel plans because they expected things to get much worse. That meant gigantic last-minute travel bargains when oil prices began to plummet during that summer. It doesn't look like we'll be as lucky this summer, however. Oil has fallen from its 2011 high near $115 a barrel, but prices are already rising again. After dropping near $90 on New York markets late last month, prices jumped back above $96 a barrel on Tuesday morning. The uptick will almost surely dissuade airlines from mounting drastic domestic-fare sales for travel in the next 60 days.

Big Seats at Big Discounts

Airlines plying the Atlantic on the busy routes between the United States and Europe have repeatedly guessed wrong this year, and that's turning out to be an opportunity for a summer procrastinators. The big carriers added far too much summer capacity, and two previous sales didn't fill the front of the plane. A new wave of business-class fare sales began this week, and that means deep price cuts with relatively modest (about 14 days) advance-purchase restrictions. Aer Lingus, the Irish carrier, will fly you from Chicago to Dublin for as little as $999 each way. Virgin Atlantic's current business-class sale has pegged prices from Los Angeles or San Francisco to London as low as $1,373 each way. Continental Airlines' summer sale officially ended on June 29, but roundtrip fares below $2,000 to some European cities are still available to book. OpenSkies, the all-business-class boutique carrier that flies to Paris' close-in Orly airport from Newark or Washington, also has some summer fares under $2,000 roundtrip.

The best ways to find the deals? Kayak.com simultaneously searches dozens of travel sites at once. If you choose to try your luck at one of the airlines' proprietary sites, make sure to check the "flexible date" or "plus/minus days" options to see a spread of prices over several weeks. On one European route I checked over the weekend, business-class prices ranged from $2,100 to $7,200 roundtrip based solely on the departure date during one week in August.