Well, I've done more looking for less booking this year than in some time. OTOH, if you get a good deal (like the NW ATL-HNL at $296+ RT back in January) you can do multiple trips and try to get a lot of elite miles that way.

I think it very much depends on market and level of competition. In ATL, for example, BHM is now more reliable for affordable RTs to Florida and $200 transcons *if* you can get seats, whereas in ATL even an AirTran sale is closer to $300 transcon than $200. And BNA gets much better domestic fares now than ATL. Seems the flavor of the year in ATL is the Caribbean and Latin America (lots of $200 RT deals that would have been unheard of before) and spot specials on limited time windows to Japan.

I think it really pays to be flexible on your desired destination and go where the deals are or, failing that, to be ready to drive to alternate airports.

And it's probably hard to argue that a $200 transcon of 7 years ago probably should be more like $300 now, but I admit to being like many FTers and wanting someone ELSE to pay the higher fares to keep the airlines solvent, no matter how logical those fares might be. But nowadays even the lowest LCC sale fares to many places are above what I have been used to paying, so it's a matter of checking the short-lived spot specials and pouncing on them.