I hate to fly too, I always have to take something to relax me! I'm a white knuckle flyer and feel that gripping the arm on the seat somehow helps to keep the plane up!
You are asking the million dollar question when it comes to airfare!
I booked tickets to Las Vegas the third week of August. I keep checking the fares every few days. I'm kind of a glutton for punishment and have to see how the fare changes. The past week or so the fare has stayed steady at about $45 more per ticket than what I paid. I just checked it after reading your email and it's gone down and is now only $5 more than what I paid per ticket.
Everything I read prior to booking my tickets seemed to indicate the longer you wait to book travel for this holiday season, the higher the fares are going to be with the oil prices and that was before this last hurricane. I'm flying mid-November and I went to Vegas about the same time last year and I'm paying about $100 more this year for my ticket.
If you are flexible on dates, time of day to travel and even airports and really shop around, you might have more luck!