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The Great Valentine's Day Fare Massacre

In all our years of fare checking, we've never seen a fare sale quite like this. George Hobica found these Valentine's Day airfare specials.

In all our years of fare checking, we've never seen a fare sale quite like this. It's not so much that the fares on every route in this sale are knock your socks off, but they're definitely much cheaper than the non-sale fares. There are literally hundreds of these fares scattered about.

Here's the deal: you leave on Tuesday, February 14, Valentine's Day. And you come back February 18-22 in most cases. We say most cases because depending on the airline, there are slight variations. For example, New York to Charleston, SC at $198 RT: Northwest Airlines and US Air will let you return on Saturday, February 18 as well as February 19-22, but Delta only allows returns on Feb 19, 20 and 22.

A sampling of the deals:

  • New York/Detroit (and, of course, Detroit/New York, since all of these fares are reversible) is $158 RT in this sale, and while there are other $158 RT fares on that route they all require a 14 or 21 day advance purchase.
  • Chicago/Miami is $124 RT Continental
  • Chicago/West Palm Beach $124 RT Continental
  • Chicago/Ft. Lauderdale $124 RT Continental
  • Boston /Newark $128 RT (can you believe that the next lowest fare on that route has jumped to $327? When did that happen?)
  • San Francisco/Vail Colorado is $198 RT United and American
  • Los Angeles/Gunnison, CO is $198 RT United

George Hobica is a syndicated travel journalist and blogger whose website, www.airfarewatchdog.com, tracks unadvertised airfare wars and other fare sales.

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