Frommers.com Airfare Deals and News for the Week of March 16, 2007

German airline LTU (tel. 866/266-5588; www.ltu.com) is having a sale on spring/summer fares from the US to Germany. This sale is good for departures between April 1 through May 31 from Los Angeles, Miami, and New York. For Ft. Myers, departures are valid April 1 through June 24, and May 3 through June 24 for Las Vegas departures. For all routes, the maximum stay is 30 days. Below are a few sample fares:

• New York to Dusseldorf: $318 round-trip, nonstop, plus the $204, which brings the price to $522. That's the best fare we found for this route, using April 1 through April 8 as our travel dates. The next lowest fare is $639 on Air India, but it isn't nonstop.
• Miami to Berlin: $468 round-trip, but we were only able to find $528. Tack on the $276 tax and you have $804 round-trip. Using March 30 through April 11 as our dates on ITAsoftware.com (www.itasoftware.com), we found a fare of $723 available on LTU. Go figure.

Summer fares are good for departures between May 24 and September 9, 2007. A few sample fares include:

• Los Angeles to Berlin: $1,048 round-trip, plus the $276 in taxes brings you to $1,324. Again, using July 23 through August 2 as our travel dates, we found $1219 on American Airlines, and $1,235 on Continental.
• Las Vegas to Frankfurt: $548 round-trip, but we were only able to find $921. Add in the $204 in taxes and we're at $1,132. Using July 2 through July 9 as our travel dates on ITAsoftware, we were able to find $987 round-trip on Condor Flugdienst (tel. 800/364-1667; www6.condor.com), and that's nonstop.

Overall this is a pretty good sale, especially for those considering travel in late spring. As for summer travel, these fares are better than most, but definitely beatable. Devote a half hour to shopping around online and you could really save yourself a couple hundred dollars.

Frontier (tel. 800/432-1359; www.frontierairlines.com) is having a sale on Mexican destinations, for purchase by March 18 and good for travel through June 7. Here are a few sample fares:

• Nashville to Los Cabos: We found $361 round-trip, with taxes, for May 8 through May 15 on Frontier. Orbitz (www.orbitz.com) lists Continental as having these same dates available for $359.
• Denver to Mazatlan: We found $254 round-trip, with taxes, for May 8 through May 15 on Frontier. The lowest fare we found for these dates on Orbitz is $274 on US Airways.
• Los Angeles to Los Cabos: We found $250 round-trip, with taxes, for May 20 through May 27. The best price we found on Orbitz.com is $263 round-trip on a Delta flight shared with Alaska Airlines.
• Sacramento to Guadalajara: We found $359 round-trip, with taxes, for April 23 through April 30. Plugging in these same dates on Orbitz.com turned up a fare of $371 round-trip, with taxes, on US Airways.

Though the difference between these sale fares and our findings is a slight one, hey, it's still a difference. Need another one? Well, in our experience, we've found the staff and crew of Frontier to be a pleasant bunch. Should any complications arise during your trip a sympathetic soul at check-in can make all the difference.

New Non-Stop Service from Seattle to Paris

As of June 11, Air France (tel. 800/237-2747; www.airfrance.us) will begin the only nonstop service between Paris and Seattle. This flight will depart from Seattle at 4:55pm and arrive the following day at 11:40am in Paris-Charles de Gaulle. Flights returning from Paris depart at 1:20pm and arrive in Seattle at 2:35pm the same day. Introductory sale fares for this route start at $662 one-way, based on round-trip, and are good for travel through September 10. Purchases must be made 21 days in advance and include a maximum stay of 30 days. A closer look at these sample introductory fares below:

• Seattle to Paris $662 one-way: That's $1,324, plus the $98 in taxes, which puts us at $1,422 for travel from June 12 through June 20. We were able to find this trip for $1,123 on Air Transat, but that includes two long and bothersome stops- one in Vancouver and one in Montreal. Continental comes in second place, with a fare of $1,259 and only one layover in Newark.
• Seattle to Barcelona $600 one-way: Good luck finding this fare. It seems to be completely sold out, although we were able to find $662 one-ways for June 7 through June 11. The $1,429 fare on Air France sounds like a lot of money for such a short trip, n'est pas? We found a fare of $1,265 round-trip on Delta Airlines for June 7 through June 14, by searching ITAsoftware.com.
• Seattle to Moscow $718 one-way: We had better luck finding this fare, which ends up being $1,555 round-trip, with taxes, for travel on June 27 through July 4. Searching the same travel dates on ITAsoftware.com, we found a fare of $1475 on Aeroflot, the national carrier of Russia.

Seattle to Venice $713 one-way: This comes to $1,546 round-trip, with tax, using August 2 through August 12 as your travel dates. Using the same dates, we searched ITAsoftware.com and found $1,421 round-trip, with tax, on US Airways.

Fly from Los Angeles to Beijing or Shanghai for $640 round-trip, thanks to the Cathay Pacific (tel. 800/233-2742; www.cathaypacific.com) Deal of the Month. New York and San Francisco are also included on the sale, at slightly higher prices of course. Travel is good for departures through April 15. The last day of purchase is March 31, so you still have time to buy.

• Los Angeles to Beijing: Using April 1 through April 15 as our travel dates, we found $713, round-trip, with tax. Searching for the same dates on Orbitz.com turned up $924 on Air China as the lowest fare.
• Los Angeles to Shanghai: Using April 9 through April 16 as our travel dates, again we found $713 round-trip, with tax. By plugging in the same dates on Orbitz.com, we found $793 round-trip, with tax, on China Eastern.

This really is a great deal and the best part is, unlike a lot of advertised sale fares that require a lot of digging through websites that are often impossible to navigate, these fares are very straightforward and easily available. All you have to do is remember where you put your passport.

--additional reporting by Tracy W. Stewart

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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