Jolly Good Decent Fares to London and Europe
I flew into a New York JFK international terminal earlier this week, and my presumption about why international fares are so high this year was graphically confirmed: the passport control line for non-US citizens went on for miles; the US citizen line? Very short. With the dollar so low, foreigners are coming to visit us in droves. And they're not flying one way, no sir. They have to go back to Europe, and guess what, they're taking your seats, my fellow Americans. And that's why we're seeing $1,200, $1,500, yes, even $2,000 RT economy class fares to Europe this summer.
But wait. What's this I see? Some pretty good fares from Boston and New York to Europe? Good is relative these days. Delta (tel. 800/221-1212; www.delta.com) has a good fare to London for $700 round-trip, including all taxes, and we found London for $711 round-trip, including taxes, on American Airlines (tel. 800/433-7300; www.aa.com). But the best fares to Europe so far this summer are to Ireland. We've found both Shannon and Dublin available for $543 round-trip, including all taxes. And remember, for those who wish to travel on from Ireland to other destinations in Europe, check out Irish budgie airline RyanAir (www.ryanair.com). Meanwhile, in Boston, Iberia (tel. 800-772-4642; www.iberia.com) has Madrid for $622 round-trip, including taxes, departing June 4 and returning June 11 -13. Seats will surely go fast, so hurry.
- New York to London, $700 round-trip, including all taxes, on Delta Airlines
- New York to London, $711 round-trip, including all taxes, on American Airlines
- New York to Shannon, $543 round-trip, including all taxes, on Delta Airlines
- New York to Dublin, $543 round-trip, including all taxes, on Delta Airlines
- Boston to Madrid, $622 round-trip, including all taxes, on Iberia
Remember, Check Directly with the Airlines
Here's a good example of why there must be an Airfarewatchdog.com (www.airfarewatchdog.com): to protect airfare consumers! And why those other fare alert, fare listing, fare comparison, and fare what-have-you sites just don't cut it. Suppose you wanted to make a two week trip to Asia, using Singapore as your jumping off point, leaving Los Angeles August 1 and returning August 13.
Had you searched for that itinerary on Travelocity, Orbitz or Kayak, you'd see a lowest fare of around $1,215 RT, but requiring two changes of plane, and who wants to do that, via Philippines Airlines? Orbitz listed a change of plane flight on Air China at $1,275 RT. Orbitz didn't show Singapore Airlines (tel. 800/742-3333; www.singaporeair.com) at all (what's going on here? Are they having a tiff?)
But the best deal? A one-stopper at $1,231 RT including tax on Singapore, with no change of planes, via www.singaporeair.com. Because other airfare comparison and alert sites rely on automated data feeds from ATPCO (www.atpco.net) and ITASoftware (www.itasoftware.com), they wouldn't have found this Singapore Airlines fare, which Singapore Airlines lists only on its own Web site.
Hawaiian Airlines Sale from the West Coast
Hawaiian Airlines (tel. 800/367-5320; www.hawaiianair.com) is having a summer sale to Oahu, Honolulu, Kahului, and Maui from select west coast cities, good for travel from July 1 through August 19. How are the fares? Let's take a look.
- Portland to Honolulu, advertised as $435 round-trip, nonstop: Using July 18 through July 25 as our dates of travel, the best price we found on Hawaiian's web site was $482 round-trip. These same dates on Orbitz show Hawaiian as having the best fare, at $489 round-trip. Sure, United has a lower fare of $470 round-trip, with a layover in San Francisco, but the $12 difference isn't enough to sway us from Hawaiian's nonstop.
- Las Vegas to Honolulu, advertised as $549 round-trip, nonstop: We found $566 round-trip, for travel from August 1 through August 8. Back on Orbitz, Hawaiian is in the lead at $572 round-trip for these dates, followed by ATA at $594 round-trip.
- Sacramento to Honolulu, advertised as $435 round-trip, nonstop: Traveling from July 3 through July 11, we found a fare of $492 round-trip. Orbitz shows $499 round-trip as the lowest fare, on Hawaiian.
- Seattle to Maui, advertised as $562 round-trip, nonstop: We actually found a much lower fare of $474 round-trip, using August 13 through August 21 as our travel dates. Sure, the fine print says the summer specials expire after August 19, but we still managed to find our return segment for $176. That's much lower than what was being offered during the summer specials. These dates on Orbitz show Northwest as having the lowest fare at $452, though it includes a quick stop-over in Kona.
Hawaiian had the best fares for every route we checked, pretty consistent with what was advertised, and sometimes even better. When searching for fares on Hawaiian's web site, pay attention for those flexible date tabs that pop up, indicating that a cheaper fare is available on another date. As is often the case, being flexible by just a day or two can really save you tons.
ATA Summer Sale
ATA (tel. 800/435-9292; www.ata.com) is having a last-minute summer sale good on select dates. They don't provide any sample fares for this sale, or give you much to go on aside from the least expensive dates to travel on. And then they pull this ol' budget airline shtick of offering valid return dates that are earlier than the departure dates. For example:
Chicago to Cancun, departing June 27, July 4, 7, 11 and returning June 6, July 4, 11, 18. Unless you own a time-traveling DeLorean, all you can do with that June 6 fare is combine it with a full-fare segment. Yeah, yeah, you're still saving some money. But, if you're like us, you want to save on both segments, right? Right. So we searched for something for July 7 through July 18, and found a fare of $495 round-trip, nonstop. We checked the same dates on Orbitz and found a fare of $507 on ATA. Northwest has the second best fare, at $474 round-trip, with a layover in Memphis. More samples include:
- Chicago Midway to Guadalajara, departing June 1-5, 7, 8, 10-12, 14-19, 21-26, 28, 29 and returning June 1-5, 7-12, 14-19, 21-26, 28-30, and July 1-3. We checked for travel from June 11 through June 19 and found a fare of $403 round-trip, nonstop. On Orbitz, we found the same trip on Aeromexico for just $323 round-trip, nonstop.
- Phoenix to Maui, departing June 19, 20, 25, 26, and July 4, and 5 and returning June 8, 10, 19, 20, and July 4. We searched for travel on June 25 through July 4 and found a fare of $518 round-trip, nonstop. Orbitz lists ATA as having the best fare for this trip too, at $576 round-trip, nonstop.
- Oakland to Chicago, departing June 4-6, July 4 and 5, and returning June 3, 5-7, 12, 13, 19-21, 26, 27 and July 3. For travel from June 5 through June 13, we found a fare of $403 round-trip. On Orbitz, these dates list ATA as having the lowest fare of $450 round-trip.
In most cases, these ATA fares were the best offered on these dates. And these fares are also available one-way too, which could be an even better value for folks who, for example, dream of taking off for Maui and never having to come home. Just sayin'.
--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 fare sales, including the most helpful and always updated Top 50 Airfares.
Talk with fellow Frommer's readers on our Air Travel Message Boards today.
