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Frommers.com Airfare Deals and News for the Week of August 14, 2009

Virgin America announces new routes, JetBlue sells an unlimited fly pass for September, AirTran offers domestic deals from $39, and more discounts around the world.

JetBlue Unlimited Flight Pass

Have a lot of time on your hands in the month ahead? If so, JetBlue (tel. 800/538-2583; www.jetblue.com) is offering a $599 All-You-Can-Jet Pass for one month of unlimited travel, September 8 through October 8. Yep, just make your reservation at least 3-days prior to your trip and, if there's an available seat, you're good to go. This offer is valid for any of JetBlue's destinations, although passengers are expected to pay additional taxes for international flights. For domestic flights, taxes are already included in the price of the pass.

But wait, here's the best part. And feel free to cup your ear and lean in for this: "Customers who already have a flight booked during the pass travel period can pay the difference to upgrade to the pass by calling 1/800-JETBLUE (538-2583), prompt 4."

Interested? To take advantage of this deal, you must be a member of JetBLue's TrueBlue frequent flyer program which you can join here.

Pass must be purchased by August 21.

New Virgin America Routes & Sale

Virgin America (tel. 877/359.8474; www.virginamerica.com), with all the bells and whistles they provide, is set to get you from Los Angeles or San Francisco to Ft. Lauderdale! Non-stop flights on these new routes commence on November 18 at $198 round trip (taxes and fees additional) if you book by August 25. Advance purchase and other restrictions apply as usual. Seats limited at this fare. Virgin America is boasting almost a million "Elevate" members (Elevate is V.A.'s frequent flyer club for the uninitiated) in just two years. That deserves some bragging rights, so if you haven't yet experienced V.A. flight, maybe the new routes will tempt you!

AirTran Sale for Fall Travel

Hop a flight with AirTran (tel. 800/AIR-TRAN; www.airtran.com) this fall for as little as $39 one-way. Their new sale is good for Tuesday, Wednesday, and Saturday travel through December 16. All fares require a 10-day advance purchase and must be booked by August 25. Fares include:

And stay clear of the following blackout dates: November 24, 25, and 28-30.

Frontier's Hop Around America Sale

The latest sale from Frontier (tel. 800/432-1359; www.frontierairlines.com) is good for travel through February 10, 2010, on off-peak travel days, Mondays through Thursdays & Saturdays. All fares must be booked by August 24 and require a 10 day advance purchase.

Blackout dates are September 3, 4, and 7; November 24, 25, and 28-30; December 18, 19, 22-24, 27, 31; and January 2-3.

Fares include:

Twitter Fares

Using Twitter yet? Following any airlines? If not, you could be missing out on some super deals -- fares that the airlines promote exclusively via Twitter. Okay, so which airlines should you be following?

Here are a few of our airline Twitter picks. Not all are using their twitter feed to direct market low airfares to consumers. In fact, so far we've only seen United and JetBlue do it. Interesting that JetBlue has two Twitter accounts (a general account with over 1 million "followers," the other its "Cheeps" account, linked below, which is where you'll find the fares tweeted).

Can We Have Some Rules, Please?

By now you've surely heard the latest tarmac tale of woe, this one out of Rochester, MN. Passengers on board a Minneapolis bound Continental flight spent 7 hours on the ground after being diverted to nearby Rochester due to weather. Upon arriving, the flight crew had reached their maximum number of work hours and was relieved by a new team, flown in from elsewhere. Why weren't passengers allowed to disembark? Because the flight arrived around midnight, TSA screeners had left for the day, and passengers would have required screening before re-boarding the plane, explains a spokesperson for the airline. Airport officials at Rochester disagree, and there is much finger-pointing as to which party is responsible.

How would you handle being stuck on the tarmac for hours on end, with little to no water or food, overflowing toilets, and crying babies? With these incidents on the rise, you might want to give it some thought.

According to an article in Travel Weekly, "There were 278 flights in June with tarmac times of three hours or more. The three-hour tarmac times consisted of 172 delayed taxi-outs, 40 cancelled flights, 42 flights with multiple gate departures, 23 diverted flights and one delayed taxi-in. There were two flights in June with tarmac times of five hours or more. The tally of three-hour tarmac delays for June was one of the worst monthly tallies over the past 14 years, according to an analysis of DOT data by FlyersRights.org, a consumer advocacy group."

Please visit FlyersRights.org (www.flyersrights.org) and find out what you can do to help stomp out this alarming trend!

Fares to Europe Remain Stubbornly High

Wondering what happened to all those great sales to Europe? We explain it all in a recent Q&A.

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 travelers on our Air Travel Forum today.


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