June 25, 2004 -- Angelenos are spoiled for airline choice. Not only do they have plenty of great connections across the Pacific, but LA is rife with airline competition. It seems like a trip to Hollywood is mandatory for any airline that wants to earn its wings -- JetBlue, Spirit, AirTran, ATA and of course all the majors.
Right now, American, United and America West are duking it out for the loyalty of LA-based customers with a fly-two, get-a-companion-ticket-free deal.
All three promotions work the same way. You must register on the airline's Web site before flying. Then, fly two nonstop roundtrips from LAX to New York's JFK airport, Boston or Dulles Airport near Washington DC between now and Nov. 15.
You'll get a companion ticket good for flights from Sept. 7, 2004 until Feb. 16, 2005, as long as you don't use it between Dec. 16 and Jan. 5 (ugh.)
American's deal is the best, because they let you use your companion ticket on any nonstop from LAX to anywhere within the continental US and Canada, as long as you stay over a Saturday night.
United's deal is a little more restrictive. They'll only let you fly to 44 destinations on your companion ticket, and some of those are throwaways like Ontario, Santa Barbara and Imperial, CA. (Who flies from LAX to Ontario? It's only 50 miles.) But there are still some pretty desirable destinations in the mix, such as Boston, Chicago, New York, New Orleans, Philadelphia, Montreal and Toronto.
America West's dealoffers the fewest destinations for your companion ticket: Boston, Edmonton, Las Vegas, Mazatlan, JFK, Phoenix, Puerto Vallarta, Vancouver and DC.
This deal isn't worth going much out of your way for, but it's a great sweetener when one of these airlines has the lowest fares anyway. When we checked for August dates from LAX-JFK, we found United delivered the lowest fares of any airline on the route. For LAX-BOS, America West was the winner. Only on the LAX-IAD route did one of these three airlines not consistently deliver the lowest fares - US Airways generally came in lower.
Considering you'll probably be flying one of these three airlines anyway, then, the companion ticket just comes as gravy. Make sure to sign up online before you fly.