Digital News Report- Southwest Airlines has sparked a fare war for summer travel a bit early this year. For example, fares from San Jose to Los Angeles$69 to $49 and from $99 to $79 to Phoenix. These fares are part of their “wanna get away” promotion, which is seeing drastically reduced rates all across the country, including not only flights from San Jose, but San Francisco and Oakland as well.
Other airlines, such as American Airlines, US Airways, United Airlines, Continental Airlines and Delta Air Lines, have reduced their prices to match the super low fares. Frontier Airlines is offering a one day sale today with fares to destinations in the US, Mexico, and Costa Rica for as low as $39.
“It’s one whopper of a summer fare sale,” said Tom Parsons, founder of discount travel Web site Bestfares.com, to Bloomberg. “Because of the heavy downturn in business travel, airlines are turning to leisure travelers and offering dirt-cheap fares, trying to fill seats for summer
David Shepherd, the manager of Berkeley’s Northside Travel, told the San Francisco Chronicle that he found that United Airlines and British Airways are each offering round trip airfare from San Francisco to London for only $184. “Clearly, no one is going to go lower than this,” he said. “This is ridiculously low to begin with.”
Airlines are not the only outlets dropping rates in order to get your business. Online booking companies are slashing fees and, in some cases, eliminating them altogether. Expedia and Travelocity have both eliminated their fees, but Orbitz refuses to follow the trend. However, it’s Price Assurance policy protects customers who may find lower fares elsewhere. Priceline has started a similar program called it’s Price Protection Program.
Flights can be booked directly at the individual airlines websites or the following airfare finder websites:
Kayak: This website gives the option of comparing multiple websites, including online booking companies and airline websites.
SideStep: Their flexibility and date comparisons are perfect for those who aren’t locked in on specific travel dates.
1800FlyEurope: For those who are trying to get to Europe, try this website. It specializes in flights to that specific region.
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