To celebrate the one-year anniversary of their joint transatlantic partnership, British Airways, American Airlines and Iberia Airlines have launched a terrific winter sale. 

Don’t you just cringe when you see that little * asterisk sign?  It means whatever the ad is saying they are about to introduce so many term, conditions, and fees that you won’t recognize the original offer!  Well this sale while it is a step in the right direction does indeed come with a whole host of restrictions and additional government taxes.    Your final ticket price will likely be hundreds of dollars more by the time all the taxes and fees are added in.  The British Airways sale uses the Fare Basis OKXNAJB.  A travel agent can easily help you identify days that this fare would be available and what the final ticket price will be.

Tickets for the Europe sales must be purchased by November 15, 2011 for travel between November 8th and May 21, 2012.  All travel must be completed by June 15, 2012.  The least expensive days for travel to Continental  Europe are Sunday through Thursday, and Monday to Wednesday are the least expensive travel days to the UK.

Once your tickets are secured, you will no doubt want to look into finding a cheap car hire and good hotel deal.  If you’re like me, it’s been way too long since you’ve roamed cobbled stone streets and sipped an espresso at a chic sidewalk cafe.

photo credit – flickr: Trodel

1. Cathay Pacific is offering flights to Hong Kong for $100! To promote their new flight route from Chicago O’Hare to Hong Kong, Cathay Pacific will be selling flights for $100 to a lucky few.   A total of 100 tickets will be offered at the $100 price (which includes all taxes and fees).  Each Thursday during July (7, 14, 21, 28) 25 tickets will be put on sale at exactly 3:25 pm (Chicago time), 4:25 pm EST.  The tickets are eligible to US citizens and travel must be completed by December 31, 2011.    Check out all the details!
2. Iceland Express has the cheapest flights to Europe this summer – they’re down right cheap at just $499 roundtrip! Qualifying flights are from New York or Boston to London, Copenhagen or Berlin for the remainder of the summer through late October, and must be purchased by July 15, 2011. There are similar deals to Paris and beyond.  Summer and Fall travel to the Continent has never been more affordable.
3. It’s getting easier to fly to Grand Bahama Island. If you read our review of the wonderful  Old Bahama Bay Resort, you’ll know that this is exciting news. Vision Airlines (a Las Vegas based airline started in the mid 90′s) has announced new jet service to Grand Bahama Island beginning on November 11, 2011.   Introductory rates start at $89 +tax from Richmond, Virginia, Louisville, Kentucky, Raleigh-Durham North Carolina, Baltimore, Maryland and Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.  Many of the island hotels are participating in a $250 credit promotion as well.   Grand Bahama Island makes a perfect destination for a long weekend escape as it’s located just 55 miles off the coast of Florida.  Get all the details at Vision Airlines and plan your vacation at Bahamas.com.
4. Malaysia Airlines has announced that there will be no more crying babies in the First Class cabin on all their 747-400 planes.  Routes affected are flights between Sydney, London, Amersterdam and Kuala Lumpur.  On these routes infants will not be permitted to fly in the First Class cabin.  Let’s watch and see if this policy spreads to other international carriers!
5. American Airlines is trying out a new boarding process, and apparently it’s causing havoc at airports. Rather than load the plane from back to front (as has been the process for many years), they are now loading according to who check in first.  So once the premium class cabin and elite flyers have been boarded, the folks who have checked-in via computer a day in advance will board the airplane first regardless of where they are seated.  As you might imagine, this causes a fair bit of confusion at the gate and congestion in the airplane aisles – we’ve heard that the flight attendants are not amused!  We’ll have to watch and see how successful this new process is.  If it saves time (money), look for it to be adopted by other airlines.  If it causes more angst than it’s worth, it will be dropped in short order.

Enter “flights from Bos to Den” (or Boston to Denver) for instance in the Google search box.  Right below the paid ads, you’ll find Google’s flight response that includes

• # of nonstop flights between the two cities
• Length of flying time
• Name of airlines that fly the route nonstop with link to their website
• Time schedule of nonstop flights
• Link for reverse schedule display
• Link to show ALL fights from an individual city

It seems likely that the Google search window will become your fastest flight search option, especially when you’re looking for flights from your mobile device.  You will no longer have to visit a travel website to get fast flight into.  Yes my friends we are seeing (yet again) a game changer from Google.  It will be very interesting to see what expanded travel options come next from the programmers at Google.  No one is watching more closely than Expedia and Kayak!

To introduce the new flight route, Qantas is offering a free stopover in Brisbane on your way to Sydney for the promotional fare of $1,078 round-trip.  The introductory fare includes the $300 fuel surcharge, and must be purchased by May 5th for travel between July 30 – 9/10/11. Fares are available from connecting cities at very attractive add-on prices.  Check all the details at Qantas.com.

When booking a low cost airline it is essential to check for added fees such as checked and carry-on baggage fees, fees to select a seat or change a reservation, purchase food, and on and on – the fees get more creative by the day!

Our absolute favorite comparison airline site is Momondo.com – check them first.

And here are other worthy contenders:

• DoHop.com

• LowCostAirlines.org

• Skyscanner.net

• WhichBudget.com

Here’s why I love this website.  Simplicity!

Airfarewatchdog.com presents its robust, sophisticated airfare search technology in a most un-intimidating way.   The homepage presents a simple query – where from, where to?  Then they immediately invite you to get fare alerts for those city pairs.  If you don’t know exactly where you want to go, but want to take advantage of great fares,  just choose to receive alerts from your city.  And you’re done!  What sets Airfarewatchdog.com apart from many of the other airfare alert services is their ability to include Southwest Airlines and Allegiant in their results.

Now once I receive an email letting me know about a great airfare sale, I prefer to go to the airline’s site directly to book the ticket.  That way if there’s a problem, I’m their responsibility and they don’t have a middleman to blame.  – You know they love to do that!  My next best choice is Orbitz.com because their tool for tracking your ticket price and letting you know if it goes down is outstanding!

So take a moment to sign up for alters on Airfarewatchdog.com, you’ll be glad you did.

Momondo

For folks traveling within Europe where train travel is often more convenient than flying, this search service is groundbreaking. In the Northeast corridor of the USA, where Amtrak’s high-speed Acela trains are prevalent, travelers can now search both airline and train options with one query. Once you’ve gathered airline and train pricing, it’s a simple matter to click over to the rental car section and compare the cost of making your trip by rental car as well.

I was impressed with the number of travel sites included in Momondo’s search results. Not only do they scan all of the well known airlines, they also query more than 150 lesser known budget airlines, consolidators and aggregators as well. I particularly liked the calendar display that immediately shows the lowest fare on alternate dates. The ability to include nearby airports was another plus. And to settle any jitters you may have about purchasing from an unfamiliar ticket source, consumer reviews are provided.

All in all, I really like this Danish site and the expanded travel choices they provide. I’ve heard a rumor that their next ground breaking development may be a tool that lets you compare travel services door to door including airport transfers services, airport parking fees, taxi fares and the like. Now that would be great!

Our buddies at Open Skies Airways are offering a RED HOT Summer Sale for flights to Paris from New York or Washington DC

We did a quick comparative pricing for flights to Paris from New York in August.  Open Skies came in at $1886 rt including all taxes and fees, while BA, DL & AA priced flights between $4,500 and $6000 for business class.  In fact pricing for coach on the ‘big boys’ was in the $1,200 range – so for just a few hundred dollars more, you enjoy a luxury business class airline.  Open Skies is less than 1/3 of the price of American and half the price of British Airways in business class – astounding!

We think you’ll love flying Open Skies!  If you can’t squeak out a vacation this summer, you’ll might be interested in their Early Fall Sale with prices staring at $700 each way.  The Fall sale must be booked by July 26th.  I can’t think of a better reason to jet off to Paris for a few days!