She writes:

My husband is from England. In researching fares for a possible surprise family visit in a month or so, I had commented to him that Virgin had some good fares in the $800 range - better than I would have expected for his nearly-summer time frame (when fares nomally skyrocket).

Being the industrious guy that he is, however, he checked cheaptickets.com. I've used the site before, but haven't found a deal better through it than I have through Virgin (or BA's) website. Normally, any cheaper fares involve one or two stops or are on carriers I don't prefer over VA/BA and the price difference isn't huge anyway.

Imagine my shock when my husband pointed out what he found (see attached screen captures). I had always noticed that the VA flight I routinely take to and from the UK is cross-listed as a Continental Airlines flight, but I never imagined VA would allow such a price difference. Is this a taxes thing? What gives?

The Continental flight costs $551 all-in. The VA flight? $845 all-in. (And having looked at the VA site's price matrix, there was nothing around those dates approaching $551 on offer from Virgin.)

Go to England, everyone!

Or am I missing some fine print?

There's no fine print, but if anything goes wrong, you'll need to deal with the airline issuing the tickets, not the one flying the plane.

So how do you find codeshares? First, find your desired flight number and punch it into a flight tracking service like Flight Stats. Look for a section breaking out specific codeshares and the flight numbers associated with the other airlines. Then, go to each airline listed and search for the codeshared flight number to compare the price. Once you've found the lowest fare, book it and start packing!

(Photo: So Cal Metro)

The Chicago Tribune says that Expedia was the first to drop their booking fee, followed by the other two. (Priceline hasn't charged booking fees for 2 years.) The idea is to eliminate the advantage that airlines have over travel agents by eliminating the price difference.

Will the fees return eventually? No one is talking. Orbitz, however, has also dropped booking fees for hotels reserved by July 15.

Travel Web sites send their fees on vacation [Chicago Tribune]

Deals are everywhere you turn in the airline industry. On Tuesday, American Airlines said it is offering a fare of $299 each way, with a round-trip purchase, for off-peak travel through the end of June from any American or American Eagle city in the U.S. to any of six destinations in Argentina and Brazil. Virgin America launches service from San Francisco to Orange County on April 30, at $59 one way.

BestFares.com has a family-of-four package to Sydney that includes airfare, five nights at the 4-star Marriott Hotel and all taxes starting as low as $799 round-trip per person. It's from $899 if you stay at the five-star Sir Stamford at Circular Bay, a few minutes' walk to the Opera House.

"With the dollar stronger, with 50 percent off airfare, you have wiggle room" to spend more on travel, said Parsons. "You can put more shrimp on the barbie. You could buy shrimp for your whole block."

Anyone making travel plans? Or are you broke?

Airfare bargains in 'worldwide distress sale' [SFGate]
(Photo:gumbyliberation)

Brian writes in to let us know that Southern Skyways has fallen partially victim to soaring fuel costs:

It seems the fuel prices are about to consume another airline. We are taking our daughter to Disney in June, the first time for any of us. We booked 3 round-trip tickets on Southern Skyways back in March for our trip.

I started getting very nervous when a few airlines went bust out West, then I really started to sweat when SkyBus went SkyBust, but I had started to get a little more comfortable as of late. I guess I should have known, as today I received this e-mail from Southern Skyways "Customer Service" explaining that they no longer intend to serve me as a customer.

Here's the email Brian received from Southern Skyways:

Dear Southern Skyways passenger:

Everyone is very aware of the constant rise in the price of fuel. Oil is now over $125 a barrel and aviation fuel is over $4 per gallon and increasing every day. Given the rise in fuel prices Southern Skyways will be unable to operate flights from/to either Charleston, WV or Orlando-Sanford, FL this summer.

We fully understand that this is an inconvenience in your travel plans and that other arrangements will be needed for travel to Orlando from Charleston or to Charleston from Orlando. We recommend that you contact Allegiant Air for which has service at the Huntington Airport.There fares are competitive with ours. While a short drive is required, Allegiant Air's schedule operates flights on many of the same days you were scheduled to travel. Seats are available, but limited, on most flights and you should be able to find a suitable schedule for your trip.

You may check schedules for flights online at www.allegiantair.com.

Southern Skyways will automatically process a full refund which will be credited to your account. This process normally takes up to one week for the credit to appear. All passenger funds are held in an escrow account for your protection in accordance with federal regulations so you can be certain of a refund.

Again we apologize for this necessary action. The price of fuel has exceeded all expectations not only for us in the airline industry but for everyone at the gas pump everywhere. Your patronage is appreciated.

Southern Skyways
Customer Service

Brian adds,

I'm at least in the good fortune to have almost a month to plan alternative transportation, but what about those who were getting ready to leave? These people advertised and touted their low fares and direct flights to Orlando since the beginning of the year trying to attract customers away from the larger airports, and now they are hanging all those passengers out to dry.

Another airline headed for the inevitable. So sad.

There are lots of caveats, however. Most round-trip tickets will require the originating point to be within that country, so you'll have to already be there in order to take advantage of cheap flights. There can also be hidden costs in extra liability fees that don't show up until the car rental company realizes you're a non-citizen. And many websites will require a local credit card to make a purchase, so the article suggests you have friends, your company's local office, or even a local travel agent make the purchase for you—the agent's fees will likely be worth the extra savings.

"When the Best Deals Don't End in .Com" [New York Times]

• Best deals Aug 22-Sept 15
• Last year fare sales in many markets starting mid-Sept
• Nov 21-25 Will bes most expensive, with an average national price of $414.
• Extend your trip to Monday or Tuesday after Thanksgiving to save $60-$100
• Departure date affects price less than return date, for example, leaving on Monday before Thanksgiving will only save around $30

• (Photo: foundphotoslj)

Okay, you're at your computer in prime travel-shopping time. Where to go first? Not to one of the big three travel-agency sites. You instead want to visit ITA Software (itasoftware.com), a Boston company that developed QPX, a travel search engine that powers other search engines.

Primarily, it's a business-to-business site with no frills, but you can log on (as a guest) and search fares, even including those of some discount carriers.

Once you enter the usual information, QPX produces a list of flights with prices, departure and arrival times and warnings about inconveniences such as long layovers. You can also search for the lowest fares at any time during a month and for deals if you stay over a weekend.

You can't purchase a ticket through ITA, but you'll receive "booking details" that instruct you how to secure the flight you want. ITA Software lets you send an e-mail to your travel agent (a living, breathing one, not a Web site) to request the specific ticket it found. Or you can print out the details and then hunt for the same flight on a travel Web site where you can make a reservation.

Capturing a fare deal [Money]
ITA Software [QPX]
(Photo: Hyougushi)

Our flight this morning aboard Air Canada's s flying closet to Charlotte was fun.

To type, first we withdrew our left arm until it was flush against the seat arm. Amidst our maneuvering, our row partner regained command of the central armrest. Wand in hand, he probed a Treo-like device roughly 1/10 the size of our desktop replacement laptop. We placed our right elbow over our appendix. Our hands perched much like a Tyrannosaurus, but more useful.

Inside, a man asks whether the no liquid rules apply to his pie...

Not much fuss at the security pageant. We packed our liquids in our checked luggage, seeing no need to perform toilet mid-flight. A man waiting in line asked if it was okay to bring his pie on board.
"That aint't a liquid," said the TSA employee.
"Oh, good," said the man.
We refrained from asking aloud whether cherry pie filling was considered a gel.
"Unless it's sweet potato," she said.
"It is," he said.
"Then I'm gonna have to confiscate it!" said the TSA employee, to general laughter.

On the other side of the x-ray, one of the bins had a watch in it. It didn't belong to the girl ahead of us. We held the watch up and asked if it was anyone's. No one responded, so we handed it to the x-ray employee. Under his breath, we heard the attendant say, "Glad I came to work today."

All in all, we've got no complaints. Hey, our ticket was only $143. We found it using Farecast. They've got a handy feature where you can see a graph of when exactly the prices drops before and after the holidays. Using Farecast's x-y axis graph, were found able to find times that didn't totally suck.

As our plane taxied for takeoff, we saw a jumbo jet waiting on the tarmac. Quelling a strange sense of jealousy, we thought to ourselves, "What a marvel of modern engineering." — BEN POPKEN

Moral: Blow up plane w/pie. — MEGHANN MARCO

One of Farecast's features is predicting whether airfare will rise or fall within a certain time span. Now, with Fare Guard, Farecast will lock in the low fares for you.

"Fare Guard allows customers to protect the lowest fare for one week without buying a ticket (when we predict prices are going down). Essentially this product puts our money behind our predictions," David Shim, a Farecast spokesman, tells us.

Having a fare locked costs $1 during the test period and will go up to $9.95 after the full rollout.

Try it out at Farecast (Small registration required). — BEN POPKEN

Orbitz Hidden Flex Search

Related: Orbitz Misprices Tickets and Holds Your Credit Hostage

American: +$10
Continental: Soon
Delta: +$10
Northwest: Considering
US Airways: Soon
United: +$50

Unlike last week's abortive fare hike, industry analysts say this hike is likely to stick. This time, the larger carriers will not raise fares on routes where they compete directly with low-cost carriers.

With the high holidays coming up, give Farecast a shot and see how much money you can save.

Don't worry, we won't tell your travel agent.

Farecast.

High marks were given for sites that clearly marked the lowest fare, like Continental and Delta. If the site seemed to be merely an answer to, "What's the easiest way for us to port our legacy backend system to the internet," it was duly damned, as United was.

Best Overall? Delta. Worst? US Airways.

Read more at Jaunted.

Agree? Disagree?

You can go from classy Atlantic city to scenic inner-city Detroit for only $44 each way on 9/11!

There may be a few extra taxes here and there but they're small enough to be counted on your fingers and toes.

Act fast, the magic fares last until midnight tonight, whereupon they turn into a pumpkin hurtling through the air at 600mph.

Check out the available dates and departures here.

Airline fare prediction site Farecast will be available in public beta early the week of June 26th.

Using sophisticated searches and brokering deals directly with the airlines, Farecast aims to deliver lower prices and more information to the consumer. Most uniquely, this includes a forecast as to whether prices on a particular route are rising or falling, along with the site's confidence in that result.

For now, you can still try it out at Farecast.com. User: tips@consumerist.com. Pass: consume

Previously: Farecast Predicts Airfare

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How would you like a crystal ball for airfare? Farecast aims to do just that. In addition to being an excellent fare search site, the new service uses sophisticated computer simulations to predict whether prices are rising or falling. Fully transparent, it even boasts a confidence level in its For now, the site only lets you choose Boston or Seattle as your origin city but the company plans a national rollout by the end of the year.

Give it a try. Farecast.com. User: tips@consumerist.com. Pass: consume

John Battelle also has a writeup on it. (via BoingBoing)

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There's a breed of hidden first-class seats, known as Q-ups, Y-ups or Z-fares, available at a discount. When surfing your favorite travel site, search by fare type. Look for fare codes prefaced by "Q" or "Y" or "Z." A recent Delta fare was labeled "QUPBV." Quoth the Wall Street Journal:

"At FareCompare, for example, bargain hunters can click "Trip Search," then enter the desired route and "business/first class." Using Expedia, select "Additional Options" and then check the box to search for seats in business class or first class. Both sites search for the lowest fare in the chosen seating cabin.

Expedia's Q-up fares can be seen by clicking on "Rules and Restrictions."

Now if we could only find to find the coupon codes for those special mile high club seats.

"How to Buy a Cheap Seat in First Class" [WSJ via Consumer World]