Philadelphia, PA Mexico City, Mexico $180
New York, NY (JFK) Mexico City, Mexico $190
Boston, MA Mexico City, Mexico $190
Phoenix, AZ Mexico City, Mexico $210
Charlotte, NC Mexico City, Mexico $240
Los Angeles, CA (LAX) Hermosillo, Mexico $200
Tucson, AZ Hermosillo, Mexico $200
Phoenix, AZ Hermosillo, Mexico $250
New York, NY (JFK) Hermosillo, Mexico $270
Chicago, IL (ORD) Hermosillo, Mexico $320
click here for more fares
International Weekend Getaway Fares
Travel Dates & Times for Weekend Getaway Fares
Depart 7:00 p.m. or later, Friday, September 5, 2008, or anytime Saturday, September 6, 2008.
Return anytime the following Monday, September 8, 2008, or Tuesday, September 9, 2008.
Friday evening travel may not be available in all markets.
Tickets must be purchased by this Friday, August 29, 2008, 11:59 p.m. (CT).
Fares displayed are for round-trip coach class travel.
Round Trip Fare
Chicago O’Hare, IL (ORD) - London Heathrow, United Kingdom (LHR) $652
Chicago O’Hare, IL (ORD) - Los Cabos, Mexico (SJD) $560
Chihuahua, Mexico (CUU) - Dallas / Ft. Worth, TX (DFW) $500
Dallas / Ft. Worth, TX (DFW) - Chihuahua, Mexico (CUU) $500
Dallas / Ft. Worth, TX (DFW) - Guatemala City, Guatemala (GUA) $498
Dallas / Ft. Worth, TX (DFW) - Leon, Mexico (BJX) $465
Dallas / Ft. Worth, TX (DFW) - Monterrey, Mexico (MTY) $457
Dallas / Ft. Worth, TX (DFW) - Panama City, Panama (PTY) $498
Dallas / Ft. Worth, TX (DFW) - San Jose, Costa Rica (SJO) $498
Dallas / Ft. Worth, TX (DFW) - San Luis Potosi, Mexico (SLP) $480
George Town, Bahamas (GGT) - Miami, FL (MIA) $178
Hartford, CT (BDL) - San Juan, PR (SJU) $298
Leon, Mexico (BJX) - Dallas / Ft. Worth, TX (DFW) $465
Los Angeles, CA (LAX) - London Heathrow, United Kingdom (LHR) $778
Los Angeles, CA (LAX) - San Salvador, El Salvador (SAL) $511
Los Cabos, Mexico (SJD) - Chicago O’Hare, IL (ORD) $560
Miami, FL (MIA) - Belize City, Belize (BZE) $548
Miami, FL (MIA) - Bogota, Colombia (BOG) $538
Miami, FL (MIA) - Cali, Colombia (CLO) $538
Miami, FL (MIA) - George Town, Bahamas (GGT) $178
Miami, FL (MIA) - Medellin, Colombia (MDE) $538
Miami, FL (MIA) - San Salvador, El Salvador (SAL) $548
Miami, FL (MIA) - Tegucigalpa, Honduras (TGU) $528
Monterrey, Mexico (MTY) - Dallas / Ft. Worth, TX (DFW) $457
Raleigh / Durham, NC (RDU) - London Heathrow, United Kingdom (LHR) $752
San Juan, PR (SJU) - Hartford, CT (BDL) $298
San Juan, PR (SJU) - Tortola, British Virgin Islands (EIS) $270
San Luis Potosi, Mexico (SLP) - Dallas / Ft. Worth, TX (DFW) $480
St. Kitts, Nevis (SKB) - San Juan, PR (SJU) $207
Tortola, British Virgin Islands (EIS) - San Juan, PR (SJU) $240
*Taxes, fees and conditions apply.
Additional Fees and
Restrictions May Apply
Visit www.aa.com/netsaaver for additional fare offers for this weekend and other travel dates.
Special fall and winter Europe fares available now
Two travel seasons - each offering the best deals to Europe:
If you want to experience the beautiful fall and winter seasons in Europe, book these great fares to cities such as Amsterdam, Dublin, Paris and more. Depart between Oct. 27 - Dec. 11 and Dec. 25 - Mar. 25, 2008
If you want to experience Europe in late summer or early fall, check out these fares for travel by Oct. 26, 2008.
Take advantage of this great offer and purchase your tickets by Sep. 3, 2008.
ATHENS (Thomson Financial) - Greece’s cash-strapped national carrier Olympic Airlines on Friday said it was axing a loss-making service to London’s Gatwick Airport and cutting back on another four overseas flights to cut costs.
‘The decision to streamline the flight programme is dictated by the company’s major financial difficulties, the size of the available fleet and the adverse international situation caused by high fuel costs,’ OA said.
In addition to scrapping a flight between the northern Greek city of Salonika and Gatwick, which was running up losses of 3.6 million euros (5.33 million dollars) a year, the company will also reduce flights to Frankfurt, Munich, Stuttgart and Dubai.
Annual losses on these flights amount to 22.1 million euros, OA said.
The company is also examining the prospect of entering into commercial partnerships with other carriers to reduce its airport charges abroad.
The Greek government has spent years seeking private investors to take over Olympic Airlines but the process is complicated by the European Commission’s demand that OA repay around 700 million euros in past illegal state aid.
By SUZANNE MARTA / The Dallas Morning News
smarta@dallasnews.com
ABOARD AMERICAN AIRLINES FLIGHT NO. 1 – Transcontinental flying underwent a sea change Wednesday.
During a six-hour flight from New York to Los Angeles, Bek Andersen was able to edit photos and send them to clients.
Michael Lavine was able to watch Jamaica’s Usain Bolt break the world record in the 200-meter Olympic race.
And Ross Johnston was able to clear through e-mail, which he’d otherwise be scrambling to do before his meetings.
American Airlines Inc. became the first U.S. airline to launch wireless broadband access in-flight, turning the flight into a productive workday – and launching a service that industry officials say will soon become a necessity to attract lucrative business travelers and to offer in-flight entertainment.
“It’s a game-changer,” said Henry Harteveldt, an analyst with Forrester Research. “You’re no longer forced to be isolated from what’s going on in your office, with your clients or with friends or family.”
Put more bluntly, he said, “Airlines that don’t offer Internet access are going to lose business.”
Mr. Lavine, of New York, said the broadband access would help him remain productive on the several flights he makes to Los Angeles each month.
“Otherwise, I’d just be reading,” he said.
Not that Mr. Lavine restricted himself to work Wednesday. It simply proved too tempting not to watch the live streaming video from Beijing.
“I didn’t want to wait six hours to find out what happened,” he said.
For Mr. Johnston, who flies several times a month from his home in Florida to New York and the West Coast, the service means he can stay in contact with his team as easily as if he were in the office.
“I don’t lose visibility,” he said.
The novelty of the system rang strong on Wednesday, as users marveled at the speed of service, which is similar to a Wi-Fi hotspot you’d find at a hotel or café.
And although the system by Aircell LLC is designed not to enable voice-based functions, Mr. Johnston was able to reach his wife via Skype – at least long enough to get a glimpse of his two kids.
Charles DeBevoise had one complaint. The $12.95 fee is for a flight over three hours, but “I don’t have battery power to last that long.”
For American Airlines, in-flight connectivity is a service nine years in the making. It now will be available on about 28 flights a day served by its 767-200 fleet.
And although the Fort Worth-based carrier doesn’t plan to commit to installing it on its other fleet types until after three to six months of testing, it’s already developing plans for how that would happen.
“We’re hopeful that we’ll be able to roll this across our domestic fleet,” said H. Douglas Backelin, American’s manager of in-flight communications and technology.
The in-flight broadband is seen as a new revenue source for the airline industry, which has been struggling to overcome painfully high fuel costs.
In-flight broadband is expected to generate $6.6 million in passenger revenue this year, according to a June report by MultiMedia Intelligence.
The research firm estimates the industry will skyrocket to $936 million revenue by 2012.
Jack Blumenstein, president and chief executive of Aircell, said that 2012 figure may be too low.
The company, based in Itaska, Ill., estimates it will have its Gogo system available on 2,000 commercial aircraft by the end of next year.
Mr. Backelin declined to disclose the terms of American’s deal with Aircell, but said the carrier expects “to at least break even,” and that the three- to six-month test was intended to “verify the technology, business model and customer valuation of the service.”
American isn’t the only carrier planning broadband service.
Delta Air Lines Inc. has already announced it would install Aircell’s service across its 133 McDonald-Douglas MD-88/90 jets this fall, and would have it available throughout its 330 mainline jets by mid-2009.
And Virgin America Inc. is expected to have Aircell’s system up and running across its fleet by the end of this year.
Several other carriers also are testing in-flight connectivity. Dallas-based Southwest Airlines Co. plans to test Row 44 Inc. next month. The satellite-based system is also scheduled for trial by Alaska Airways Group’s Alaska Airlines.
JetBlue Airways Corp. has tested a system that enables e-mail and text messaging, in addition to satellite-based television, a system that Houston’s Continental Airlines Inc. plans to have ready for its continental U.S. routes by next year.
LUCKY FARES
Sample Fares:
Depart from Boston to: (September / October)
+ Copenhagen from $792*
+ Oslo from $844*
+ Stockholm from $744*
Depart from New York-JFK to (September / October)
+ Copenhagen from $910*
+ Oslo from $879*
+ Stockholm from $879*
All fares are valid for new purchases only. Availability is very limited. Fares are subject to change and are not guaranteed until purchased.
By Peter Pae
Los Angeles Times
Air travelers suffering from summer sticker shock might find some relief this autumn.
With demand for air travel falling faster than Olympic swimming records, some carriers are slashing autumn fares to levels not seen since oil prices began skyrocketing last year.
“It’s a good time to fly if you want to put up with the grief,” said Joe Brancatelli, editor of the business travel Web site JoeSentMe.com.
In the past two weeks, for example, Southwest Airlines and JetBlue Airways began offering $49 one-way fares to the San Francisco Bay Area from Southern California airports while AirTran Airways and Virgin America were selling $139 one-way tickets for flights from Los Angeles International Airport to Atlanta or New York.
“That’s good news,” said Jason Womack, an Ojai resident and management consultant who flies frequently for his job. “My clients are bracing for fares to rise.”
On Friday, Womack said he found a round-trip fare from Los Angeles to Portland, Ore., for $400, about the same as last year. “That was a bit surprising because everything has been going up.”
International fares are hovering at an average of 50 percent more than last year — mostly because of fuel surcharges of as much as $400 — but there are signs of weakening, said Tom Parsons, chief executive of travel Web site BestFares.com.
Some foreign carriers began dropping prices by as much as 50 percent, with round-trip fares from Los Angeles to London dropping to about $900 from $1,600.
The latest dip in oil prices — to $113.77 a barrel at Friday’s close from a peak of about $145 last month — is giving airlines some room to lower fares. But analysts and travel experts said the bargains were driven for the most part by one of the industry’s worst fears: flying planes with empty seats.
Even with the latest drop in the price of oil, fuel costs are 53 percent more than a year ago.
“A drop of $30 a barrel helps, but traffic is collapsing, so airlines are having to discount like crazy to fill their planes,” Brancatelli said.
Demand for air travel is falling faster than airlines can eliminate flights to take empty seats off line, he said. In all, domestic airlines are cutting about 10 percent of available seats.
“People are hesitant to spend money … and the concept of taking a trip on an airliner these days is not appealing, particularly with all the new fees and service cuts,” said Jack Kyser, chief economist for the Los Angeles Economic Development Corp.
Airlines typically slash fares in the autumn when travel trails off after the summer vacation season. Previously, experts had said they expected fewer fare sales and smaller discounts this fall because of high fuel costs.
“I didn’t expect any fare sales, so it was surprising,” said Rick Seaney, chief executive of online travel service FareCompare.com. In the first half of the year, airlines tried to raise fares 21 times, but Seaney said there had been no such attempts in the last several weeks. “Before, we were averaging one a week,” he said. “It’s a pretty telling sign that we are close to a tipping point.”
George Hobica, founder of Airfarewatchdog.com., which also tracks air fares, said he was seeing “some astoundingly low fares.”
He recently found a flight from Cincinnati to Las Vegas for $106. “We never thought we’d see that again,” he said.
But the bargains are sporadic and not widely publicized as airlines hope to keep fares high for markets where demand is still robust or where there is little competition — typically smaller cities with limited airline service.
The average domestic fare for fall travel is still up about 14 percent, or about $40 higher than last year, according to figures that travel Web site Travelocity is scheduled to unveil this week. Domestic round-trip tickets are averaging about $342, while international fares are averaging $749.
Although some fares are dropping, passengers shouldn’t expect the myriad new fees airlines have begun imposing on baggage, pillows, blankets and drinks to go away. Brancatelli said that, with the exception of the fee for the first checked bag, “Other fees are here to stay.”