Winter is a great time to fly and take advantage of cheap airplane tickets, discount hotel rooms, and cheap vacation packages. Given that January and February are the slowest travel months of the year, planes typically fly with empty seats.
To fill as many of those seats as possible, airlines are offering airfare sales and lowering ticket prices below their November and December peaks as well as much lower than summer rates. AirTran and Frontier have launched widespread sales, with other airlines making more low key offers.
AirTrans current flight deals cover 3,000 routes with round trip fares as cheap as $118. Its current fare sale ends at midnight on Thursday, 1/27, for travel through May. Frontier Airlines fare sale also ends on Thursday, with prices starting at $98 round trip.
Savvy travelers need to check competing airline prices because another airlines regular fares may be cheaper. Travel internet companies are ideal places to compare such prices.
Airline ticket prices through mid February are as much as 50 percent less than summer ticket prices. Prices are expected to rise again soon because airline fuel costs are up.
The best deals can be found on routes with the most airline competition. Particularly competitive routes include flights between Denver and the East Coast and between Los Angeles and Las Vegas. Flights between L.A. and Las Vegas are as cheap as $38 one way.
Flights to warm weather destination are particularly cheap right now, including destinations in California and the Caribbean.
Other benefits of traveling in January and February include flying in less crowded planes, which usually means your flight will be on time, with overbooking less likely. Hotel prices and car rental rates tend also tend to be lower in these months. Travelers can access even lower prices when they book their flight, hotels and cars (if they need one) together. Online booking sites usually offer package prices that are not available to travelers who purchase parts of their trip separately.
Travelers wishing to get the most value out of their travel dollars would be wise to book soon since airfares, hotel rates, and car rental rates start to increase around February 15th and will go up again toward the end of March as spring travel season kicks off.
www.cheapfares.com