Flights between New York and California are very cheap right now
About 20 years ago it was rare to see a flight between Los Angeles and New York City that was under $300, and if you saw it you’d find that it was at least $298 anyway. With the cost of jet fuel and labor doubling or tripling since then, you might think that fares would be at least $500 on a good day, but at the moment you can actually get a roundtrip between New York and Orange County for $240.
Another surprising part to this story is that fares to Europe and elsewhere are still quite high, as the summer season is only at the halfway point, but sales like this do pop up periodically and those who are ready to take advantage of them can find amazing deals.
Cheap flights between New York and California
You are probably aware that New York City has 3 airports, two of which are in the borough of Queens (JFK and LaGuardia) and the other in nearby Newark, New Jersey. Of the three JFK is the largest by quite a bit, especially for international flights, but the others have long-haul flights as well and the best deal could be into or out of any of the three of them.
Currently US Airways is having an amazing fare sale with flights between Newark and Orange County for only $240. Normally Orange County Airport is the most expensive larger airport in state, due primarily to the limited number of flights available per day, so the fact that it’s the cheapest destination in the state right now makes this quite a sale.
But those preferring to fly into LAX can do so for only $260, with San Francisco and Oakland being at the same amazing price level. And again, this is for round-trip flights, not one-way, and this includes all taxes and fees except for additional baggage allowances.
Using these fares for international flights
Regular readers of this column might have already considered this possibility, but if you are new here this could be a strategy you’ve never considered before. Namely, that flights to Asia tend to be far cheaper from Los Angeles than from the East Coast, and flights to Europe tend to be far cheaper from New York than anywhere else.
So if you are in California and you are thinking about going to Europe you might find that a cheap ticket from New York to, say, Berlin is $400 cheaper than from your hometown to Berlin. This way you can book the cross-country flight on US Airways and the other flight on some discount airline making that run.
This won’t always save money, but in many cases it will. And savvy travelers will also realize they can take a few extra days in one of America’s most interesting cities on the way there or back, often for only a small extra expense based on the savings from the international ticket. Not too shabby.