This week saw the launch of fall season airfare deals across the USA and to Europe. Flights from California dropped to under $700 this past week to fly Delta to Spain or Finland or American Airlines to Italy, Netherlands, Switzerland and Belgium. Copenhagen and Sweden are seeing fares drop to around $700 on Lufthansa.
Since I started following economy class airfare from California airports closely last March, there are trends I detect from airfare data over the seasons.
Here are short regional reports on summer airfare pricing trends among the major airlines flying out of California.
USA Flight Scene:
My major summer domestic trip was San Francisco to Boston. The fares were insane at over $500 round trip for July travel. I snapped up low fare one-way tickets with Delta outbound and United inbound when they dropped to around $160 one-way in May 2015.
Fall season domestic fare discounts started in early August when United Airlines dropped fares to $109 LAX-Chicago, followed by $150 round trip for LAX to Boston on August 3, along with $150 fares for New York LGA.
Fare Alert United $108 round trip LAX to Chicago, $194 SFO to Chicago (Aug 1)
Fare Alert United LAX – LGA, BOS, MSP $150, ORD $109, MCO $194, MIA $191 round trip fares (Aug 3)
Spirit Airlines and Frontier Airlines are seeing competition from American and United Airlines. There have been several one-way fares in the $40s and some fantastic deals like Las Vegas to Philadelphia for $73 round trip on American Airlines and United Airlines.
American Los Angeles to Denver $87 round trip Aug to Nov, $166 winter ski season (Aug 16)
Fare Alert American PHL-LAS $36 and United $85 round trip Las Vegas to Philadelphia (August 14)
United and American Dallas DFW low one-way fares $41 to $58 around USA (Aug 14)
United LAX-Denver $109 round trip (Aug 12)
These first two weeks of August have seen plenty of domestic travel deals from airports around California, with San Francisco noticeably absent from many of the best sales.
Europe Flight Scene Europe had few bargains for summer 2015 airfare. The fall travel season low fares launched in the past week. There were not many sales after May for summer travel.
Besides Scandinavia, Dublin and Spain were the first locations to go on sale from California for travel departures in September 2015.
Los Angeles has seen Aeroflot drop prices again for fall 2015 travel around Europe with LAX-Moscow under $600 and several cities like Madrid and Brussels in the $700s.
Delta $629 California airports to Spain launches fall season fares to Europe (Aug 13)
American Airlines discount fares to eight European airports confirm fall season travel sale; United matches Delta in Spain (Aug 14)
KLM $343 USD Toronto YYZ to Tallinn TLL Estonia; Paris $481 in dynamic Skyteam sale to Europe (August 14)
Norwegian Air has had the lowest fares to many airports in Europe most of summer. Travel to Copenhagen CPH and Stockholm ARN have been the lowest priced airports when buying tickets in summer 2015 for travel in August and September. Norwegian and different alliance airlines occasionally offered low fares in the $700s to these two Scandinavian airports.
In this second week of August, lower fall travel airfares from the major carriers to Europe returned for departures from late August.
Fall season low fares from USA to Europe started August 13 and 14 when Delta launched season with fares under $700 to Spain and Finland, followed by American Airlines with fares under $700 from airports in many western states to Amsterdam, Zurich, Milan, Rome, Brussels and more.
Keep in mind that there are some very low airfare deals from Europe to the USA. In September, I am flying from Bergen, Norway to San Francisco on American Airlines and British Airways for under $400 round trip. Low one way fares from Los Angeles and Oakland allow you to take advantage of lower fares originating in Europe if you plan multiple international trips.
Latin America Flight Scene – there are still many good deals to GRU Sao Paulo, Brazil from California with airfare dropping to mid-$500s periodically throughout summer 2015 from LAX and SFO, and even from regional airports like Monterey MRY. Sales to Central America and South America have been frequent this summer. Copa offers regular deals out of Mexico City MEX like the recent $170 round trip Mexico City MEX – Lima LIM Peru.
American Airlines San Diego or Orange County to Liberia Costa Rica $300 in high season winter (Aug 10)
Copa Dallas to Lima Peru $278; AA Las Vegas to Mexico City and Copa to Lima $398 round trip – incredible deals to Lima, Peru using a $151 to $172 round trip ticket on Copa from Mexico City to Lima, Peru with availability through May 2016.
American LAX-Lima Peru $564, Cuzco $715
Delta $605 Los Angeles to Quito Ecuador, United LAX to Galapagos $915
Asia Flight Scene – A big drop in airfare to many airports around Asia has been the most interesting development over summer 2015. China Eastern and China Southern have frequent airfare deals routing passengers through Shanghai and . China Eastern has many airfare deals from LAX on August 10 to more than a dozen cities at $600 or less, including Male MLE, Maldives. Shanghai PVG airport is the hub for China Eastern Airlines. Guangzhou CAN is the hub for China Southern Airlines. The catch is many of the low fare itineraries require an overnight layover in the China airport hub city. Personally, I view that as an opportunity and benefit.
China Eastern economy X fares do not earn miles in any SkyTeam Alliance program. China Southern T fares earn 25% redeemable miles in Delta SkyMiles.
Delta and United $698 LAX to Tokyo nonstop; Chinese carriers $514 to $590 – these are some great deals for Tokyo. (Aug 4)
China Eastern $588 LAX to Bali and under $900 to Perth Australia (Aug 7)
Skyteam $593 LAX to Phuket, Thailand – low airfare deals with China Eastern and China Southern Airlines. (Aug 7)
China Eastern $598 Los Angeles to Maldives – Cheap ticket to Male. Finding a cheap ticket to a far-flung Maldivian resort island will be harder. (Aug 9)
China Eastern $598 LAX to Singapore, $550 to Okinawa and 12 other low Asia fares (Aug 10)
More China Eastern low fares LAX to Asia (Aug 12)
China Southern $592 LAX- Singapore and 12 other Asia destinations under $600 round trip (Aug 15)
Los Angeles to Singapore for $600 round trip in October 2015 is a fare that has not been around for some time.
Africa, Middle East and India Flight Scene – summer airfare deals from LAX and SFO have been as low as $700s for India, Middle East and North Africa and $800s for southern Africa. Nairobi and Lagos have been under $800 round trip frequently from Los Angeles and San Francisco with KLM.
United $750 SFO to Alexandria, Egypt (Aug 6)
United $809 SFO to Mumbai BOM – Get free layovers in Zurich if you want to schedule an overnight under 24 hours. (Aug 5)
Australia and South Pacific Flight Scene – few airfare deals come around for travel to this region. Air New Zealand had a good sale with round trip tickets under $1,000 back in April. Fare Alert LAX-AKL Auckland, Air New Zealand $875, LAX-SYD Sydney $1,023 sale ends April 2
One strategy I favor is picking up a low cost flight to Singapore, Jakarta or Kuala Lumpur and flying a separate low cost ticket from there to Australia to potentially get prices under $1,000 round trip from California to Australia.
China Eastern $588 LAX to Bali and under $900 to Perth Australia (Aug 7)
These deals and more can be found on Loyalty Traveler CATS August Airfare Deals page for low fares from California airports, and occasionally other USA and international airports.
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