by Wendy Perrin

Airfarewatchdog--whose low-fare alerts I get in my email in-box every day--had an interesting post on its Airfare WatchBlog yesterday about "Secret Airline Deals": When it comes to air fares, it says, "the genuine steals often just languish unpublished, unadvertised, and unnoticed." That's why it's so important, when looking up fares on a search engine like Orbitz, not to stop at the official rate that Orbitz first shows you but, rather, to click through to the final step of the purchase process: The actual price that you get on the final details page is sometimes much lower than the official published rate you saw initially! Check out Airfarewatchdog's tip here.

by Wendy Perrin

Attention, fellow New Yorkers: Today's Top 20 Deals alert from Travelzoo.com lists air fare from New York to Hawaii for $385 roundtrip; according to Travelzoo, once you add in all the taxes, your total ends up being $455 to $465.  Considering what a steal Hawaii hotels and vacation rentals are right now, and how frigid the Northeast is right now, this could be the winter getaway you've been looking for. Here are the details.

by Wendy Perrin

Maybe it's just because New Zealand is my favorite country and I'm dying to go back, but the "Fly to New Zealand and Get Australia Free" sale that Air New Zealand launched yesterday for travel in May looks like a pretty good deal to me. You can do BOTH New Zealand AND Australia in one trip for about $950 from Los Angeles or San Francisco, and for about $1,150 from New York. (Those prices include all the taxes and fees.) You have until January 19 to book.

by Wendy Perrin

Yesterday I wrote about Open Skies' great new fare of $1,000 between JFK and Amsterdam for a seat that is called "premium economy" but is actually the equivalent of business class on many competing airlines. Leave it to my hero Joe Brancatelli of JoeSentMe, an online hub for business travelers, to find out that if you punch in a special promotion code, the price drops to $750! To fly business to Europe! He shares the promotion code with members of JoeSentMe in the site's Steals & Deals section.

Premium economy class on Open Skies offers business-class-sized seats on the cheap.

by Wendy Perrin

No sooner did I write that I'd need a few more days before I could rev up and post daily deals again than into my In-box popped a deal so astounding I felt I had to drop everything and let you know:

Remember last fall I told you about Open Skies' PREM+ class, one of the best values in the skies? Through January 26 the airline is selling round-trip fares between New York and Amsterdam starting at only $1,000 (including all taxes and fees), for travel through May 31.

One glance at the Premium Economy chart at SeatGuru.com will show you that the legroom you get--52 inches of seat pitch--is extraordinary compared to what you get in other airlines' premium economy cabins. Conde Nast Traveler aviation correspondent Barbara Peterson tested PREM+ herself recently and tells me that the cabin is equivalent to business class on many airlines and that $1,000 is an "amazing" price for what you get. And business travel expert Joe Brancatelli raved about it back in October.

So, if you're headed to Europe this spring and can rationalize a splurge, consider flying Open Skies to Amsterdam (AMS is a great airport for connecting) and booking a flight on a low-fare airline to your final destination.

by Wendy Perrin

Lately several readers have written in to ask how they can get lower fares for transoceanic flights they need to make in the late spring or summer. My answer: Wait! Airlines usually don't even begin introducing fare sales until at most four months ahead, and these days the lowest fares are often popping up only one to two months ahead.

Just yesterday, for instance, I booked airfare from Newark to the Caribbean island of St. Maarten (non-stop) in mid-February for $328 per person. I could have gotten a lower fare ($238) had I been able to get my act together to book just a day or even a few hours earlier, but if I'd booked several months ago I would have paid hundreds of dollars more.

Here's just one of the airfare questions that have come in. Reader Bmachold asks,

"We're 2 couples traveling to Ireland in August or Sept '09. I haven't found an airfare for less than $1,100 per person (that's from Denver). Do you have any recommendations?"

Absolutely. Here are a few suggestions for Bmachold and anyone else looking for the lowest international fares:

by Wendy Perrin

Fellow Conde Nast Traveler editor Kate Maxwell (at right, in NYC) needs to fly to London for Christmas. Should she buy her ticket now?

Remember I told you about my colleague Kate Maxwell, who came to me the week before last asking when she should buy her ticket home for Christmas? She wants to fly on Tues. Dec. 23, returning Tues. Dec. 30.  Twelve days ago I advised her to wait because I had a hunch fares would drop. I promised to keep you in the loop and let you know how the story ends.

Well, good news: Fares on those dates have indeed dropped.  What cost $700 twelve days ago now costs $651. I've advised Kate to go ahead and buy now, for three reasons:

by Wendy Perrin

Remember I said a couple of weeks ago that the best air fares to Europe were yet to come?  Well, they're here ... for premium class, at least. Joe Brancatelli of JoeSentMe, the business traveler's best friend, has pointed out "a stunning business and first class sale" on British Airways that launched at 5 a.m. this morning and lasts through December 1. Details after the jump. 

My peripatetic colleague Kate Maxwell's next destination is London . . . for Christmas. Above, Kate in Vegas.

by Wendy Perrin

Question of the day: If you want to fly to Europe over the Christmas/New Year's holiday, should you buy your ticket now or wait?

Fellow Conde Nast Traveler staffer Kate Maxwell of Today Show fame came into my office this morning with just this question. She wants to fly from New York to London on December 23, returning December 30.  She asked whether she should buy now--the best price she'd found for a non-stop was about $700--or hold out for a better fare?

My answer, after the jump.

by Wendy Perrin

Today's the final day of a three-day British Airways sale on fares to London and other European cities, with prices starting at an advertised $396 between New York and London. Virgin Atlantic responded yesterday with its own counter offers, starting at an advertised $416.

If you've already read my November Perrin Report on how to snag affordable air fares, no need to read on. If you haven't, here's what you need to know about these come-ons we're seeing: Prices for transatlantic travel will most likely drop lower--perhaps even much lower--thanks to the downturn in business travel, overcapacity, and further reduction of fuel surcharges.

Of course, we all know that the ticket prices that airlines advertise and what they actually cost in the real world bear little relation to each other.  After the jump, the actual cost of the British Airways and Virgin Atlantic tickets.

Barack Obama grew up a mile from here.
Photo: Thomas Barwick/Getty Images

by Wendy Perrin

Fares to Hawaii have been so sky-high for the past few months that lots of people gave up on their island vacation plans. Now fares are plunging!  Last night I reported on Twitter that roundtrips from New York to Honolulu had dropped to $452 (incl. taxes and fees), starting on Election Day.  Then today came roundtrips from Los Angeles to Honolulu for only $244 (incl. taxes and fees) in November and December.  Banzai!

by Wendy Perrin

No sooner did I publish this morning's post about transatlantic fare sales than Virgin Vacations announced all manner of winter travel deals to Europe, including Thanksgiving and Christmas air-fare-plus-hotel packages.  That's another way to nab the lowest air fares, of course: by purchasing them as part of a hotel package. Why?  Because such packages allow airlines to discount their fares significantly without advertising the fact. For more about how and where to find the fare sales, read my November Perrin Report.

The last time my kids were in Madrid's airport (and mesmerized by suitcases being plastic-wrapped) was February. We'll be swinging through again next month.

by Wendy Perrin

If you've read my Perrin Report in Conde Nast Traveler's November issue, you know that Europe is the part of the world that will see the biggest drop in fares this winter. 

I've been watching transatlantic fares like a hawk for the past couple of months because I've needed to buy four tickets to Barcelona for late November. The fares have been going down, down, down. Last week I finally bit the bullet . . . and bought four roundtrips on Continental from Newark to Barcelona via Madrid, with a non-stop return, for $653 per person.

I could have paid less ($580) had I been willing to risk long layovers, stress-inducing airlines (e.g., Alitalia), or stress-inducing airports (e.g., Heathrow). I'm also pretty sure I could have gotten a better deal had I been willing to wait a couple of weeks to buy. Over the weekend, for instance, Newark-Barcelona non-stop roundtrips dropped hundreds of dollars, down to $718.

Fare sales right now are highly targeted and tactical. They're largely unannounced: Instead of running full-page ads in newspapers, airlines are advertising their lowest fares via the Web to specific groups of people. So, if you want to keep on top of the transatlantic deals, be sure to do the following:

Premium economy on the new transatlantic airline Open Skies.

by Wendy Perrin

"I'm convinced it's the best value in the sky right now," biz travel guru Joe Brancatelli of JoeSentMe told me a couple of days ago. He was talking about new transatlantic airline Open Skies' premium economy class (a.k.a. Prem+), the subject of his Seat 2B column on Portfolio.com this week. "Frankly, Prem+ on Open Skies is every bit as good as business class on Delta and Continental," said Joe. And it's a helluva lot cheaper: His flight from New York (JFK) to Amsterdam cost less than $1,200 roundtrip.

So, if you need to fly to Amsterdam or Paris (Orly) and want a business-class level of comfort on the cheap, consider Open Skies. It's owned by British Airways--and thus would seem to be more financially secure than certain transatlantic start-ups that have gone bust lately--and it's even got a cool blog.

by Wendy Perrin

Funny, just hours after warning earlier today that "many European low-fare airlines charge a lot of extra fees you can't always predict, including fees for luggage," I get this email from reader Kate Reeves:

"My husband and I just had the experience of flying Ryanair from Knock (in west Ireland) to Bristol in England.  The tickets were listed as about 15 Euros.  Then there were a great number of add-on fees, such as departure fees, airport taxes, and such, to the extent the tickets actually cost approximately $180 apiece.

To add insult to injury, my husband had to pay $160 for his suitcase because it was 'overweight' by Ryanair standards.  It weighed 48 pounds--under the weight mandated by international carriers--however Ryanair does not allow checked baggage over 33 pounds (15 kilograms). And they only allow ONE carry-on, which means if a woman has a purse, that's her one carry-on.

Ryanair was definitely NOT a cheap airline.  We would have been really put out except we had been warned about this by English friends, so we had no one to blame but ourselves."