Los Angeles to San Jose, Costa Rica $249 round-trip, incl. all taxes

This fare is available on select dates in April and May. And from New York, we've found fares for this route at $275 round-trip, incl. all taxes.

Let's forget all about that unfortunate incident last weekend, whereby a Dancing with the Stars judge was held (along with an entire plane full of non-tv personalities) for hours on a grounded Virgin America flight, due to weather. This week's cheery news? Virgin America will begin nonstop service between Orlando and both San Fran and Los Angeles, starting August 19. Introductory fares are on the pricey side, ranging between $298 and $438 round-trip, before taxes. Mood lighting, WiFi, and satellite television doesn't come cheap, we suppose? Anyhoo, these fancypants introductory fares are available for travel between August 19 and November 17. Fares require a 21-day advance purchase, and must be booked by 11:59pm, March 25.

New York to Barcelona, Spain $637 round-trip, nonstop, incl. all taxes

Nonstop? Mid-June? And only $637? Yes, please. We'll take it.

Charlotte to San Francisco $191 round-trip, incl. all taxes

This fare is available for travel on select days between April 12 and May 27.

AirTran's latest Tuesday sale is up, with fares starting at $44 one-way. This sale is valid for travel through November 16, on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays. Stay clear of blackout dates April 2, 3, May 28, 31, June 18-20, 25-27, July 2, 3, 5, 9-11, 16-18, 23-25, 30-31, and August 1, 6-8.

Travel to Florida, San Juan, Aruba, Montego Bay, and Cancun is valid from April 6.

Fares require a 10-day advance purchase and must be booked by 11:59pm ET, March 25.

From Delta comes a blow out sale for spring, with fares starting at $118 round-trip, before taxes. This sale is good for travel from April 12 through May 27. Fares require a 14-day advance purchase, as well as a Saturday night stay.

All tickets must be purchased by March 22. Fares include:

Atlanta to Denver $208 round-trip

Boston to Savannah $198 round-trip

Dallas to Sarasota $138 round-trip

Eugene to Phoenix $151 round-trip

Philadelphia to Key West $307 round-trip

Fresno to Kansas City $199 round-trip

Green Bay to Tampa $190 round-trip

Jacksonville to Los Angeles $185 round-trip

Rochester to Las Vegas $168 round-trip

Los Angeles to Roanoke $245 round-trip

New York to Milwaukee $138 round-trip

Pittsburgh to San Antonio $148 round-trip

What's this? Minneapolis based budget carrier Sun Country is offering seasonal summer flights to London?! As in, England? Well, apparently so! As of June 11, Sun Country will begin weekly service between Minneapolis and London-Stansted, departing MSP on Fridays and returning from STN on Sundays, through August 15. Be warned though, at $936 round-trip including taxes (or $399 one-way, before taxes), fares do not come cheap. Still, for peak summer travel, their fare beats out the lowest peak summer fare offer from Orbitz, which is $1,398 on Delta. Neither quite as budget as we'd hoped. But stay tuned! It's early yet, and who knows where summer fares will go!

By George Hobica

Airfarewatchdog.com

Business travelers are flying less. Teleconferencing is on the rise, as is the use of Web conferencing services such as GoToMeeting and WebEx as companies attempt to save money.

Newell Rubbermaid, according to a recent report in the Wall Street Journal, cut its travel budget by 28% last year, and encourages employees to use videoconferencing instead of flying somewhere, and other US companies have cut travel 30-40%, estimates American Express Business Travel.

But as Ryan Bingham's boss discovers in the 2009 hit movie Up in the Air, some business missions are better accomplished in person (if you haven't seen the film, Bingham's job is to fire people for companies too chicken to do it themselves, and his boss decides that this can best be done via teleconferencing but later discovers that this isn't such a hot idea).

I, too, have found that if you really want to get something done, you have to do it in person. For example, I've been trying for years to gain the attention of an influential journalist who hadn't written about Airfarewatchdog.com. I had emailed this person, and sent media kits, and left messages, all to no avail. So I tried visiting in person and having a lunch. Yes, it cost money and time, but it was well worth the effort. A week later, the visit had accomplished its purpose.

How many careers have been launched at trade shows? What's the value of taking the measure of a potential business partner face-to-face rather than over the phone?

At Airfarewatchdog, we used to deal with our software programmers by email, instant message, and phone, in order to save costs. But I'm convinced that we wasted a lot of money, because our requests were often misunderstood, and it took more time doing it this way than sitting down with the programmers and literally drawing them a picture to get the enhancements done quickly and coherently. (Our programmers were based in Boise, and we are in New York, so travel would have been costly and time consuming, but given the chance to do it all over again, I would make the effort.)

When I was a freelance travel writer living in Boston, I tried in vain, by phone and email, to get assignments from magazines such as Travel and Leisure, based in New York. But once I started making desk appointments and meeting editors face to face, I never left without an article to write. Face to face works better than the alternatives.

My sincere belief is that although some business trips are unnecessary and some are fruitless, more revenue is being left on the table by ill-advised cuts in corporate travel budgets than is being saved by bean counters who encourage workers to stay home. This is a point made by British Airways, in their Face-to-Face campaign, which awarded 10 business class tickets to 100 companies in a recent contest, so that they could see first hand the benefits of a handshake.

If you make the effort to meet someone face to face, it speaks volumes, especially if, as is more and more the case, your competition is staying home.

By George Hobica

airfarewatchdog.com

You've probably clipped cents-off coupons from your Sunday newspaper to buy stuff like toothpaste, but did you know that you can also use "coupon" deals to cut the cost of your next vacation?

Time to get on the promo code and "members only" bandwagon, frugal flyers. Recently, United Vacations offered a coupon code deal with $700 off vacation packages from the US to Canada, for two people traveling together. Turns out there was some kind of glitch, and it also worked for one person traveling alone. So you could have flown from San Francisco to Vancouver and stayed three nights in a four-star hotel, including air fare and all taxes, for about $98.

A similar deal on packages to the Bahamas from Florida recently worked out to--sit down for this--$0, including tax. And airfarewatchdog.com staffers have been able to combine those crazy 9 cent or $1 fares on Spirit Airlines with their frequent "50FF" and "35OFF" promo codes to get $50 or $35 off the total fare, again eliminating not just the airfare but also the taxes. Nothing beats flying for nothing.

So how do you get these deals? It's pretty easy, actually, but you're going to be getting a lot for email in your in box. When you sign up for the airlines' email newsletters and frequent flyer programs, they reward you by sending out special deals that only members can use. Often, they're in the form of a promo code that you plug into the airline's web site booking engine. Sometimes these deals are generic, such as Spirit's 50OFF deals, but in other instances they're individually generated so that only you can use them.

Oddly, airlines don't always make it easy to find their newsletter and frequent flyer sign up links. So that's why airfarewatchdog has put them all in two handy places: one for international airlines and one for domestic carriers.

As we said, yes, you'll get more email. But the savings will be well worth it.

By David Landsel

Airfarewatchdog.com

You’re paying to check your belongings, so why should other people’s excess baggage get a free ride?

That’s the question being asked by a growing number of travelers. As airlines look for new ways to boost revenue, fees for checked bags are on the rise; so is scrutiny of overweight customers whose baggage is built in.

It’s a touchy subject, Airfarewatchdog.com has found, and one that airlines have been happy to avoid discussing, where possible. As late as 2008, United Airlines wouldn’t even address the matter with us.

But an outcry among passengers, tired of their seatmates taking up more than their fair share of jealously-guarded seat space, is said to have played a role in the airlines’ new rules for transporting “customers of size.” Where a terse “we have no policy” was once the standard response, United adopted new regulations in 2009. Customers who were unable to confine themselves to one seat would be required to buy a second, should the crew be unable to reseat them.

It’s a policy that’s becoming increasingly commonplace.

To many, the idea seems simple enough – if you can’t fit into one seat, you should probably consider buying two.

It’s not simple at all. Canada’s government takes a dim view of the matter. In late 2008, the country’s Supreme Court upheld a ruling that prohibited airlines from charging the disabled or “obese” for a second seat, affecting Canadian flyers Air Canada and WestJet.  

Here in the United States, some airlines with upfront policies have spent their fair share of time in the courts. Southwest has long been famously transparent about its second seat rule, the one that United and many other airlines have emulated. The company has been sued more than once by disgruntled passengers.

“On the lawsuits, all have ruled on the side of Southwest,” spokesperson Whitney Eichinger points out.

Southwest’s policy is that those who cannot fit in one seat must buy two.  

“If the flight goes out with empty seats, Southwest will refund the cost of the additional seat,” Eichinger said.

Other airlines have had their share of legal trouble in this area.  

In the past, Air France warned passengers with what they referred to as “high body mass” not to expect to be seated if they have not purchased an extra seat. This is a warning that many airlines, even those who officially have tried to downplay any official policy, have long given to travelers.

Some travelers, however, don’t see the need. That, or the airline and the passenger disagree over what constitutes “need.” An Air France passenger traveling from New Delhi to Paris in 2006 sitting in a single seat was stopped by employees, who wrapped packing tape around him in public to prove that he was too fat. Citing humiliation, he sued, and won.

At the time, the airline had a program in place that offered passengers a second seat at a 25 percent discount, tax-free. It was a move that the airline had hoped would encourage customers to make arrangements in advance.

Recently, Air France made an update to the policy, bringing it more in line with Southwest’s policy, which has been around for decades. According to Air France spokesperson Karen Gillo, the second seat purchase is still optional. Now, however, the cost will be reimbursed if the flight is not fully booked.  

“It’s a way to encourage individuals to pre-plan to ensure their own comfort and safety; it allows them to travel with less stress,” she said.

Gillo stated that “for the mass majority of the cases, the flights aren’t fully booked” and passengers will be reimbursed.

Air France isn’t the only one making tweaks these days. JetBlue spokesman Mateo Lleras said the airline is currently working to refine its policy. And Spirit Airlines requires “customers of size” to buy two seats, period.

Currently, Lleras said, the airline does its best to accommodate customers free of charge. It will charge if it has to, but says that it approaches the matter on a “case by case basis.”

“We understand this is a sensitive issue,” he said. “Every time we can accommodate a customer we will.”