AirTran, Virgin America sales offer great East Coast fares

AirTran Airways and Virgin America have launched sales offering very competitive prices for domestic travel, especially from one U.S. coast to the other.

Some of the goodies I’m seeing through AirTran are the following one-way, pre-tax fares from Los Angeles International Airport (LAX): $129 to Atlanta (ATL); $159 to Baltimore (BWI) or Miami (MIA); $133 to Milwaukee (MKE); $149 to New York (LaGuardia: LGA); $139 to Richmond, Virginia (RID); and $139 to Washington, D.C (Dulles, IAD; Reagan National, DCA).

Virgin America has more limited offerings from LAX, but its current pricing seems a tad better, especially after calculating taxes (see below). Research this airline’s fares if any of the following cities are on your wish list; again, these are pre-tax: $59 to San Francisco (SFO); $69 to Seattle (SEA); $139 to Boston (BOS); $139 to New York (JFK); and $139 to Washington Dulles.

But — and this is important — the above rates I’ve given are just starting points. Don’t rely on advertised pre-tax fares, or you may not come away with the best deal. You’ll see that both airlines are offering a rate of $139 to Washington Dulles. AirTran’s flights on this route are not nonstop, whereas Virgin America’s are nonstop. But also, you’ll pay $320 after taxes for a round trip through AirTran but just $299 with VA.

More…details: Book AirTran sale flights by Jan. 15 and the Virgin America sale flights by Jan. 20, 2009. See further details on the respective websites. Also note that some flights on the AirTran roster are operated by its partner Frontier Airlines.

Contact: AirTran Airways, (800) 247-8726; Virgin America, (877) 359-8474

– Susan Derby, Special to the Los Angeles Times

[Photo: AirTran Airways]

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 7, 2009 at 12:10 pm by Susan Derby and is filed under Airline travel, Deals, Last Minute. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.