Consumers are also benefiting from the overly pessimistic predictions of airline yield management experts, who forecast light demand for European travel in early 1999. The airlines reduced fares to almost unheard of prices with the intent of filling the big transatlantic birds. The tactic worked. The big bargain fares have been scooped up by people enjoying Paris rather than Portland, Barcelona rather than Boston. Paris and London are the standout bargains, but you can find impressive fares to almost any major European city.
Fares are also cheap for travel to Asia.
If you want one of the few remaining cheap seats you're going to have to be extremely flexible on travel dates or extremely lucky. Your best ace is the ability to travel on short notice and have some flexibility in destination choice. This allows you to use the weekly last-minute discounts offered online by several of the major carriers. The next bargain level covers May departures, but be prepared for a big jump. Operating on the theory that some of the usual summer travelers opted to travel earlier in the year to save the big bucks, we can reasonably anticipate the airlines will offer some kind of a summer sale to fill those seats.