When it’s time to get away, there’s always the other coast…
Too cold on the East Coast? Go west. Too rainy in the Pacific Northwest? Head Southeast. America is one gigantic country, and the most instantly identifiable benefit of said country is that you can experience just about any type of weather you like, without a passport. There are some awesome flight deals out right now, bringing round trip transcontinental travel under $225, with one way flights to awesome places starting at just $102. What’s not to like?
The Deals
Seattle is the flavor of the year right now, but there are amazing deals right now going in both directions, between many other cities. Airlines like JetBlue, Alaska, American, Delta and United, which are generally loved in that order have amazing flight deals, with the flexibility to book one ways starting at $102, or round trips for around $210. Once you’ve spent enough time on this page, we’ll show you all the best deals between city pairs.
The Dates
The good news: these prices are around thru April, and aren’t even much more expensive after that. The bad news: most of December is blocked off, and the lowest prices are generally for travel departing on a Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday or Friday. It’s mostly good news.
How To Book
These deals are incredibly easy to book, and in some cases, it may be cheaper to book two one way tickets than a standard round trip. In a second, well show you all the best transcontinental flight deals from Google Flights which offer direct flights. No one likes connections. Here are the best deals in price order, like: $102 Miami to Los Angeles, $109 Seattle to Boston, $109 Seattle to Washington DC, $109 Washington DC to Seattle, $119 Palm Springs to New York, $119 New York to Los Angeles, $119 Los Angeles to New York, $119 Los Angeles to Washington DC, $119 New York to Portland. You get the gist! Use these Google Flights tricks and then go find your own flight deals…
Great timing to book my positioning flights for the $600 business class deals I got on Hong Kong Air a few months ago.
I haven’t done any “test” bookings to see if these seemingly “too good to be true” fares are for Basic Economy (nb: that’s airlinespeak for a Ryanair-like, “sub-human”, or 3rd class, featuring highly restrictive, draconian fare rules/terms and conditions, with [as of this writing] United not even allowing a carry on bag for its Basic Economy fares, which means an additional $60 roundtrip (return) if you have even small hand luggage that cannot fit under the seat in front of you) or “Main Cabin” (or “Standard”) Economy.
Flyers are advised to be extra careful to avoid the many eye catching, lowball airfares seen on the various search engines and online travel agencies that then explode into fee addled bait & switch come ons that end up costing far more than the advertised “fare” once all the add-ons for advance seat selection, checked baggage (now $60 return for 1st checked bag; $80 return for the 2nd checked bag).
Additionally, when booking these flights on any of USA’s mostly terrible airlines, it’s also wise to AVOID offers (aka guilt trips and threats of doom and gloom) for (junk) trip insurance made by airlines and/or the various online travel agencies (OTAs), and instead look for insurance plans offered by independent services such as Squaremouth or Insure My Trip (or their comparable equivalents in other countries), as the plans offered at these web sites offer so much more value than anything offered by the airlines or online travel agencies on their web sites.
Waaaaaaayyyy better coverage, at comparable prices – or for those who are somewhat trip insurance savvy, there’s also policies to fit a much wider universe of needs and budgets than the “one size fits all” cookie cutter plans sold by airlines and the OTAs when you’re booking any travel on their sites.
Lastly, while I agree that JetBlue and Alaska are the best options in that order for these transcons, most bloggers and other airline industry experts on my side of the pond (I’m in NYC), would disagree with “Always Awful” (aka American Airlines) being a better choice than Delta – especially for any transcons that are not aboard its sub-fleet of specially configured Airbus A321T aircraft, which are flown only between JFK and LAX/SFO exclusively, and possibly “select flights” between BOS and LAX/SFO only.
Otherwise, if it’s a transcon between any other cities served by American, such as JFK-SEA, PHL-LAX, or MIA-LAX, most of those flights will be aboard the rest of “Always Awful’s” mostly awful mainline narrowbody aircraft, with some including the airline’s truly loathed, hated and reviled Boeing 737s best known for their teeny, tiny, narrow, hard as cement block “no legroom” seats; teeny, tiny loos that are so ridiculously small there have been published reports of passengers getting trapped inside; and perhaps worst of all for a 6-hours flight, absolutely NO seatback video monitors for one’s viewing pleasure.
And I don’t know about others, but having just completed a pair of roundtrips (90 mins and short-haul, thank goodness) aboard airplanes that lacked seatback IFE and instead offered the absolutely dreadful “streaming to ones own personal device” (with awful selections to choose from, and of course, also requiring me to hold the device in one hand or the other the entire time – til I got fed up and gave up, that is), I know that if given a choice between JetBlue’s awesome (and still best in class) free, live satellite tv (plus pay-per-view movie options), or Delta’s free, seatback IFE on its mainline transcon aircraft versus the other airlines (beware: only the ex-Virgin America Airbus aircraft have seatback IFE for Alaska Airlines’ transcons), then there’s no comparison for long haul flights, with JetBlue or Delta being the only two airlines I’d consider for these flights.
Additionally, JetBlue’s Mint Airbus A321s used for many of its transcons offer 32”-33” of pitch per row, whereas most others, including Delta, offer much less space between rows!
Happy (con)trails if you decide to hop across the pond to take advantage of these super low fares for transcons (if they really are real – and not just bait & switch come ons, that is! 😉)