Cheap One Way Airline Tickets

A Flight Indulgence

For as little as $1,800 roundtrip from the East Coast, several major U.S. and European airlines will slide you into their business classes, where the seats are big and plush (and usually fold into beds), the booze is free and free-flowing, the service is much more personalized, and the complimentary multicourse meals are…well, they are as good as you can do in a tiny airline gallery. Even more remarkably, you'll usually get free access to the airline's comfy airport lounge to wait for your flight (and wait out any delay), and your checked baggage is free. You'll get bonus frequent-flyer miles too, because flying in an airline's premium class generates as many as double the normal credits.

The airlines aren't doing this out of the generosity of their corporate hearts , of course. Business travelers, the most frequent purchasers of the seats up front, fly much less frequently in the summer months. So rather then let the business-class seats go empty, airlines slash the fares by as much as 75 percent to woo what the industry calls discretionary travelers. (The rest of the world calls them "people on vacation.") Another benefit of selling business-class seats cheap? Some travelers buy the discounted seats up front instead of lower-priced seats in coach. That no only generates ancillary revenue for the airline, it frees up seats in coach, which are always in demand in the summer months.

Here's a list of airlines offering the deals. What else do you need to know? Most of them want you to buy your summer seats by June 29 and all of them require you purchase the fares at their proprietary websites. Be prepared for some stiff advance-purchase rules (up to 28 days before departure) and minimum-stay restrictions (usually seven days or a Saturday night).

Aer Lingus is offering prices of $899 each way in business class between New York's Kennedy Airport and Shannon, Ireland, from July 26 to September 4. The minimum-stay period is a modest three days and there are some cheap onward fares (in coach) to Paris and London too.

Continental Airlines invented the summer sale, and its fares are the most closely watched. Current samples: Newark-London for $2,110 roundtrip; Newark-Munich for $2,098; and Newark-Paris for $2,198. The lowest fares seem to be to Zurich ($1,798 roundtrip) and Edinburgh and Manchester ($1,910). The outbound travel window is June 28 to September 2 and requires a Saturday-night stay. Tickets must be purchased by June 29 with a modest 14-day advance purchase.

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