Below is a copy of the e-mail I received from Travelzoo in regard to United's recently announced fare sale. Just thought it might be helpful to those planning trips.

NATIONWIDE--DECEMBER 27, 2005-- United Airlines this morning
announced one of its biggest sales of the year. Over 15,000
routes are on sale, including all U.S. and most worldwide
destinations.

You can fly from January 10-March 8 (or through March 31 on
international routes). Fares start at $39 each way, and you
must book by January 10.

Sample domestic fares (each way):
- Los Angeles-Las Vegas ... $39
- St. Louis-Chicago ... $64
- Kansas City-Washington D.C. ... $84
- New Orleans-Las Vegas ... $99
- New Orleans-Ontario (CA) ... $99
- Houston-Chicago ... $109
- Austin-Atlanta ... $114
- Houston-Key West ... $114
- St. Louis-Hartford ... $114
- San Antonio-Denver ... $114
- Dallas-New York ... $129
- Dallas-Oakland ... $129
- Kansas City-San Francisco ... $129
- San Antonio-Monterey ... $129
- Houston-Kona ... $299

Sample international fares (each way):
- Austin-Toronto ... $178
- Houston-Zurich ... $230
- Oklahoma City-Brussels ... $270
- Dallas-Hong Kong ... $389
- San Antonio-Seoul ... $474
- St. Louis-Bangkok ... $490

ttt

United may think these are amazing fares -- but the domestic ones just seem to be the normal fares on carriers like Southwest and JetBlue.

And some of the international fares seem a little high for travel in the lowest season.

For instance last week AA was selling tickets from SFO to CDG for $240 each way ($571 R-T inc all taxes and fees), and BA and Virgin had fares to Europe from the west coast for even less than that.

Maybe these UA fares are good because some are from secondary airports -- but they just don't look like great deals to me for Jan/Feb/Mar travel.

I agree with janis. I got an open jaw Detroit-Frankfurt, Paris-Detroit fare for $408 on Northwest in March. United doesn't really seem to be doing anything extraordinary there.

Yeah, it's hype. I've got a United fare to Paris for $488.00 RT including all taxes, which my consolidator found me a month ago. That's better than these fares when you add in the taxes, which are considerable these days. Everyone's "having a sale" these days, but when you get down to the nitty-gritty, they really aren't bargain prices.

Ditto on everyone's having a sale but it doesn't seem to make a difference.

I am traveling Charleston to Paris during that time period. I have a frequent flyer ticket but have been checking the priced tickets for months on United, Delta, etc. Despite Delta and United's recent 'sales' the price hasn't changed a bit.

Mah1980 - Thanks for the initial post anyway. I think letting fodorites know about sales is valuable - even if it doesn't work for us at the moment.