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CNN Live At Daybreak

Finding Best Deals on Airfare Travel

Aired August 13, 2001 - 08:21   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
COLLEEN MCEDWARDS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, summer travel season is fading fast, but if you act fast, there are still plenty of travel bargains and you won't have to stay over Saturday night. That's big news.

Tom Parsons knows all about the deals and he's here to share. He's the CEO of Bestfares.com and he comes to us from Dallas.

Tom, you're plugged in this morning. I understand you've got some deals to talk about -- some new stuff right now.

TOM PARSONS, CEO, BESTFARES.COM: Oh, yes. Well again, good morning, Colleen.

The -- I guess the whole thing is the airlines out there are really fighting for our dollar and again, we've got travel deals. And this is a very important day because some of the deals may go away by tomorrow, but we still have many destinations around the United States for only $198 good -- some -- many of them are good until January 11.

MCEDWARDS: Like what? What -- give us some examples.

PARSONS: Well again, if you look at Providence to San Diego or Seattle to Orlando, you're looking at a round-trip airfare of only $198 or less through some of the consolidators. The -- from Los Angeles to Baltimore or it could be Chicago or Dallas to San Francisco, Seattle, Portland -- a ton of cities.

MCEDWARDS: All right. So American Airlines, though, trying to outdo United, good fares and no Saturday stay?

PARSONS: Sure. Now this is out of Chicago primarily right now, and United is the one that did this and American jumped on board. But if you're leaving -- if you're traveling between the heavy business centers like Chicago to Boston, New York, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia to the West Coast, we're talking Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Denver and probably Phoenix, there we saw airfares -- well, I'll give you an example, Los Angeles-Chicago last week was selling with no Saturday night stay with United at $2,314. If you start September 5 with United, now they've cut it down to $334, but then we've got airlines and these are good airlines, America West is actually reduced it to $198 and you can start seven days from now and so did Southwest Airlines. Those two airlines, by the way, America West and Southwest, if you look at the root systems they fly today, you will probably find great bargain deals all over the USA.

MCEDWARDS: OK, Tom, how do you think -- how long do you think this is going to last? If this is as tough a year as we've heard it has been for the airlines, is it going to get really ugly around Christmas? I mean should you be booking now or waiting it out a little longer?

PARSONS: Well, I think right now if you can get the space -- I mean we're looking for between Thanksgiving and Christmas right now these coast-to-coast fares, especially the ones that were introduced by America West and Southwest coast to coast, they're out there starting as low as $198 round-trip. They're good until January 11. If someone told me I could buy Christmas and void the blackout dates, you better believe this is the time to buy, even for Christmas and New Year's. And I realize that's five months away, but if you want to go for 200 bucks coast to coast, you better get on the phone or talk to your local travel agent today.

MCEDWARDS: Yes, I guess so. Thanks very much, Tom Parsons, appreciate the tips this morning.

PARSONS: Thank you.

MCEDWARDS: And you can talk to Tom Parsons online today on CNN.com. That's this afternoon at noon Eastern time. He's going to be doing a chat there and take your questions.

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