United had a round-trip coach fare of $2,450.99 between Kennedy Airport and Phoenix, for example.
Now US Airways charges as little as $113 round trip between La Guardia and Albany, while advance purchase fares of $109.50 are available between La Guardia or Kennedy Airports in New York and Buffalo or Rochester.
(Recently, the airline was offering special fares of $69 each way, before taxes, for flights this fall between New York and Santo Domingo).
Separately, the low-fare carrier Southwest Airlines announced a sale on travel between Aug. 14 and Dec. 9, with coast-to-coast fares of $99 and $109 each way.
For our test, it offered fares of $328, $382 and $408 for departures from Kennedy International, Newark International and La Guardia, respectively.
The single-occupancy charge of $110 to $210 is waived on the 12-day round trip fares of $1,295 to $1,645.
American Airlines, (800) 433-7300, offers three nonstop flights to Manchester daily from La Guardia Airport, with fares of $162 or $175.
The Washington-New York business fare is about $21 over the Metroliner fare and compares to shuttle fares of $202.50.
A Web search for late January found round-trip fares of $1,412 on Emirates and $1,672 on Delta.
Swissair has Zap and Fly fares (www.zapfly.ch) from Geneva or Zurich to cities like Amsterdam, Barcelona, Brussels, Nice and Rome with round-trip fares of $77 to $270.
