USA TODAY US Edition

2018’s last deal zone is in the air

- – Rick Seaney

Round-trip airfares for New York to Reno during Thanksgivi­ng are currently in the mid-$600s. Shop for the same flights in the first week of December and the rate drops to a tempting $202 round-trip.

Welcome to the final deal zone of 2018.

What is a deal zone?

Deals zones are cheap times to fly. Do not wait until the window is upon you – for this final deal zone of 2018, you can shop right now. Dates can vary depending on where you live and where you’re going, but most will be in the zone from Nov. 28 through Dec. 15.

Great savings abound

The savings can be terrific. That’s because airlines must fill seats during the lull between the holidays, so they drop prices. A lot. Here are some examples of round-trip, deal zone prices found earlier this week: Atlanta-Philadelph­ia, $101 Chicago-Fort Lauderdale, $101 Dallas-Denver, $83 Los Angeles-Cleveland, $101 And yes, deal zones work in Europe, too. Boston-Dublin, $306 New York-Stockholm, $286 San Francisco-London, $395

How to find these deals

Prepare yourself to be as flexible a flyer as possible. For example, the biggest bargains may involve connecting flights with long layovers (though this was not the case in the examples above). Or you might have to fly weekdays instead of weekends. In many cases, this flexibilit­y will bring you amazing savings.

 ?? GETTY IMAGES ?? Airlines must fill seats during the lull between the holidays.
GETTY IMAGES Airlines must fill seats during the lull between the holidays.

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