New Airline Routes Offer New Airfare Savings

Whenever an airline announces a new route, it’s wise to pay attention. That’s because prices go down (especially if competing carriers get into an airfare war), and convenience goes up with the additional boarding locales.

And maybe, if you’re quick, you can finally convert those frequent flyer miles into seats not everyone knows about yet. Years ago that’s how I nabbed a free business seat to New Zealand.

Here are some new routes to consider when planning ahead for travel:

Caribbean

• JetBlue Airways adds service to Antigua from New York’s JFK airport.

• Norwegian Air Shuttle, a low-cost carrier, offers new flights to Martinique and Guadeloupe from Boston, New York and Baltimore/Washington.

Costa Rica

• Alaska Airlines recently began service to Costa Rica, landing in both San José and Liberia/Guanacaste.

Iceland: Reykjavik

• Delta Air Lines launches seasonal flights from Minneapolis/St. Paul to Reykjavik’s Keflavik International Airport beginning May 26 and ending September 6.

Italy: Rome

• Delta starts flying to Rome from Minneapolis/St. Paul on May 26.

Germany: Dusseldorf

• Airberlin, Germany’s second largest air carrier, will start flights to Dusseldorf from Boston, San Francisco and Dallas/Fort Worth on May 6 and 7.

Germany: Munich

• Delta adds flights to Munich from Detroit on May 26.

• Lufthansa restarts service from Denver to Munich on May 11.

Mexico

• JetBlue began flying to Mexico City from Ft. Lauderdale and Orlando on October 1.

• American Airlines started flying to Mazatlán from Los Angeles on November 7.

New Zealand: Auckland

• American Airlines will launch non-stop service to Auckland from Los Angeles starting in June 2016. The service competes with that of Air New Zealand.

• United plans to launch flights to Auckland from San Francisco in July.

Norway: Oslo and Europe

• Norwegian Air Shuttle, a.k.a. “Norwegian,” makes travel between the US and Scandinavia more affordable. Norwegian Air Shuttle departs from Baltimore/Washington, Boston, Fort Lauderdale, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, New York, Oakland/San Francisco and Orlando.

Turkey: Istanbul

• Turkish Airlines has recently started nonstop service between Miami and Istanbul.

Domestic Flights

Baltimore, Ft. Lauderdale, Orlando

• JetBlue launches service between Baltimore and Ft. Lauderdale on November 12 as well as between Baltimore and Orlando.

Hawaii

• Virgin America just launched service between San Francisco and Honolulu and between San Francisco and Maui.

Las Vegas

• Frontier Airlines recently began flying between Las Vegas and Miami.

Memphis

• American Airlines began service from New York’s La Guardia airport to Memphis on November 5.

Philadelphia

• JetBlue inaugurates service between Ft. Lauderdale and Philadelphia on November 19.