Searching for Cheap Airfares

What ever happened to cheap tickets? Ah, for the says when I could fly to the U.S. stop in
3 cities scattered over the continent and get back to Japan all for around $700. Given a
weak yen and high oil prices it's not hard to understand, but it rankles me that I can't get a cheap ticket even when I fly during off season.

My recent mission was to purchase a ticket to Hawaii in March. Step 1 was to round up the
usual suspects. H.I.S. and No. 1 Travel seemed high, so I checked out the travel section
over at Yahoo! Japan. Prices here were cheaper, but when I filled in the contact forms, I found out that either the cheap seats had been sold out, or that fuel surcharges and taxes would be added and the price was back up to what H.I.S. and No. I were charging.

Next I tried travel websites like Orbitz and Kayak. These sites shuffle through myriad data bases to spit out price and route options. Surprisingly,the cheapest flights that they offered matched the prices I had found in Japan. Are we in a new age of borderless air fare pricing? I finally gritted my teeth and bought my ticket on the ANA site. Me wife and son will leave before me. They bought their tickets at H.I.S. The price was about 10 bucks cheaper than Orbitz's lowest fare.