Sometimes the fine print on the airfare deals I look at is just mind-boggling. But in some ways, that’s to be expected – it’s fine print for a reason, after all. It’s when the big, bold print is confusing that I really start to wonder how anyone can take advantage of airfare sales at all without going completely nuts.

In this case, we’ve got a bit of a conflicting message on this airfare deal to Ireland. For starters, the big headline says that it’s a deal to travel to Ireland in the Autumn. Well, that says to me that it’s post-summer. After August. But then one of the points on the list says “travel is valid through August 30.” Huh? Even more confusing, the table of sample fares below that has a column for which the dates are Sep 1-Aug 30, completely ignoring the fact that such a date-span would involve backwards time travel (because I find it hard to believe that there’s a fare sale running that would be good for an entire year).

Some of the sample fares shown on the website include one starting at $330 (one-way) from Boston to Dublin, $310 (one-way) from New York to Dublin, $424 (one-way) from Los Angeles to Dublin, and $320 (one-way) from Washington, D.C. to Dublin.

At any rate, if you can make heads or tails of this, the deal details are as follows:

• This is a Travelocity deal on Aer Lingus.
• Sample fares shown are all one-way, so don’t get too excited until you double that price.
• Travel is valid, as noted, through August 30, 2008 (but then in another place it says “Travel is valid between November 1-December 31, 2008,” so you probably have a good argument ahead of you with the ticket agent.)
• No advance purchase is required.
• Fees and taxes are not included.

So, take from this deal what you can, and don’t spend too much time worrying over the inconsistent details. Clearly, they haven’t bothered with them, so why should you?