There isn’t a whole lot in the world that I like more than fare war among the airlines to drive down travel prices, which is why I jumped for joy this morning, when I saw on Cheap Air’s website that a major fare war has erupted. Within the last 24 hours, Delta, American, United, JetBlue and AirTran have all filed deeply discounted fares to domestic and international cities; other carriers are still in the process of matching or one-upping. The result is some pretty special deals for travel between now and November 11th.

Here are some sample domestic roundtrip fares, which include all taxes:

- Los Angeles – New York … $234
- Boston – Washington, DC … $234
- New York – Miami … $174
- Chicago – Las Vegas … $214
- Detroit – Phoenix … $274
- Charlotte – San Francisco … $267

- Seattle – Denver … $151
- Dallas – Philadelphia … $229
- Denver – Orlando … $254
- Minneapolis – Ft. Lauderdale … $269
- San Diego – Boston … $239
- Washington, DC – Houston … $213

And check out these international offers (again, taxes are included):

- New York – London … $458 (depart by 5/26/09)
- Los Angeles – Sydney … $759
- Boston – San Jose, Costa Rica … $280
- Washington – Paris … $658 (valid all summer!)

For domestic travel, the best fares require a 10 day advance purchase and travel on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays. Other days are slightly more expensive. There are also a few blackout dates around the holidays: May 22; June 19, 21, 25-28; July 2, 3, 5, 6.

For international travel, there are some absolutely incredible deals, but in some of the markets the travel window is much more limited (e.g. valid only for departures this month.)