Originally Posted by ijgordon

I don't think that's true at all - you're comparing a deep/deepish discount advance purchase Y ticket to a close-in J ticket at a busy travel time. Try pricing far-out advance-purchase tickets during the summer -- for years (>10), you could get J to Europe for ~$2k whereas Y was $1-1.5k. You probably have to go back 15 years to before airlines were doing much revenue management in J to find periods where you couldn't get J for <$5k. Nowadays, at least from the competitive NYC market, you'd be hard pressed to find J for *more* than $3,500 with enough (90-day) a/p and with a Saturday night stay. Of course I do fear that with PE fully rolled out among the US3 carriers, you may see J fares creep up, but a lot will depend on the direction of the economy and demand.