I'm curious. The price of airline tickets seems extremely high this summer. I doubt this can all be explained by gas prices. Since I don't travel a lot, during the summer, I don't know if this is because of the season or other causes.

I have taken flights for around $200 (other times of the year) that are pricing at $500-$1000, during the summer, and I have checked this over wide range of departure and return dates.

I'm also looking for flights to Tokyo this summer (on NWA), and flights that I could find for $676-$900 are now coming up from $1600-$3000. Could this be because of the Olympics or something to do with the NWA/Delta merger. I've looked +/- 3 days, for various days out as far as Sept and can't find the cheap tickets any longer. I don't think I have ever paid for a ticket to Tokyo that was over $1000, and I have traveled there often in June and July. Most of the time, I've been able to find seats for $600-$900 (during these months).

How are this years summer prices compared to past?