Flights

Anyone who has booked a last-minute flight knows you pay more when you wait. But you also pay more if you book too early. What's too early? What's too late? Pity the poor fare geek trying to hit that elusive sweet spot. Discount travel site Cheapair.com has crunched a year's worth of booking data and found some answers to these and other eternal travel questions, including: - Best time to book a domestic flight? Seven weeks in advance. - Best time to book an international flight?

COLLEGE WORLD SERIES UCLA vs. LSU Where: TD Ameritrade Park, Omaha. When: Sunday, 5 p.m. PDT. Records: UCLA 44-17, LSU 57-9. TV: ESPN2. Update: UCLA's nip-and-tuck pitcher Adam Plutko (8-3, 2.35 earned-run average) will try to extend his postseason success. Plutko, a junior, is 5-0 with an 0.82 ERA in six postseason starters during his career. LSU counters with sophomore Aaron Nola, who is projected as a first-round pick in 2014. Nola is 12-0 with a 1.68 ERA and has struck out 117 batters in 118 innings.

American Airlines is testing a new boarding process that lets passengers with no carry-on bags for the overhead bins board early. The airline confirmed it is testing the procedure to shorten the boarding time but declined to identify the airports where the testing was taking place. [Updated at 2:40 p.m. PDT, March 21: American Airlines said it is testing the boarding process at Baltimore, Austin, Washington-Dulles and Ft. Lauderdale-Hollywood international airports.

Re "Flight attendant fatigue is an issue," Business, June 6 Just because the plane lands safely doesn't mean there's no longer any danger posed by a fatigued flight attendant. I commuted from Orange County to LAX for 35 years. I was often awake for 18 to 24 hours before beginning my drive home on the 405 Freeway. I was pulled over once for a suspected DUI because I couldn't stay within my lane. After one flight from Australia, I went north on the 405 instead of south, passing two exits before getting off. Fatigue does strange things to your mind.

Me to JetBlue Airways: I'm blue without the BluePass . I bought one last year for $1,200 and hopped a dozen flights in and out of Long Beach, often on a same-day basis. Leaves changing in Seattle? I went. Cool art show in Chicago? Gone again. For three months last fall, I made like a mini jet-setter with an unlimited number of trips to numerous destinations, including Salt Lake City and San Antonio. Now JetBlue has changed the formula. On Tuesday, it rolled out the Go Pack , which features 10 nonstop trips for a flat rate in seven city-to-city combinations.

Mokulele Airlines is offering fares as low as $39 each way for inter-island flights in Hawaii. The airline, which many folks haven't heard of if they haven't traveled to the Aloha State, connects Oahu, Maui, Molokai, Lanai and the Big Island. The deal: The $39 rates include tax and are good on selected dates (see below) during the holiday period. It's an online-only special, and seats are expected to go fast. Use the code "SHOLIDAY" when making a reservation. When: The offer is good for flights Dec. 24, 25, 30 and 31, and Jan. 1, subject to availability.

There are frequent fliers, and then there are people like Steven Rothstein and Jacques Vroom. Both men bought tickets that gave them unlimited first-class travel for life on American Airlines. It was almost like owning a fleet of private jets. Passes in hand, Rothstein and Vroom flew for business. They flew for pleasure. They flew just because they liked being on planes. They bypassed long lines, booked backup itineraries in case the weather turned, and never worried about cancellation fees.

JetBlue Airways will start seasonal service from Long Beach to Anchorage on May 23, with fares as low as $139 each way if you book by Thursday. The deal : The airline's daily nonstop service runs until Sept. 5. The fare of $139 plus tax each way requires a 14-day advance purchase and is available for flights on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. When : The offer is good for travel from May 23 through June 29. You must book by 8:59 PDT Thursday to get the deal. Tested : I found the $139 one-way fare available for a June 14-21 round trip.

Christmas shopping in Paris doesn't have to burn a lot of money or a lot of time. Adventure Vacations Inc. has a four-day package that combines round-trip airfare from Los Angeles with a four-night hotel stay starting around $1,000 per person. Of course, you aren't required to shop; sightseeing works too. The deal: The cheapest Christmas Shopping in Paris package starts at $1,019 plus tax per person based on double occupancy. It includes round-trip airfare, four nights at the Hotel Villa Saint Martin and daily breakfast, as well as department store discount cards and a map of the city.

If your grim financial situation means you have to choose between flying for Thanksgiving or the December holidays, you may get a better deal for Turkey Day. The average price for a round-trip domestic flight in the days surrounding Thanksgiving is $420, about the same as last year, according to airline ticket data analyzed by travel website Priceline.com. But the average fare during the time that includes Christmas and New Year's is up 3%, to $444. If you had booked Thanksgiving reservations back in early October, you would have paid $393 on average, while the average December holiday airfare was $430, according to Priceline.com.

The cost of flying might be going up, but this time it's not the airlines raising prices. The Obama administration has proposed raising the taxes on air travel by about $14 per flight, a move airlines strongly oppose. Higher taxes are needed to help reduce the deficit, pay for improvements at the nation's airports and add thousands of new immigration and customs officers to reduce wait times to process foreign visitors, the administration says. Airlines say higher taxes will backfire and hurt the economy.

Two years after 9/11, federal Air Marshal Robert MacLean turned whistle-blower. He revealed to MSNBC reporters that the government planned to remove armed security officers from long-distance passenger flights to reduce hotel expenses despite reports that Al Qaeda was plotting to hijack more airliners to hit targets in the U.S. and Europe. Later, wearing a hooded sweatshirt and with only his silhouette appearing on camera, MacLean told NBC's "Nightly News" that the business suits, ties and sport coats air marshals had to wear on duty could tip off terrorists that they were present.

Aerospace giant Northrop Grumman Corp., plagued by setbacks with its pricey high-flying spy drones, has come up with a new version for the Navy that could keep the company's unmanned aircraft assembly line in Palmdale humming. An initial test flight - a relatively easy 80 minutes around the company's Palmdale plant - went off without a hitch. And that could have a major effect on the program's future in the Southland. The drone, called MQ-4C Triton, is a heavily modified version of Northrop's beleaguered RQ-4 Global Hawk, which has been dismissed as too expensive by the Pentagon and Germany's defense ministry.

A new tool from Danish travel site Momondo.com may help take away some of the stress of flight shopping by advising us when to buy an airline ticket. More than a simple price calendar, Momondo's Flight Insights tool considers six essential factors that determine the price of a ticket for a particular flight search: number of days in advance, time of day, day of the week, seasonality, airport and airline.  Even if you are booking a last-minute ticket, this tool can help determine which airline normally has the lowest price fares for a particular route.

As a massive tornado bore down on Oklahoma City, Julie Jones and several neighbors in the suburb of Moore rushed to their cars and fled south. "This one was a monster. It was huge, dark and scary," said Jones, 54. "It was just this big, dark menacing act of nature coming toward you. " The twister, which packed 200-mph winds, leveled neighborhoods and smashed into the Plaza Towers Elementary School in Moore. Officials said the death toll stands at 51, including several children, and was likely to rise.

Most of us will put up with a cramped middle seat on a short flight. But on trips more than three hours long, we are ready to crack open our wallets and pay for a window or aisle seat.  That is one of the findings of a recent Harris Interactive poll of 2,276 adults on the subject of airline pet peeves and passenger fees. On flights shorter than two hours, 33% of those surveyed said they would pay for extra legroom. If the flight lasts more than three hours, 58% said they would be willing to pay. Thirteen percent said they'd pay more than $25. But even if fliers are willing to pay the fees, they won't necessarily be happy about it. Creed Mamikunian, a doctor from Anchorage, describes all airline fees as ridiculous and offensive.

Computer problems have forced American Airlines, one of the nation's largest air carriers, to keep hundreds of its flights from departing across the country. The Fort Worth-based airline said it has been struggling with intermittent computer problems for a while. Because of the latest glitch, all American Airlines flights that are on the tarmac will remain there until at least 2 p.m. PDT. [Updated , 12:45 p.m. PDT April 16: American Airlines said it would waive the change fees for passengers whose flights were delayed and who wanted to book another flight.

Free movies and TV in economy class and free beer, wine and spirits in what the carrier calls Economy Comfort are among new services and amenities coming to Delta Air Lines flights from Los Angeles and San Francisco to New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport. The airline also plans to expand its entertainment library to offer up to 100 movie selections. "We've been making an investment in our transcontinental service, phasing in full flat-bed seats [in BusinessElite class]

After two incidents in which engines shut down in mid-flight, Boeing Co. and General Electric Co. have warned 10 airlines of a possible mechanical problem with 777 passenger jets. The companies have traced the problem to a faulty part in the transfer gearbox that causes an automatic shutdown in the 777's GE-made engines. There are 26 airplanes in service with the engines and another 14 were in production at Boeing's facilities in Everett, Wash. The problem is due to a bad batch of parts made from September 2012 to March 2013 by GE supplier Avio of Italy.

A white-and-black space plane, very much resembling the now-retired space shuttle, was trucked to a NASA flight center in the Mojave Desert to begin a round of testing to see if it has the right stuff to carry astronauts one day. Tucked under a white tarp, the space plane called Dream Chaser arrived Wednesday at Dryden Flight Research Center inside Edwards Air Force Base. Tests at Dryden will include tow, captive-carry and free-flight of the Dream Chaser. PHOTOS: A 'new era': Private-sector space mission The tests come as part of a contract with NASA's Commercial Crew Program, which is aimed at helping private companies develop spacecraft and rockets capable of launching astronauts from American soil, now that the space shuttle fleet is retired.