Just wanted to let people here know in case the NYC'er's wanted to see OBT or the Portlanders wanted to see NYCB or ABT!

Don't know why or for how long (these crazy fares are usually pulled within a day), but American Airlines is having an unadvertised sale on airfares to Portland, Oregon from NYC and vice versa for $99 tax ($138 total). Pretty darn good. Sale fares start in late May, are spotty through the summer and very open in the fall. I've got one for Columbus Day weekend on hold. (OBT has performed on Columbus Day weekend two years running, so I am sure hoping they repeat that! Any idea from Portlanders?) You can find the dates at travel.yahoo.com (use a "my dates are flexible" search) or at aa.com

Hope it's of use to someone.

Quick update - just heard back from the folks at Oregon Ballet Theater. Their performances are Oct. 14- 21; I moved my dates to 10/14-16

$138 ROUND TRIP???

That's cheaper than Amtrak's regional (cheapest) fare NYC-DC!

It's still available. I snagged one leaving at 4 pm on Oct 13 (via DFW gets into Portland 10:40 pm) and leaving 5:30 pm Oct 16 (via the SAN red eye - gets into JFK at 5:37 am!) and that cost $143 - but I have friends in DFW and SAN - and maybe we'll get a moment to say hi in the airport!

I am curious about OBT. I think Stowell's programming is intelligent. This is a cheap opportunity to find out more, and see a little bit of Portland.