Cancun: $1 Airfare

USA 3000 has a sweet little deal going on until March 10: $1 airfares to Cancun on sale for travel through March 31. You must buy a round trip ticket from Buffalo, Cincinnati, Newark or Philadelphia, and the return airfare is $199**. What's up with those asterisks?

The total roundtrip Cancun trip with what's behind the asterisks is $290.97. When you look into an airfare sale on an airline's or travel agency's site, learn to notice the asterisks after the ticket price or the word "From" preceding a ticket price -- you'll find that those indicate the "plus plus" part, which may mean that fees will increase that figure, or that the fare may only be good on certain travel dates. When I walked through checking a ticket price for a Fort Lauderdale-Kingston roundtrip on Spirit Airlines (02/21/2006), for instance, these are the taxes and fees that comprised the total ticket price (the asterisks' plus-pluses):

Airfare: $18.00
Passenger Facility Charge: $4.50
Security Tax: $2.50
International Airport Departure Tax: $29.00
Federal Inspection Fee: $5.00
US Immigration Fee: $7.00
International Departure Tax: $29.00
International Fees: $38.43
Total: $104.43

$104.43 is still a very fine fare to Jamaica -- just remember to check taxes and fees before you do the happy thing when you see a cheap fare mentioned or advertised -- it may not fit your budget after you've added in the plus-pluses. You should also check around a bit to ensure you've gotten the best airfare deal you can find -- look into special student-only airfare discounts and, if headed somewhere like Cancun for a spring break fling, check out spring break deals, too.

• Learn all about spring break deals -- where and how to get 'em

More student travel airfare discount resources:

• About special student airfare discounts