Originally Posted by BRE
What is the average ticket price then?
In September, when I last visited the US, my experience was that domestic legs were quite expensive, no matter whether bought separately or as part of an international ticket.
The connections I considered were IND - ROC (one way about as expensive as an international return ticket, still running at $600 to $850 depending on carrier and time of day if I tried to book a ticket now for travel two months from now), ROC - JFK (about $80 on Jetblue about what we pay on a legacy carrier in Europe with two month's advance booking) or ROC - EWR ($300 on Continental).
Admittedly, this is only a snapshot, but it doesn't sound like airlines are giving tickets away right now.
BRE, living in Washington DC it is not uncommon for me to find fares to the west coast for under $250 and, with the exception of Christmas, I've never been forced to pay more than $300 for a flight to LA or SF. While there are certainly expensive flights out there, IND-ROC for example, there are plenty of others that are given away for peanuts.