For the past 24 hours, this thread on FlyerTalk has been buzzing with excitement about Alitalia's most recent discount code that gave a flat $315.30 discount off any flight booked up until 10/26/12 on Alitalia's Japanese website.

For several days, the US, Italian, German, British, Canadian, and Spanish Alitalia websites have been running a promotion that gives a 25% discount on flights booked using the e-Coupon code SPECIAL:

This was a nice upgrade from the 15% off promotion that Alitalia offered in September--covered in Mile Value's first Forum Buzz post.

More enticingly, the version of the promotion offered on Alitalia's

United is offering its direct flight from Newark to Honolulu for $420.40 roundtrip on several dates in November and December! I hear Hawaii has better weather than New York that time of year.

For all my Oahu-based readers, the same deal is available in reverse December 3 -11.

How do you get in on the deal?

The easiest way is to start at matrix.itasoftware.com. Type in EWR-HNL or HNL-EWR. Tell the software your desired vacation length and give it a date to start searching.

After hitting search, you'll get a thirty-day calendar.