Andy recently posted an entry about knowing how much to pay for plane tickets. A couple nuggets that I liked:

He says that he can fly anywhere in the world for $750 US, as a smart buyer.

Also, he offers this calculation:

You figure the miles you'll travel in the air, and multiply the miles times 7 cents. Then try to get that price and never more than double that price.

Let's test it...

According to Indo.com, it is 6991 miles from Seattle to Auckland, New Zealand. So, we'll multiply 6991 by .07US This equals: $489 for a one-way ticket.

So, a smart traveler should be able to find a ticket from Seattle to Auckland between $489 and $978. Right now on Expedia, a ticket is like $1400. So, this may not be a good example.

Lets look at some other flights in terms of the calculation:

Seattle --> Paris $350-$700

Seattle --> New York $168-$337

Mexico City --> Hong Kong $614-$1228

It seems like a reasonable rule of thumb to me...