Travel Deal: Fly to NYC and Freeze Your Ass Off for Only $79

​Tourism officials in both New York City and Miami announced today a joint promotion to encourage travel between the two cities. In conjunction with American Airlines, flights during certain dates this winter will cost only $79 each way. That's a decent, if not exactly unbelievable deal, but we can't help but think Miamians are getting the raw end of the stick here.

The promotion was announced today by NYC & Company and the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau. If you book your tickets by October 21st (two days from now), you can get air fare for only $79 both ways. The catch is that, ;"valid travel period will be January 5, 2011 to February 25, 2011, with embargoes from January 15-17 and February 18-21, 2011."

Uh huh.

So New Yorkers get to visit Miami, or as they like to call it "the sixth borough," during the height of season when the weather is beautiful and temperatures peak in the mid 70s.

Miamians can chose to leave that beautiful weather and visit New York when the average high temperature is around 40 degrees, with lows in the 20s. Splendid.

The upside is that our local tourism industry could be getting a nice boost from the partnership, much more so than New York's.

Tickets can be booked through AA.com, and all flights within the period between MIA, FLL and New York's three aiports (JFK, LGA, EWR) will be part of the deal.