Round trip Anchorage to New York City not as expensive as I would expect

I was looking in the local paper the other day and commented to my dad that according to the most current airfares listing it was cheaper to fly round trip from Anchorage to New York city than it was to fly round trip from Anchorage to either Seattle or Spokane in Washington.

That is just.... weird. And it was enough of a savings that you could darned near fly round trip to New York and still have enough savings over having visited Spokane or Seattle that you could get a room at a New York City hotel for a night. So someone could fly from Anchorage, down to New York, spend a night enjoying the nightlife and shows and stuff, then fly back up to Anchorage -- and it would be under $1,000 travel and hotel. ::shaking head:: Man, if I were better off financially than I am, that would be so tempting, you wouldn't even believe it. lol