On Nov. 15, Delta will begin new service from New York/JFK to London/Gatwick, and the airline is ballyhooing the new route by offering $999 round-trip Business Class fares. Hurry: Tickets must be purchased by Sept 12 (extended from the original Sept. 7 date) for departures through March 21, 2007; return travel must be completed by April 20, 2007. What makes this deal so nice is the generous travel period—unlike typical holiday fares.

Battle in Atlanta? Continental was the first to match Delta’s price; but shortly after British Airways got wind of Delta’s bid to vie for premium traffic on BA’s most lucrative route, the airline not only signaled “no surrender,” it launched the same $999 fare in Delta’s backyard, the Atlanta-London route, to make an indelible point.

Philadelphia and Pittsburg, too? Not to be left out, US Airways has launched a fare-match of the Atlanta-London $999 deal (but only for a day). So Delta—clearly not happy about this—expanded the battlefield to Philadelphia, by launching the $999 fare on that route. Philly may be the City of Brotherly Love, and a US Airways fortress, but it’s also the latest front in an expanding fare war. While US Airways did pull out of Atlanta, Delta has yet to pull fares from Pittsburgh or Philly.