Depends how far in advance you book and where you're flying from. Poking around www.google.com/flights I found plenty of flights from New York to various cities in Europe in October for less than $450

Of course it is cheaper if you live in a hub. NYC, ATL, CLT, all have cheap flights. My guess is that most people do not live within easy driving distance of those places and have to pay the local airport premium.

Yep, NYC to EU isn't too bad but from the DC area $700 roundtrip to europe is a great price.

I live in the Southeast and would love a $700 round trip to Europe. Even offseason is still close to $1k and in season is more like $1500.

If the goal is to get as cheap a European vacation as possible, you can almost certainly get to New York for less than $100.

Really? In the UK from LHR on MAN you can usually get to most countries (except perhaps Australia/NZ).

Definitely have seen it as low as £250rtn to Japan; for example. I have flown to SF for about £300rtn recently.