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Archived
Weekly Features
News Cruise |
 Michael
Bennett is the former Senior Producer of the Travel Channels
west coast operations and is currently a travel writer for Savoy
and Black Enterprise Magazine. Michael is the host of Globetrotting
on BET's BET on Jazz Network. For travel question write to Michaelbman2002@netzero.com |
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Read the fine print
A couple of weeks ago I caught myself channel surfing during
the 10 and 11pm newscasts. As a travel expert, I of course,
was particularly interested, in what else, travel stories.
It was widely reported that United and American airlines were
drastically reducing prices on several flights. Good news, we
all get to save a little money. What disturbed me most was the
second half of the report about the Saturday night stay requirement.
It was reported that United and American, were both lifting
this restriction effective September 5, 2001. Call me cynical,
but something just didn’t sound right.
That means all you reporters and producers who fly Monday through
Friday to cover stories would qualify for the same low-ticket
price as if you extended your trip to include a Saturday night
stay. The Saturday night stay requirement has been around for
years. It’s the airlines way of imposing higher ticket prices
on business travelers to drive up profits. Removing this requirement
could save you or your news organization several hundred dollars
per ticket. Why would the airlines publicize something that
could essentially put them out of business?
Well, in the words of Paul Harvey, "now for the rest of the
story." Unfortunately, what was reported a few weeks ago is
confusing at best and in fact you probably won’t qualify for
those lower fares after all. That’s the bad news. The good news,
there will be plenty of other airfare bargains between Labor
Day and Thanksgiving to leave most reporters, producers and
consumers jumping for joy. So let’s set the record straight
on what this means to you news professionals traveling for business
or pleasure in the coming weeks.
Let’s start with the story that most organizations reported.
On August 9, United Airlines announced they were cutting fares
to key markets and removing the Saturday night stay requirement.
There were two major omissions from the story.
First, the fare reduction only applied to routes flown to and
from Chicago to eight "key markets," including Los Angeles,
New York and Washington DC. It was also assumed by many that
the price cuts applied to all routes and for every flight to
and from those "key markets." Wrong again. The fare reduction
applied only to selected flights in the eight "key markets."
In other words, some flights to Los Angeles, New York and Washington
DC qualify, others do not.
Why did United start cutting prices? There are two very important
reasons. First, the sharp drop in business travel has drastically
cut into profits for all the airlines. By reducing fares and
eliminating the Saturday night stay requirements United is in
effect offering a very attractive price to business travelers
to gain market share. But the second, and most important reason
United offered the deal has to do with competition from low-cost
carriers flying in and out of Chicago’s Midway Airport. America
Trans Airway (ATA) has been offering cheaper prices on many
of its routes for sometime. In an effort to gain back market
share United slashed prices. Well, not to be outdone, American
Airlines also cut prices and lifted the Saturday night restriction
on many, if not all of the same routes as United. Continental,
Delta and US Airways at last check were planning similar moves.
United, American and the other major carriers won’t start their
price reductions until September 5, after the heavily traveled
Labor Day weekend.
There are several pages of restrictions that come with these
flights, including a seven-day advance purchase requirement.
If you can plan your business trips through Chicago in advance
this could be a great way to save money. If you must fly to
cover a breaking story, chances are it won’t be in Chicago and
you won’t get seven days notice. The bottom line in all of this,
the airlines are suffering as business travel continues its
sharp decline.
Over the next few weeks the airlines will be issuing lots of
press releases about lower prices. Remember, these are highly
restrictive in nature and are designed to get good publicity
for the airlines. Will there be good bargains? Absolutely, just
read the fine print. An empty seat is lost revenue the airlines
will never recover. Rather than fly half-empty planes the airlines
will reduce prices to encourage business passengers to fly.
That means bargains, bargains and more bargains. It’s definitely
a buyers market.
If you plan to fly in the coming weeks and you get at least
seven days advance notice, my advice to you is shop around and
be flexible. On the other hand, if you get stuck flying at the
last minute, try the low-cost carriers like, ATA and Southwest.
Those lower fares offered by the major airlines with all the
restrictions may NOT be the bargain you were hoping for after
all. |
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