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| Fare Deals - finding cheap plane tickets |
TRAVEL You can score CHEAP PLANE TICKETS if you're flexible and pull a sneaky trick or two.
AIRFARES ROSE SO swiftly last year you could almost see the contrails. Today the average round-trip airline ticket costs more than $300. But finding bargains in what's become an intricate circus of phantom fares and Saturday stay-overs is still possible, if you know where to look.
Officially, ticket prices climbed 11.6% between December 1999 and January 2001. But that doesn't include the fuel surcharges airlines began tacking on, which can add as much as $40 to a round-trip. (Airlines blame the increases on soaring jet-fuel costs, plus pressure for better pay from pilots, flight attendants and ground crews.) With fares climbing, developing some travel savvy has never been more important. Prices won't improve when United and American gobble up US Airways and TWA and, between them, control 50% of the U.S. market. 'Less competition means higher prices, decreased customer service and serious service disruptions in the event of a labor dispute,' says Richard Copland, president of the American Society of Travel Agents.
Competition is the reason it costs $465 to fly from Des Moines to Detroit but $171 to fly an additional 83 miles from Des Moines to Lansing, Mich., connecting through Detroit. Northwest is the only airline that flies nonstop from Des Moines to Detroit; but to Lansing, Northwest competes with United and Midwest Express. The same scenario plays out all over the country. Airfares are reasonable if you're traveling a route served by several airlines, especially if one of them is a low-fare carrier such as Air-Tran, America West, American Trans Air, Frontier, Southwest Airlines or Sun Country. But where little or no competition exists, airlines hold you hostage, and you pay.
Kristin W. Davis |
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