This article from NYTimes.com has been sent to you by psa188@juno.com. /-------------------- advertisement -----------------------\ Share the spirit with a gift from Starbucks. Our coffee brewers & espresso machines at special holiday prices. http://www.starbucks.com/shop/subcategory.asp?catalogFname=Starbucks&categoryFname=SaleFClearance&ci=274 \----------------------------------------------------------/ With Seats Empty, Airlines Cut Fares to Bargain Levels December 18, 2001 By LAURENCE ZUCKERMAN Airlines desperate to fill seats in the economic downturn that deepened after Sept. 11 are cutting some fares to levels not seen in years. The deals include several destinations, like Hawaii and the Caribbean, that have rarely been put on sale during the winter season. On some routes to Europe and Asia where bargains could be found in previous years, the discounts are deeper than usual. For example, a round-trip coach ticket from Los Angeles to Tokyo is on sale for as little as $398 on American Airlines. Coach seats to London from New York are being offered as low as $198 round trip by several airlines, while business-class tickets to several cities in Europe from the Midwest and East Coast that have full published fares of more than $6,000 are now going for $1,200. Still, some travelers have been disappointed to find few bargains on the routes that they want to fly. Especially in the United States, tickets to many cities continue to be offered at high prices that were set during the peak of the travel boom, which ended last year. Many of the best fares are already sold out during peak travel periods like the coming Christmas and New Year's holidays. And most such fares carry many restrictions. But there are still some bargains to be had on specific routes, according to travel agents. "There are pockets and pockets of good deals," said Tom Parsons, chief executive of Bestfares.com, a Web-based discount travel agency. "The best of the best is overseas." American Airlines and United Airlines recently extended a range of deals, including round-trip flights to London from San Francisco for $398 and to San Juan, P.R., from New York for $269. Tickets must be bought by Dec. 28 for reservations through May 19. In addition, Southwest Airlines (news/quote), the low-fare king, is offering a coast-to- coast round-trip fare of $198 for some seats between now and June 7. The sale ends on Dec. 27. Southwest mainly flies from secondary airports; most transcontinental trips require one or two stops. Virtually all such bargain fares must be bought in advance, are not refundable, are restricted to certain days of the week, and may require a Saturday stay. Many of the sales end this month. The low prices appear to have helped overcome some people's jitters about flying after the terrorist hijackings on Sept. 11 - which is the point. Passenger traffic dropped by 40 percent after the attacks. It has since moved back up to some degree. "The people we talk to find that there is no crisis in consumer confidence right now," said Karl Peterson, chief executive of Hotwire, a discount travel agency on the Internet. "People are willing to fly." At most airlines, the average percentage of seats filled on each plane has returned to the 60 to 70 percent levels that prevailed before Sept. 11. But that is after the carriers cut the number of seats they offer by 15 to 25 percent. Overall traffic is still down about 20 percent. Most important to the airlines, many of those missing passengers are business travelers, who paid the highest fares and were responsible for the bulk of airline profits. The weakness in business travel started early this year, with the downturn in the economy, and has been worsened by the terrorist attacks. Mr. Peterson said he attended a seminar earlier this month with 50 other chief executives from a variety of industries. Many, he said, acknowledged that they were using the events of Sept. 11 as an excuse to reduce expenses by limiting business travel. Some airlines have experimented with reducing business fares but most have not cut their walk-up fares, arguing that price reductions do not stimulate an increase in business travel. As a result, the airlines have had to depend on presumably more flexible leisure passengers to fill their seats. But that has required deeper discounts, and most of the major carriers are losing millions of dollars a day. "People are getting a real bargain out there," said Douglas M. Steenland, the president of Northwest Airlines (news/quote), "because the industry at present is not covering its costs." Mr. Parsons agreed. "If you are paying 3 cents a mile and it costs the airlines 10 to 12 cents a mile, you know you are getting a good deal," he said, alluding to some of the lowest fares to Asia. The best bargains he sees right now, Mr. Parsons added, are to the Caribbean. US Airways is offering round-trip tickets for around $250 to destinations like Jamaica, the Bahamas and the Cayman Islands from Boston, New York and Washington, as much as 60 percent lower than prices last winter. Most airlines offer an extra 10 percent discount if tickets are purchased on their Web sites. "We usually don't see 85-degree- weather destinations go on sale for January, February and March when you have all those snowbirds in the Northeast," Mr. Parsons said. On trans-Atlantic routes, where passenger traffic has been hit especially hard by the economic downturn, US Airways and Northwest Airlines are offering discounts of more than 80 percent off full-fare business- class tickets to a variety of European cities. But these tickets must be bought by this Sunday and used before Jan. 10. Coach fares have also come down significantly on many routes. There are many routes where few bargain tickets can be found. For example, nearly all discount tickets to Florida before and after Christmas and New Year's have been sold. It is also difficult to find cheap seats to cities in Arizona, Las Vegas and many other destinations west of the Rocky Mountains. Mr. Parsons said it was wise to lock in bargains to warm-weather destinations like the Caribbean now for trips in February and March because fares might rise, especially when the cold weather settles in on the East Coast after an unusually mild fall. But he added that it could be smart to wait before buying a ticket to Europe for travel in the first half of 2002 because prices might drop further. "If you are departing after March 15," Mr. Parsons said, "my advice is to put your feet up, have a cup of coffee and wait." Mr. Peterson of Hotwire, though, recommended grabbing bargains now because, he said, the industry cannot afford to keep offering such low fares. Referring to a $198 transcontinental fare, he said: "That is a fantastic deal that people should not be banking on being out there in the next six months. My advice is don't count on it going any lower." http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/18/business/18FARE.html?ex=1009649545&ei=1&en=9b89bef138773f93 HOW TO ADVERTISE --------------------------------- For information on advertising in e-mail newsletters or other creative advertising opportunities with The New York Times on the Web, please contact Alyson Racer at alyson@nytimes.com or visit our online media kit at http://www.nytimes.com/adinfo For general information about NYTimes.com, write to help@nytimes.com. Copyright 2001 The New York Times Company