=20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- This article was sent to you by someone who found it on SF Gate. The original article can be found on SFGate.com here: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=3D/chronicle/archive/2002/03= /24/TR163953.DTL ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Sunday, March 24, 2002 (SF Chronicle) Airlines now offer 'last-minute' fare bargains weeks before flights Kortney Stringer, Wall Street Journal Many last-minute airfare deals aren't even close to last minute anymore. To dispose of unsold seats on certain weekend flights, airlines for several years have offered them on their Web sites at deep discounts - generally 40 percent to 70 percent - on the preceding Wednesday. But during the recent travel slump, carriers have quietly been lengthening the interval between the discount offer and the flight date. Last week, US Airways offered a "last-minute" sale for travel through Au= g. 3. Delta Air Lines and American Airlines offered last-minute purchases for trips through June. "We do what we think makes good sense," said American spokesman Al Becke= r. "We think that for right now, this is an appropriate step for us to take." Many people have no idea such a step has been taken. "Some savvy travele= rs have noticed it, but airlines -don't talk about it," says Michael Sands of the Orbitz travel Web site, which is owned by the largest U.S. carriers and lists last-minute deals. "It's one of the best-kept secrets in the industry," said Sands. This broader definition of last minute is an attempt by airlines not only to fill empty seats, but to steer travelers away from competitors such as Priceline.com and Travelocity.com to the carriers' own Web sites. Although travel is rebounding since a sharp drop after Sept. 11, passeng= er traffic still was down 10.7 percent in February from a year earlier, according to the Air Transport Association. The Federal Aviation Administration said in its annual forecast last week that it -doesn't expect passenger traffic to return to more normal levels until 2004. Airlines still offer many last-minute deals exclusively for spur-of-the- moment weekend travel as a last-ditch effort to squeeze revenue from unsold seats. But by expanding the time window for the travel to take place, yet still limiting the time in which tickets may be purchased to only a few days, airlines are attracting more spontaneous leisure travelers without losing revenue from valuable business travelers, said Michelle Peluso, chief executive of Site59.com, a last-minute travel site. Industry experts say last-minute deals to vacation spots such as Orlando and Miami are scarce right now, but last-minute bargains are plentiful to Boston, Chicago, Dallas, New York and Seattle, according to Josh Roberts at Smartliving.com, which sorts through special deals of some major airlines and sends them out weekly in an electronic newsletter.=20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 2002 SF Chronicle