Airfares just keep on skyrocketing

Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine, Jan, 1998 by Lynn Woods

Among the cheapest are "snooze-you-lose" fares -- cut-rates that might be in an airline's reservations system for only a few days or even hours, says Parsons. One of the most popular deals that appeared on the site last fall was a $171 round-trip fare on United from Dallas to Hawaii, available for just 11 days. "People were driving to Dallas from Memphis just to take advantage of it," says Parsons.

The major travel-booking sites, such as Microsoft's Expedia (expedia.msn.com), Preview Travel (www.previewtravel.com) and Travelocity (www.travelocity.com) also post special-fare promotions.

* Use a travel agent. Even though more agents may be charging a fee for their services, the price could be worth it, especially if you don't have time to search the Internet yourself. A good agent may even be aware of fares that won't show up on your computer screen.

When Airfare Report recently surveyed round-trip fares between Chicago and Vancouver by calling U.S. airlines directly and checking their Web sites, the lowest it found was $616 on United Airlines. But a call to a travel agent turned up a fare of $346 on Air Canada, which was actually for tickets on United purchased through Air Canada.

In another test, a travel agency managed to shave $1,000 off the cost of a six-day trip from Chicago to Tokyo by spotting hairline distinctions between minimum-stay requirements among airlines. "Little idiosyncrasies in the rules can make a $1,500 difference," says Trippler.

An experienced agent should also know the ins and outs of a particular market. While the lowest-cost flights out of the Washington, D.C., area often depart from Baltimore/Washington International (where Southwest has a foothold), National Airport offers lower fares to Chicago at certain times of the day, says Barbara Conell of Alvensa Travel, in Washington. And the cheapest flights to Boston leave from Dulles International.

* Hotfoot it to a secondary city or airport Fares from airports within a 100-mile radius of each other can vary radically, especially if one of them is a fortress hub and the other thrives on competition. "The biggest discrepancy I see is on flights to the West Coast from Detroit versus Toledo," says Trippler. From Toledo, which is an hour from Detroit, "you can fly for 40% less because no one airline is dominant." Detroit, on the other hand, is a hub for Northwest. Other examples of lower-fare cities are Milwaukee (compared with Chicago), Atlantic City (compared with Philadelphia), and Louisville and Lexington, Ky. (compared with Cincinnati). While time-pressed business travelers probably won't want to drive the extra distance, the savings may be worth the effort for cost-conscious leisure passengers.

* Shop the sales. In general, one airline or another runs some type of fare sale -- either cutting prices on a particular route for a short time or cutting prices across the board -- every two or three weeks, especially during the summer, says Conell. Travelers who plan a month or more in advance stand the best chance of catching a fare sale. Most sales allow as long as a five-month window in which to fly.