AMR's American Air Plans to Bring Back Deep-Discount Fares
AMR Corp.'s American Airlines unit said it's bringing back a heavily
discounted fare promotion that includes a $298 round-trip fare between New
York and Los Angeles and a $98 round-trip fare between Miami and Orlando,
Fla.
The program is aimed at enticing leisure travelers to take flights at
undesirable times and comes with some key restrictions. Travel on most
routes must originate after 2 p.m. Saturday with return travel required the
following Monday or Tuesday. Travel on coast-to-coast routes must originate
Friday with the same Monday-Tuesday return days.
American had a similar program until May, but pruned it back during the
summer. The newest program runs from Aug. 15 until Feb. 10 and excludes
certain holiday weekends. Fares aren't refundable, and American is
requiring just a three-day purchase. The fares begin at $88 for short
round-trip jaunts such as Chicago-Dayton, Ohio, and increase to $298 for
coast-to-coast trips such as Boston-San Jose, Calif.
American said it would have large numbers of seats available in the
program. But, because the permitted stayovers are so short, analysts expect
most travelers will stick with more traditional discount programs that
allow stayovers of as long as one month. "The fare levels are very
attractive if you can meet the fairly tight restrictions," said Sam
Buttrick, an analyst at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter.
--- Rohit Khare /// MCI Internet Architecture (BOS) /// khare@mci.net Voice+Pager: (617) 960-5131 VNet: 370-5131 Fax: (617) 960-1009