As airlines roll out holiday fares, Southwest blacks out key dates

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Although Southern California is still enjoying shorts and T-shirt weather, airlines have already started to roll out discount fares for Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s travel.

This is great news for bargain-hunting travelers, but it signals growing desperation among U.S. airlines
that have seen revenues drop 26% in June compared with the same month last year, according to the Air Transport Assn. of America, the industry trade group that represents most passenger airlines in the U.S.
“Everybody is fighting for your buck,” said Tom Parsons, chief executive and founder of Bestfares.com, an Internet discount travel website. “It’s definitely a fliers market.”

But Parsons takes exception with the tactics of one airline that has joined the discount fare war: Southwest Airlines.

When Southwest unveiled its Fall Savings deals — offering one-way fares from $59 to $109 for flights between Sept. 9 and Jan. 7 — it included some small-print exceptions that Parsons insists should have been made clear in bold lettering.

The deals included blackout dates from Nov. 24, 2009, to Dec. 1, 2009, and Dec. 18, 2009, to Jan. 4, 2010. That’s a grand total of 26 blackout days clustered around all the major fall and winter holidays.

On his website, Parsons called it a “Bah Humbug air fare sale” because, he said, the blackout dates make it nearly impossible for families with school-age children to take advantage of the deals.

A spokeswoman for Southwest, however, insisted that bargain fares can be found during those blackout
periods, depending on availability. But because the airline cannot promise those deals across the board, she said Southwest decided to list only the specific dates when the bargain fares are more certain.

“We are trying to be as honest and straightforward as possible with our customers,” said airline
spokeswoman Brandy King.

So, how do travelers know if the discount rates are available during the holiday season?
King suggests travelers visit the airline’s website, punch in the date that they want to fly and see what rates
pop up.

“In other words, we should just poke around,” Parsons said sarcastically. “I think they just shot
themselves in the foot.”
-- Hugo Martin