Eastern’s $12 ‘Nightmare’ : Hundreds Stranded After Taking Bargain Flights

Hundreds of people who bought $12 tickets on Eastern Airline’s Northeast shuttle headed home this morning, one day late, after getting stranded in three cities when there were no bargain-basement seats for them on planes.

“Nightmare of nightmares,” was how Catherine Holtz, 24, described her night sleeping on the carpet at New York’s LaGuardia Airport before she returned home to Boston today. “I’m not so sure if it was worth it. It was a good idea in theory.”

Eastern’s three-day offer of rock-bottom fares on the Washington-New York-Boston shuttle attracted 8,000 passengers Friday, 11,000 Saturday and 12,500 Sunday, said John Siefert, vice president for the shuttle.

Although fares went up to $49 today, Eastern said it would honor through Friday the $12 tickets sold over the weekend. After Friday, prices will return to $69 on weekends, $99 on weekdays and Sunday evening.

About 250 passengers were stuck at LaGuardia late Sunday, 200 failed to get on flights from Boston’s Logan Airport and at least 100 were turned away at Washington’s National Airport. Many spent the night at the airports and took the first shuttle flights out this morning.

“The first two went out full, so I’m hoping we got most of them,” said Rosa R. Williams, shuttle manager at National Airport. On Sunday night, Eastern employees had given stranded shuttle passengers peanuts and decks of cards.

Pickets outside the Eastern terminal in Boston today took note of stranded passengers with a sign that read: “Pay $12 and sleep at the terminal.”

Debbie McLoughlin of New York, who spent the night at Eastern’s terminal in Boston, called it “an adventure. I’m a scab, though, with the $12 flight. I took advantage of a good thing.”

Most of those left at LaGuardia were promised a seat on an Eastern flight this morning or flew on Pan Am’s rival shuttle, said Port Authority Police Lt. Alexander Harvey.

“When Eastern said ‘That’s it,’ these people went over to Pan Am,” said Harvey, whose agency runs the airport. Pan Am added a flight to Washington and chartered two buses to Boston, he said.

David Hess, a spokesman at Washington’s National Airport, said some passengers waited five hours for seats. About 40 were spending the night at the airport.

Eastern maintained that passengers knew what they were getting into when they bought the cheap tickets.

“Those people were not stranded. We advertised the flights were on a first-come, first-served basis,” Eastern spokesman Robin Matell said. “I’m sorry they have to wait for the next flight, but they should have gotten there earlier.”