2-for-1 Deal Gives Off-Season Lift to Airline Passengers

Passengers apparently love them. Travel agents seem to hate them. And the airlines say they are a stimulant during the annual slow season, worsened this year because of the slump in the economy.

They are the new “companion” fares, which started out as a discount promotion by American Airlines for its frequent-flier program participants and have now spread like a forest fire throughout the industry.

After American sent coupons to its frequent fliers offering a companion ticket for $50, United Airlines followed with a missive to its regular customers offering the same for $25. Northwest Airlines then said it would honor the American and United coupons.

Continental Airlines and Midway Airlines subsequently joined in offering $25 companion tickets. Then on Sunday, Northwest dropped the price of a companion ticket to nothing, and all the others followed.

It’s the old two-for-one gimmick--with plenty of restrictions.

Travelers have until Nov. 30 to buy coach tickets. The promotions, designed to attract leisure travelers, not business people, apply only to the lowest supersaver fares. Trips must be taken by Feb. 28. The tickets are nonrefundable, must be purchased seven to 14 days in advance and require a Saturday night stay.

Moreover, travel must occur between noon Monday and noon Thursday. There are blackout periods on the busy Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s travel days.

Finally, at these fares, there are only so many seats sold on each flight--and many of them have already been gobbled up.

USAir says it has done so well with the sale of tickets that many flights are already sold out of special fare seats through the end of the promotion. “If a traveler is flexible, he or she might still find a seat,” says David Shipley, a spokesman for the Pittsburgh-based carrier.

Under the rules, those who purchased seats prior to the promotion can turn in their tickets and substitute the lower fares.

Hence the travel agents’ disaffection.

“It’s double the work for half the commission,” complained Annemarie Lindskog, an agent with Worldtek Travel in New Haven, Conn.

Lindskog said she has been swamped with requests for free tickets. For instance, a couple who had bought two round-trip tickets to Florida from Connecticut had paid $253, she said, and will now be able to fly for half that.

Other carriers say they are also filling a lot of seats with the promotional fares.

Northwest Airlines said that last Sunday, after the promotion had been advertised in major New York and California newspapers, calls to its reservation center jumped 15% over the week before, climbing to 25% above week-before levels the next day.

“We’re doing a tremendous amount of business,” added a spokeswoman for American Airlines. She noted that a round-trip fare between Los Angeles previously had cost $495, a figure cut in half by the companion offer.

Airline analysts don’t believe that the fares will help much to stimulate traffic or staunch the industry’s mounting losses. While some people might be prompted to make travel plans, they say, there won’t be enough extra revenue after the free tickets have been dispensed to make the undertaking worthwhile.

But the program does have its merits, they admit.

“It sort of keeps the consumer psychologically interested in flying,” says Paul Karos, airline analyst with First Boston Corp., a New York investment firm. “Before the new fares, they said to themselves, ‘I won’t even call for the fare. It is too expensive.’ ”

Karos noted that since Iraq invaded Kuwait in August, airline fares have risen 15% to keep up with skyrocketing fuel prices.

Edward Starkman, airline analyst with Paine Webber, a New York broker, says that there may be still deeper promotions soon. Domestic boardings were flat in October, he noted.