Gulf War Stimulates Discreet Travel Discounts : Bargains: Striving for customers, many airlines, hotels and rental agencies will grant substantial discounts, but sometimes only to those who ask.

While Americans ponder the question of whether it is safe to travel, vacant airplanes and hotels are prompting companies to create or extend bargains in an attempt to bolster business. Among the problems is how to offer price reductions that don’t sound as if they are an attempt to profit from Persian Gulf strife.

“The drop-off in travel was started by the poor economy and then accelerated by the war in the Gulf,” said Louis Richmond, spokesman for the Seattle Sheraton hotel. “And we have had to come up with sensitive programs to try to generate travel.”

With more than 20 countries on the State Department’s list of nations to be avoided, the traveler’s world is shrinking. As a result of the Gulf conflict, the State Department list includes: Iraq and Kuwait, Israel, Jordan, Mauritania, Sudan, Yemen, Algeria, Morocco, Pakistan, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Syria, northern Nigeria, Djibouti, Lebanon, Iran and Libya.

In past slowdowns, many airlines aggressively initiated fare wars and advertising campaigns to stimulate business.

Not this year.

After the war began, and airlines suffered an almost immediate drop in bookings, many actually pulled newspaper and television ads.

“We dealt with this in much the same way we deal with an airplane crash,” said Continental spokesman Art Kent. “We just pulled our ads. But we didn’t pull them because of the drop in traffic, which we think was just a brief hiccup, at least for domestic travel. We pulled the ads because we didn’t think it seemed appropriate to advertise leisure travel and vacations at a time of war.”

But many companies are reducing prices in an effort to make travel attractive.

“There are lots of extraordinary fares available at this time,” said Don Ford, head of the British Tourist Authority in North America. “There are good hotel rates, great air fares.”

A sampling:

--Virgin Atlantic is offering a round-trip New York-to-London fare for only $249.

--A discounted fare from LAX to London on British Airways, through a company called Flight Coordinators (800-366-3544), now costs $427. The normal fare for that route on the same airline is $700.

--Flight Coordinators is also offering a fare of $659 to Vienna on Pan Am or TWA. The regular fare is $836.

--The usual Egypt Air round-trip fare between Los Angeles and Cairo costs approximately $1,320. Now it is as low as $980 through R&H; Voyage (818-246-9356; reservations must be made with R&H; through travel agents). And some tour operators can now get it for even less.

--Extending a cut rate that was in place before the Gulf War began, anyone flying on Alitalia from the United States to Italy can take along a companion for just $50 each way, or $100 round trip.

--Some airlines have dropped the price on special tour packages. Cathay Pacific is now offering a special tour package: six nights in Hong Kong, air fare and hotel for just $999. In 1990, the price was $1,999.

--Pan Am and TWA have reintroduced triple mileage madness for frequent fliers.

--Even the cash-starved Trump Shuttle is now offering passengers 5,000 miles for each flight taken on the short routes between Boston, Washington, D.C., and New York.

On international flights, many foreign carriers have also been hurt by the severe downturn in traffic. As a result--and again, without advertising--most airlines flying internationally have begun to waive restrictions on discount tickets. By doing this, they are effectively, and substantially, lowering their fares.

For domestic air trips, waiving of restrictions is being decided on a case-by-case basis in response to written requests to consumer affairs departments of the individual airlines.

In Hawaii, even before the war, a drop-off in tourists had prompted the state to authorize an emergency $1.4-million advertising campaign. Outrigger Hotels, for example, reports that reservations are down by 20%. Other hotels report similar drops in bookings since Jan. 17.

A number of Hawaiian hotels have accelerated the introduction of special packages, and have decided to keep them in force through 1991, instead of applying them seasonally. The Four Seasons Resort Wailea, in Maui, now offers year-round packages.

“With the recession and now the war, we decided to start the package now and run it all year, rather than wait for the traditional soft travel periods,” said spokeswoman Carol Zahorsky.

Other than extensions of seasonal discounts, don’t look for big ads offering hotel room discounts. Yet the discounts are there.

“No one is officially discounting,” said Sheila Donnelly, spokeswoman for the Rafael Hotel Group. “But they’ll all cut deals. It’s become a free-for-all because their occupancies are so low.

“The real problem with the war is that the hotel business runs on seasons, and war isn’t one of them. No one could plan for this, or bounce back quickly enough. In a situation like this, you can’t simply go after another segment of the travel market to fill rooms. It’s just plain trouble.”

It’s also a buyer’s market for smart travelers willing to ask for a better deal.

For example, I called a number of hotels at random and asked to make a room reservation for two nights during the middle of last week. When I called the Stouffer Waverly in Atlanta, I was quoted $145 for a room. When I asked if I could get a better deal, the quote was dropped immediately to $99. No request for anything special, such as a corporate rate, was made.

The Hyatt Regency, Chicago, initially quoted me a rate of $195, then offered a corporate rate discount of $175. When I asked for a better deal, it dropped to $155. Room rates at the upscale Park Hyatt in Chicago were first listed as $250, then dropped--as soon as I hesitated--to $185.

For a regular room at the Fairmont in San Francisco, I was first quoted $179. The minute I asked for a better deal, I was quoted $125 and told that an upgrade was possible.

Instead of advertised deals, the Sheraton’s Richmond said that reservationists at the hotel have been instructed to be “very flexible” in offering rates. “They’ve been told that if they offer a rate and that rate is unacceptable, that they should try and work something out,” he said.

For starters, the hotel has quietly extended its regular weekend rate of $89 per room to include rooms during the week. “But we’re not going to advertise it as a ‘fun’ or ‘getaway’ package,” Richmond said, “because as much as we want the business, we feel it would be insensitive in light of the war.”

Ten days ago, nearly a dozen cruise lines interviewed for this column insisted their bookings were strong and that they weren’t discounting. At that time, some cruise companies, like Royal Cruise Lines, announced that they were extending their early booking discount deadlines.

But on the morning of Jan. 17, after the war had begun, cruise line phones started ringing with cancellations, according to Rich Skinner of Holland America Line West Tours.

Cruise lines have several issues facing them. Not only are they confronting a worsening economy and the Gulf War, they have more space to fill due to construction of larger ships.

As a result, they are dumping a number of cruises on the market--at substantial savings--through cruise ship consolidators.

--World Wide Cruises, a Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based national cruise-only discount agency, is offering a seven-day Mexican Riviera cruise on the Dawn Princess, which lists in the brochure for $1,625 per person. It can be had for $895, including round-trip air fare from Los Angeles. You can call World Wide at (800) 882-9000.

--A Caribbean cruise on Costa Cruise Lines on the Costa Carla, with stops in San Juan, Curacao, Caracas, Grenada, Martinique, St. Thomas and St. John, which normally sells for $1,570 per person, including air fare from Los Angeles, now is on the block by World Wide Cruises for about $950 per person.

--Another Caribbean trip on the Commodore Cruise Lines ship Caribe, which lists at $1,245 per person, including air fare from Los Angeles, is now being offered by World Wide for as little as $900 per person.

Overseas, some destinations where tourism has virtually evaporated are also radically cutting prices.

--Pacific Delight Tours is offering an April-May China Tour Package for $2,430 for 16 days (three in Hong Kong). This is a day longer and $230 less than a similar package offered last year.

Officially, rental car companies claim they aren’t discounting. Indeed, if you call to make your car reservations using their national 800 toll-free numbers, you will find few, if any, discounts other than those already advertised. But in reality, the rental car companies, like the hotels, are discounting.

--Some companies, like Airways Rent A Car, have extended their two-day $19.90 weekend rates to a four-day package in Chicago. And a number of national car rental company locations are offering similar deals in selected cities. Keep in mind that a majority of rental car locations are local franchises, and are now open to cutting individual deals with customers who contact them directly.

Indeed, there are deals to be had for those who aren’t too worried to travel.