American Adds New Fares in Blow to ‘Value Pricing’

American Airlines on Wednesday changed course and abandoned strict adherence to its simplified air fare schedule.

While the nation’s largest airline said the changes to the nearly 6-month-old fare schedule are minor and temporary, the move might mean even more turmoil for ever-changing ticket prices, travel officials said. American’s fare structure was largely adopted by the rest of the airline industry.

“It’s the first hole in the dike,” said Thomas Nulty, president of Santa Ana-based Associated Travel Management. “Things may go back to where they were . . . a free-for-all in the fare area. There is no reason for other airlines to toe the line.”

American, responding to promotions by USAir and TWA, temporarily adopted an additional set of fares on some flights, primarily in the Midwest. That’s a departure from the four-tier fare schedule the airline created and adopted last April to raise the average ticket price and reduce the countless and confusing variety of air fares.

The “value pricing” schedule created a standard set of prices and restrictions for first-class, business and vacation travelers.

The additional set of American fares carries restrictions that vary by route and apply to a limited number of seats. In one case, American matched TWA by offering a new, $298 round-trip fare to Austin, Tex., from Los Angeles that requires no advance purchase. American’s standard walk-up fare, which requires no advance purchase or round trip, is $340 one way.

This summer, American cut all vacation ticket prices in half instead of adopting an additional set of fares to respond to a promotion by Northwest Airlines. Despite setting off a stampede of airline ticket buying nationwide, the prices were so low that the carriers lost millions of dollars on the deal.

“The reason we have decided to vary from the (fare) structure is that this greatly lessens the financial impact of matching” competitor’s discounts, American Airlines spokesman Marty Heires said. “During the summer . . . we suffered a much more severe financial impact than those carriers who did not adhere to the four-tier structure.”

But Heires said that American is still committed to the four-tier structure and that new fares were temporary aberrations in 500 to 600 markets out of the 6,000 it serves.

Earlier this month, American Chairman Robert Crandall hinted at a change in attitude when he said the carrier would not “defend value pricing forever.”