Lowest Airline Fares

Regarding the Feb. 17 Travel Insider (“Lowest-Fares Chart’s High Purpose: to Be Your Guide”): I have found that great advantages can be had by using the easySABRE system on the Internet. Although not as fully featured as the Sabre reservation system that travel agents use, easySABRE does allow an individual to search for lowest fares and make reservations.

Last Spring, using easySABRE, I found a United round-trip fare from LAX to Columbus, Ohio, for $312. I stopped the next day at a United counter and was told that no such fare existed, the least expensive being more than $100 higher.

Returning home, I made my own reservation via easySABRE, carefully noting the fare category. I revisited the United office and acquired the tickets at the easySABRE-quoted price. (I could have paid for the tickets by credit card through EasySabre, but would have been unable to use my coupons and senior discount. Using them, the final cost was $235.)

Last December, I found three seats on a United flight from Singapore to LAX when my daughter, in Singapore, had been told that no seats were available. She was able to acquire them and to be home for Christmas. I highly recommend the easySABRE system, at least until the airlines find ways to negate its advantages.

JOE CONLEY

La Canada

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As an experienced traveler I was not surprised to see continuing confirmation of the airlines’ chicanery. Another example is the notion of what constitutes “direct service.”

Recently, I called TWA about flying to Zurich. With a chuckle, the TWA reservations clerk told me that the trip actually was in three segments--Los Angeles to New York, New York to Milan, and Milan to Zurich--on Swissair, and that it involves two plane changes. On the return flights, one must overnight in Milan! Not exactly a direct flight.

Another example: As a Northwest frequent flier, I was chagrined to see in your Lowest Fares chart that Northwest flies to Zurich after I booked a flight on American. I called Northwest, only to learn that it does indeed fly to Zurich but it is not a direct flight (changing planes once). The connection times amounted to several hours between flights.

So I flew American to Zurich, also listed in your low rates table. Reservations were made by my company’s travel agents. I was told that it was a direct flight via Chicago. It was not, strictly speaking, a direct flight, since there was a plane change in Chicago, albeit reasonably painless.

Bottom line, I suspect that your Lowest Fares table might well shrink in size dramatically if you could apply the strict definition of a direct flight to all of the listings. Knowing the airlines, that might turn out to be a rather large job. As a budget-conscious traveler, I am not opposed to short, convenient plane changes (i.e., on the same airline with no terminal change) en route if the savings is there.

KEITH ROCHFORD

Fullerton

Here’s one more tip for air travelers: I recently booked a round trip from LAX to Nashville on Northwest Airlines. I had received a $318-coupon from a mail-order catalog for the trip and when I called Northwest to book it, I fell into conversation with the agent. During the course of that conversation, I asked how much I was saving by using the coupon. I was told that the price of the round-trip ticket without the coupon was only $272. I immediately said “I’ll take that fare,” and the agent said “OK.” I have learned always to ask if the fare that is published is indeed the lowest available.

EDWARD HONEYMAN

Westlake Village