ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, February 19, 1997 TAG: 9702190064
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: Marketplace
SOURCE: MEGAN SCHNABEL
Paris in cold, damp February may not seem the ideal vacation. But when you can fly there and back for $329, what's a little weather?
Or for $100 less, visit London's Westminster Abbey and the royals.
Or, if warm weather is more your speed, jet out to Los Angeles. The round-trip fare is just $270.
If you just want to go somewhere cheap and below-zero wind chills don't bother you, fly to Chicago for $171.
But if your bags aren't already packed, you're probably too late. These much-balleyhooed, bargain-basement fares won't be around long. The most recent fare wars, the result of American Airline's not-quite-a-strike, will end March3. If you haven't gotten your tickets to fly by then, you'll have to stay home - or pay full price.
You'll have to travel fast, too. To get the biggest discounts - fares up to 50 percent off - travel must be completed by March 14 in the continental United States, Hawaii and Canada, although significant savings can still be made on travel through May 31. European travel must start by March 31 and be completed by May31.
American also is offering double frequent-flier miles through March14.
The strike itself didn't amount to much - President Clinton called a halt minutes after American's pilots began to strike - but a week's worth of publicity about the prospects of a major grounding did serious damage to perceptions of American's reliability, said Gene Swartz, head of Travelmasters in Roanoke.
And so American announced it was slashing fares, a kind of please-please-come-back plea to all those disgruntled customers who feared they'd have to travel on Greyhound because their American tickets would be worthless.
The temporary low fares seem to be driving travelers out of the woodwork. Whether they're all loyal American customers or simply opportunistic bargain hunters doesn't seem to matter. The toll-free American reservations line has been swamped with calls since the fare cuts were announced. Call the 800-number and you'll probably be told to call back later. As the recording says:
"We are pleased to be running a normal operation and have announced special fares in appreciation of your continued business. ... The response to these fares is so overwhelming we are unable to answer your call right now."
American said its weekend telephone volume was nine times the usual amount, and its site on the World Wide Web - http://www.americanair.com - has been swamped with visitors.
As always happens when one carrier slashes fares, the rest have been quick to follow. Airlines including United, Northwest and Continental have said they would match American's sale in markets where they compete.
Ah, the catch.
American no longer flies out of Roanoke. So the airlines that operate here have no incentive to trim, let alone slash, prices for tickets from Roanoke to anywhere.
All those low fares mentioned earlier? The $329 Paris jaunt, the London vacation? They depart from New York or Washington, D.C., or at least Raleigh or Greensboro in North Carolina.
Travelers who have been planning a trip, though, seem willing to spend the extra hours in a car to save a bundle on airfare, said Amy Williams, a ticket agent at AAA Travel Agency in Roanoke.
If the thought of driving hours to an airport doesn't seem like the right start to a vacation, you always can fly. USAir offers a $198 round-trip fare from Roanoke to New York. There's no advance purchase, though, and you have to fly on a Saturday or Sunday on both legs of the trip. A seven-day advance fare is $438. Flying to Raleigh will cost you $381 round trip, with a seven-day advance purchase.
So pack those bags and get on the phone. Your best bet, considering the volume of calls to airlines - United Airlines on Monday reported 11,000 calls every 15 minutes, compared with the normal 3,000 - may be to call a travel agent.
And be ready to leave right away.
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