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CNN Live Saturday

American Airlines Flight Attendants Face a Midnight Strike Deadline

Aired June 30, 2001 - 13:11   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BRIAN NELSON, CNN ANCHOR: American Airlines flight attendants face a deadline tonight. Negotiators met today trying to avert White House intervention in that labor dispute. After working without a contract for two years, the flight attendants are threatening to strike as of midnight tonight, but President Bush says he'll use his powers to delay any walkout, calling it a threat to the economy.

And our next guest tells us there's a better chance of snow in Dallas today -- not in the winter -- but today than a strike at American Airlines. The deadline comes at a time when the airlines are losing a lot of money, and engaging in cost cutting, resulting in some sharply lower fares. For a look at that, we turn to Tom Parsons now, of Bestfares.com. Mr. Parsons, thanks for being with us.

In your estimation, how close is -- or, how serious is this threat of a flight attendant strike at American?

TOM PARSONS, BESTFARES.COM: Well, I live in Dallas, and I don't think there's any anybody and his brother who believes there's going to be a strike, including the flight attendants.

President Bush has been crystal clear -- I mean, crystal clear there will be no strikes on his watch this year. And again, he's giving them room to try to negotiate, but I really believe the flight attendants probably will have a contract -- not today, but probably some time in the next 60 days, because they are going to try keep it out of Congress.

NELSON: All right. For those who are flying this summer, if you booked your ticket already, you're pretty much out of luck, I guess. But you're going to tell us that air fares are dropping, and significantly too?

PARSON: Sure. And again, if you have bought airplane tickets and you're flying on these routes where the fares have been cut, get with your local travel agent, get with the airlines, because if it is dropped by a minimum of $100, which some have, you might be entitled to a cash refund. And if you take the back in there -- what we call their funny money, you may get 100 percent of the difference back.

So, don't think you're out of luck, because we have got some darn cheap, super cheap, coast to coast fares right now, about 198 round trip from many U.S. cities, especially markets served by Southwest. Fares in the Florida are cut for travel between August 13 and September 30. I'm looking at Nashville, 58 bucks to Tampa and Fort Lauderdale. From the Northeast, from Providence and Manchester and Hartford and I looked at New York and Baltimore -- 98 bucks.

But again, if you can -- there's so many deals between now and -- sorry, December 8 right now, that if you, like, go out of Washington, you might not get those cheap air fares, still $400 coast to coast. Out of Baltimore, they drop to $198.

NELSON: What about going overseas, either direction -- either to Asia or to Europe?

PARSONS: You know, I have been negotiating deals for probably the last five years in the -- for summer deals for July and August, and I've been either giggled at, laughed at and kicked out of the office, saying it doesn't happen.

This year, it's like unbelievable. From the East Coast, like New York and Boston and Philadelphia, 498 to London. From the West Coast, it's very cheap too, but if you're looking to go to Europe -- all cities are on sale -- but if you go to Paris and Brussels, Amsterdam, Milan, Rome and almost six different cities in Germany, you're seeing fare cuts above the $500-plus for July and August. So, it's a buyer's market.

NELSON: OK, a lot of people are scratching their heads -- and this is our last question -- a lot of people are scratching their heads: gas prices went up, air fares rose with them. Why suddenly a drop?

PARSONS: Well, for years, for last four or five years, the airlines have been making billions and billions of dollars, we have been in our heyday. All of a sudden, the business travelers -- and the stock market is down, we wake up in July -- we wake up in April, May, and find out our 401(k)s are 35 percent less.

The whole market sort of stopped, the business travelers are not flying, about 30 to 40 percent in cuts. Now it makes the airlines -- they will take $1 bill, or $10 bill, or $100 bill, please just get on my airplanes, I need to fill up those empty seats.

NELSON: All right, thanks for your explaining that in your own fashion. Tom Parsons, Bestfares.com.

PARSONS: All right, thank you.

NELSON: Thanks for being with us.

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