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CNN Live At Daybreak
Shopping Around for Air Fares Could Pay Off for Consumers
Aired June 26, 2001 - 08:37 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.
LINDA STOUFFER, CNN ANCHOR: Bring on the summer vacations! Delta Airlines started a summer sale that the other four top U.S. air carriers, American, Northwest, Continental and United all joined in. They're reducing some fares and taking more off tickets bought on their Web sites. But this sale is market specific. Some fares are being cut more than others.
So here to help us sort all of this out is Terry Trippler of OneTravel.com. He's expert on airlines and the author of "Rules of the Air." Terry, thanks so much for being with us, and I'm hoping you can begin by guiding us through the downside. It's not good on all routes.
TERRY TRIPPLER, ONETRAVEL.COM: No, it isn't, Linda. You have to really shop around on this one. It's not system-wide. It depends upon the market, upon competition. It gets a little funny to figure out where it's going. As an example, if we look at places like Atlanta-Seattle, there's really no change. Atlanta-Paris, wow. It's down about $400 for travel this spring.
STOUFFER: So, help us through this shopping around there. If I've got a vacation planned for July or August and I just want the best deal, how do I find it?
TRIPPLER: There's really three ways to buy airline tickets. One is an online Web site, the airlines or a travel agency, and right now, Linda, I recommend you compare all three. And one thing that if you have already bought a ticket and now that there's a sale on, check the price. If the price has dropped on your ticket, and you still qualify for this lower price, you can get your money back in the form of a voucher.
STOUFFER: Now, that's interesting because I've never really heard that before. How do you go about that process? If you have a ticket and think you could have saved had you waited, how do you get money back?
TRIPPLER: You contact the airline or contact your travel agent and I recommend you do it right away, and find out, do I qualify for a new, lower fare? And if so, what do you want me to do to get this voucher? And again, you can save a great amount of money. Some people -- I was checking some fares that were $300 last week, are $200 this week. Well, that's a $100 voucher. STOUFFER: Nice shopping money for wherever it is you end up going. Well, what about those discount Web sites. A lot of folks are just used to checking those first. Are those really the -- you know, one of the best ways to get a ticket now or should you look at the airline's Web site first because of this rate cut?
TRIPPLER: Because of the rate cut, I think you have to check all three. Again, the discount Web sites, the airlines' Web site and check with a brick-and-mortar -- what we call a brick-and-mortar travel agency. Check all of them because again, it's so market specific.
I don't think we're going to see any major sales system-wide. An example overnight, AirTran Airways, Delta's major competitor in Atlanta, Delta's home office, slashed fares just to and from Atlanta. Again, just to compete with Delta out of Atlanta. So, you've really got to check out where you're going.
STOUFFER: And while you're checking it out, what restrictions should you be aware of. What's the timeline on all of this?
TRIPPLER: Do it quickly, because some of them are ticketing within the next three to four days; some of them are ticketing by July 8th; some have extended ticketing now to around Labor Day. Travel...
(AUDIO GAP)
TRIPPLER: It really varies quite a bit. We're down to point right now where if grandma really makes great chocolate chip cookies, you'd better get on and check out the fare. If the cookies are so-so, maybe there's a better deal coming along.
STOUFFER: Get there while they're still warm.
TRIPPLER: Right.
STOUFFER: One quick question for you about business fares: Are those fares being affected by all of this?
TRIPPLER: They're not being affected right now, Linda, and I think that with business fares, I think that's one of the reasons we're seeing this now. Corporate America cut back on business travel, and I think they cut back a little bit too quickly and too much, and I think the airlines know that and feel that; that after Labor Day, business travel is going to come back much stronger than many people thought. So, the sales that are going on now, the airlines are filling the gaps with pleasure travelers.
STOUFFER: Terry Trippler with OneTravel.com, thanks so much for guiding us through that.
TRIPPLER: Thank you.
STOUFFER: I can smell my mother's oatmeal raisin cookies right now. Thanks a lot.
TRIPPLER: Thank you.
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