Clark Howard's Tips

Airline war means cheap fare prices

May 10, 2004

The airlines are in a market share war that is almost unprecedented. If you live on the East coast, West coast or certain parts of the MidWest, you could be the direct beneficiary. The six full-fare airlines traditionally have made money in two areas: coast-to-coast flights and flying to places where they don't have to deal with discount airlines. Both were areas that discounters couldn't touch.

CLARK'S TIP TOPICS Consumer Tips Managing Money Banks & Credit Cards Technology Health & Healthcare Car Costs Homes Phones & Utilities Small Business Travel & Leisure Find more consumer advice in Clark Howard's book, "Get Clark Smart"

Then Southwest Airlines came on the scene and the full-fares got scared. They decided they wanted to oust Southwest. So they convinced Congress to reduce the 10 percent flight tax the airlines were paying to 7 percent and to charge a "departure tax" for each flight instead. The rationale was that because Southwest flies a lot of little flights, people would stop flying them and they would go out of business.

Well, it didn't work. Southwest adapted by increasing the length of its flights. They now fly non-stop coast to coast, as do America West, Frontier and Air Tran. In response, the full fare airlines have added tons of new flights at extra low prices.

So this summer you will have an unprecedented buffet of bargains to choose from in the airline industry. There are now at least 200 flights from the east to the west coast and the fares are getting cheaper. The best way to find out great deals is to go to every airline Web site and sign up for their web sale fare e-mails.

More Clark Howard Travel Tips Hotels deals, baggage warning for travelers  Frequent flyer miles an increasingly bad option  Travel deals still available  Cruise crime remains a persistent problem  CouchSurfing.com may appeal to low-budget travelers  Travel substitution the key to cheap international vacations  Hotels offering gas incentives  Bolt Bus, Mega Bus offer bus travel on the cheap  Slow economy, soft travel means globe-trotting deals  Orbitz responds to complaint  Full list