"That was the intention of SimpliFares, to remove the very high fares," Harlan R. Bennett, Delta's vice president of revenue management, said in an interview. "We were accused by one Wall Street analyst in the past of having an arcane and egregious pricing structure. So we wanted to remove those perceptions and provide more consistency," particularly for the person who has to travel at the last minute.
Does Bennett consider the system that charged $2,262 for a round-trip domestic economy-class ticket egregious?
A Delta employee helps passengers check in at Denver International Airport. Delta's new fare structure could send ripples across the industry.
(Matthew Staver -- Bloomberg News)
|
|
He chuckled.
"Well, I don't want to comment on that," he said. "But I think anyone would agree that the $888 round trip for a last-minute is a better value than $2,200."
The fares come with restrictions, which were detailed in a 328-word paragraph at the end of a press release Delta issued last week. To get the lowest fares, for example, passengers don't have to spend a Saturday night at their destination, but they must stay at least one night -- could be a Tuesday, could be a Saturday -- before heading home.
The eight fares offered for each flight may be an improvement, but they still require some study.
Here's how Bennett lays out the options:
"We have the 14-day advance purchase fare, a seven-day advance purchase fare, a three-day advance purchase fare, and then a discounted walk-up fare. So those are the four lowest fares, and those are all nonrefundable fares. And then we have two higher, refundable fares, one which is a three-day advance-purchase fare and one which is a full walk-up fare, which is the fare that would be no higher than $499 each way."
The two first-class fares?
"We have a fare that's a $50 buy-up -- a $50 price increase over the full coach fare," Bennett said. "And then we have a $100 higher fare, which is the full first-class fare."
American, for its part, lowered many economy and first-class ticket prices, eliminated its Saturday night stayover requirement in "most markets" and reduced the number of fares it offers on many routes. The one-way, economy-class walk-up fare from Reagan National to Dallas-Fort Worth dropped from $880 to $499. Unlike Delta, American kept its $100 change fee for discounted tickets.
The Way It Was
The simplest fares of all, of course, were the ones offered before 1978, when the Civil Aeronautics Board told United how much a Dulles-to-Los Angeles round trip should cost, and that was that.
After the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978, fares dropped as more airlines took to the skies, offering one-way fares as low as $19.
The major carriers largely ignored the low-cost airlines, focusing on finding ways to maximize their own profits.
One tactic was that Saturday night stayover rule.
