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City Life

Flier playing the fare game encounters unfair twists

By SANDRA THOMPSON
Published October 22, 2005

Thursday I e-mailed a friend in New Jersey as soon as I saw the newspaper ad: two days left to get a Tampa/Newark flight on JetBlue for $59!

If she's like most of us, she'll jump at the price. We love to get a deal out of the airlines. In fact, we are obsessed with paying the absolute lowest price for a flight, and when we do we brag to our friends. It's become a national sport.

It's not that air fares are high; it's the thrill of the hunt. There are so many air fares (some include fees and taxes; some don't) and so much small print (JetBlue's deal was good only on Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday only until Dec. 21, but not Nov. 22-28, and with up to $17.50 in fees and taxes), it takes some savvy. But it's worth it when you get a $200 round trip on the red-eye from the West Coast - so what if you had to leave at midnight? Connect in Minneapolis en route to Tampa from San Francisco? For $259, no problem. I did it in this summer.

Of course, if you're the kind of person who makes travel plans six months in advance and sticks to them, you can grab a fire sale price the day it's advertised, and you're sitting pretty.

Do you know any of those people? I don't, and I resent them for making things difficult for the rest of us.

I did it once. I actually booked my flights two months in advance. Since I always visit my daughter on her birthday, it seemed like a no-brainer. And who could pass up a Tampa-LaGuardia round trip at $116 - total!

Remember September 2004? No, my flight was not canceled because of a hurricane, but when Ivan - No. 3! - appeared, I took off for New York. It was about two weeks before my daughter's birthday. I stayed for six days in a fifth-floor walkup with her, her Dalmatian and her cat and it was a lot of fun, but I didn't feel like I had to do it again six days after I returned to Tampa. And, it turned out, she was coming here for a wedding the first weekend of October. So I canceled the $116 flights.

I would have to pay a $25 change fee, no big deal, and I would use the ticket next time.

Except that the next time, American had only two flights to LaGuardia - one at 7:55 a.m. and another at 6:22 p.m. My husband and I would have had to get up in the middle of the night, get into the city at 11:30 and wander around, dying to take a shower, until we could get into our hotel room. Forget the evening flight; why pay New York City prices for a hotel when we'd get there too late to do anything?

So we went on another airline.

My $116 e-ticket burned a hole in my inbox. I had to use it within a year of purchase, but when I appealed to American, it graciously allowed me to trade it for a voucher, valid for a year after it was issued.

In August I decided to use it. The best ticket price I could get was $196. So I paid the difference ($80) plus $5 (it turned up on my credit card bill, and I have no idea what it's for, maybe punishment for not making the reservation on the Internet). And yes, I wandered around dying to take a shower for four hours until my hotel room was ready.

Then I decided to fly back a day early. Again, only two flights available. The 8:20 a.m. was out; which left the 6:30 p.m. The agent told me the $25 change fee plus the difference in ticket price would cost me another $90. On principle, I said forget it. But JetBlue and Song were even higher. When I called American back, the price had leapt to $195 - and there was only one seat left.

I took it. So my cheapo Tampa/LaGuardia round trip airfare ended up costing $396.

It kind of soured me on air travel, that and only one lavatory not out of order for 100-plus coach passengers while the dozen swells in first class had one all to themselves.

But this fall my husband was going to a conference in San Francisco. This time I played it safe and paid with frequent flier miles. Free, theoretically, but American charged a $50 late fee. I got sick and couldn't go. Now I have one year to use the ticket. If I book exactly the same itinerary, it costs zip. If I change the itinerary or redeposit the miles, it's $100. And I don't get the $50 late fee back, either.

But my husband's conference - and the five nights at the Ritz-Carlton - are over, and I was just in San Francisco!

Now who's bragging.

Sandra Thompson, a Tampa writer, can be reached at sandrathompson1@mac.com City Life appears on Saturday.

[Last modified October 22, 2005, 01:12:02]