Where are all the bargains when we need them?

03-06-2005

Using the Internet to reserve airline seats and other elements of travel is easier than ever.

In fact, with all the Web sites from airlines and travel suppliers to online travel agencies and travel search engines, the volume of travel planning resources available 24 hours a day at the click of a mouse is staggering.

After analyzing the array of cyber-resources, she offers an approximate formula for sleuthing out the lowest air fare to get you where you want to go, recognizing that in these days of constant change and highly volatile pricing, the lowest fare may be for a routing or flight time you might not otherwise consider.

But what's the reality of following that advice to make a trip? The recent need to plan a relatively short-notice trip to Chicago gave me an opportunity to find out.

On Saturday of last weekend, I found out I had to make a business trip to go to Chicago next weekend. At first, I thought I'd have to fly out next Friday morning, which meant I had less than 14 days in advance to make a reservation, but knowing that three carriers, American, United, and US Airways, now operate daily nonstop flights between Pittsburgh International and O'Hare, I thought I'd be able to get a convenient departure and a decent rate.

That's what I thought.

Now, you may have noticed that Southwest Airlines is running ads on the Post-Gazette's Web site and elsewhere for flights to Chicago Midway beginning at $29 each way, but, alas, their Pittsburgh service doesn't start until May 4.

So I headed to www.orbitz.com, a travel Web site owned by a consortium of airlines, to see the range of possibilities. On my first visit, the screen that came up when I asked for a search for the lowest round-trip fare around my travel dates showed American, at $261, compared with $460 on United and $550 on US Airways.

Although lower fares were posted for one-stop trips, I had no desire to spend extra time making a connection somewhere like Cleveland, Detroit or, in the case of Independence Air, Washington, D.C., let alone take on the risk of a midtrip misconnection.

Although somewhat shocked at how high those fares seemed, I was committed to my own comfort and convenience. What a liberating concept!

Since I am a member of American's frequent-flier program, I decided to follow L.A. Johnson's advice and see if American was offering anything better on their own site. Now www.aa.com functions somewhat differently from the US Airways Web site, with which I am more familiar. But without too much difficulty, I was able to get a reservation that suited me perfectly, departing on nonstop flights to Chicago early Friday afternoon and returning Saturday afternoon. Even better, with taxes and security fees, the quoted rate on American was a few dollars less than that offered by Orbitz, not even including any booking fees.

I was satisfied with that price, but not wanting to buy the ticket until I confirmed my meeting times, I took advantage of American's option of a 24-hour hold on my reservation, realizing that the fare was not guaranteed until the ticket was actually purchased.

But I was still curious about something I'd seen on Orbitz, so I went back to that first page. This time, maybe an hour later than my first visit, the list of options presented was totally different. Now it showed all three carriers offering nonstop flights for $215 round trip. I went straight to www.usairways.com and, wonder of wonders, I found a flight option for $174.88 round-trip which, with taxes and security and landing fees, totaled $208.40. I felt as if I'd won a lottery and immediately booked the ticket.

Now when you buy tickets on www.usairways.com, you do have the option of making changes or canceling without penalty within 24 hours of booking. That was fortunate, because early the next morning, I learned that my trip would have to be postponed one day.

So I went back to US Airways to rebook my flights accordingly. There was no problem canceling my existing ticket or finding a departure for the outbound portion. However, getting home on Sunday afternoon or evening was another matter. No nonstop return was available unless I was willing to pay more than $300 extra. What's worse, the only possibilities for lesser-cost trips now seemed to be for flights that departed Sunday morning and involved a connection.

I decided to recheck the competition's offerings, but despite variations on a theme, the situation was no rosier at the United or American site. After sorting through another blizzard of options, I realized there was no way for me to fly back nonstop on either Sunday afternoon or evening without paying a huge premium. The best deal I could find was $218 on US Airways, although I would have to come back six hours earlier than I wanted and change planes in Dayton.

So much for quick, convenient and inexpensive.

I figure that I -- someone reasonably savvy about air fares and computer booking -- spent at least four hours fiddling with making arrangements for this trip, which, ironically, is longer than the actual round-trip flights are likely to take, unless we factor in that connection in Dayton and the possibility that it might snow that day.

Granted, I actually wound up booking the trip twice, but even at that, the process was considerably less than straightforward and convenient.

In fact, I'd more honestly describe it as labyrinthine. Trying to shop around on the Web entails figuring out how each airline packages and sells its low-cost fares. Fares can be capricious, there one minute and not the next, which can be confusing and anxiety-producing. Even with an excess of options, finding flights that suit your schedule rather than accepting barely usable options often means paying a hefty, even extortionary premium.

The Web can be great for booking flights, but it also sometimes takes on many aspects of a classic shell game or three-card monte.

Apparently, the situation is no better even if you don't mind paying top dollar. Last week, Consumer Reports WebWatch issued a report on the credibility of the online travel market, testers "concluded that buying a first-class ticket online can be much more complicated than buying an economy-class ticket."

Fare-jumping, when a rate suddenly increases or decreases during the booking process, is common. Expedia, the best performer, found the lowest first-class fare only four times in 10, and in one case, it raised a fare by $748 during the booking procedure. Even though only first-class was specified, all of the sites regularly quoted business class and even economy fares instead, and there was frequent mislabeling of information.

Booking travel online does work, but it also makes a person, even one who has good computer skills, work hard and assume considerable responsibility. Although all the booking engines seem to be improving rapidly, in other ways there's still a long way to go to return to the simplicity and ease of just calling someone who could make all the arrangements.

Of course, that option still exists. They're called travel agents.

The final irony of this exercise was that two days after I purchased the ticket, the meeting changed again. Now I have to go to Detroit on Friday. After canceling my Chicago ticket (I'll get $118 credit toward a future booking on US Airways) and checking the fares to Detroit, I've decided it'll be easier and lot less expensive to drive.

At any rate, it will be interesting to watch how these On-line booking equations change with the arrival of Southwest. At this point, $29 to Chicago seems to be an impossible but wonderful dream. Ah, being free to move around the country.

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