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Stay or Pay: Airlines will add restrictions to cheapest tickets
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Published: August 22, 2008
Get ready for a wave of airline rules requiring you to stay at your destination a minimum number of days or over a Saturday night if you want the cheapest tickets.
The move is an effort to force business travelers, who usually need the most flexibility and want to be home on the weekends, to pay more for their flights.
Airlines have increased restrictions on cheap fares by raising overnight requirements, upping what had commonly been only a one-night stay requirement to two and three nights. The overnights can be weeknights, so those tickets aren't as onerous as Saturday-night stay tickets.
A recent check by FareCompare.com found that 64 percent of the 5,335 round-trip air fares for sale at United Airlines, for example, had some sort of minimum-stay requirement. Most were two- and three-night stay requirements.
For many years the Saturday-night requirement was a prime tactic airlines used to separate business travelers from leisure customers. The Saturday-night stay forced many business travelers to either pay hundreds of dollars more for each ticket, or to spend an extra night or two on the road to save money. If the choice was a $300 ticket or a $2,000 ticket, many companies would ask travelers to stay over Saturday night at a nice hotel, have a nice meal and still save hundreds.
But as discount airlines spread into more markets, bringing simpler pricing that often didn't have such onerous restrictions, incumbent carriers lost customers and were ultimately forced to simplify their pricing to stay competitive.
In early 1995, Delta Air Lines Inc. overhauled its pricing structure with "Simplifares," capping its highest domestic fare at $499 one-way and removing many restrictions on tickets. Other airlines matched, putting their pricing in line with discount airlines, and business travelers had easy choices. By booking in advance, they could still get discounted tickets even if the itinerary didn't include a weekend.
High fuel prices spelled the end of simplified pricing, and now airline executives have business travelers in their crosshairs. Because they may not be as price-sensitive as people flying off to visit friends or relatives, airlines are scrambling for ways to get business travelers to spend more.
So far this year, many business travelers have found ways around increases in both fare prices and restrictions. One way is to buy tickets early when cheaper fares are available before they sell out. Another is to skip first-class tickets and business-class tickets on some trips, riding coach instead. Orbitz for Business calculated that air fares were up 8.5 percent in the first half of this year, but the tickets clients actually bought were up only 1.6 percent.
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