American Prompts Air Fare War Other Airlines Join Sale Meant To Lure Passengers

A fare sale designed to bring back disgruntled American Airlines passengers seemed to be working Sunday, a day after President Clinton intervened to halt a pilots strike.

American spokesman John Hotard said the airline’s reservations system received thousands of calls on Saturday, about nine times higher than normal. Call volume was still heavy Sunday.

American is offering discounts averaging 50 percent off domestic fares through March 14 and 45 percent off domestic fares through May 31. The discounts apply to tickets bought by March 3.

Discount fares are also being offered for international travel and double frequent-flier miles will be offered through March 14.

Other airlines, who earlier were looking forward to picking up American passengers inconvenienced by the strike, launched their own competing promotions. United Airlines and Northwest Airlines said they would match American’s sale in markets where they compete. Continental also is offering a similar promotion, but said Sunday it was too early to judge its success.

Delta Air Lines said Saturday it had no plans to match the fares until at least midweek. USAir said Sunday it was still deciding whether to match American’s sale.