Several Airlines Back Off Of Fare Increases Last Week’s Ticket Price Hikes Particularly Irritated Business Travelers, So Airlines Retreat

After irritating Monday morning travelers with 5 percent fare increases, some major carriers quickly backed off and returned to last week’s prices.

Northwest Airlines raised its full-fare, unrestricted tickets by 5 percent last week, and other airlines followed with across-the-board increases. But carriers began reinstating the old fares Monday.

“We have withdrawn our increases to remain competitive,” said Bill Berry, a spokesman for Delta Air Lines, which had waited until late Friday before boosting fares.

“They needed to,” said Sal DePace, president of Golden Jet Travel Service in Marietta, Ga. “This morning, I was almost knocked off my chair when I looked at the fares.”

A customer Monday morning had to pay $1,104 for a roundtrip fare on Delta from Atlanta to New York, much more than he expected to pay.

“He was very ticked, but he said he had to make that trip,” DePace said.

American Airlines spokesman Tim Smith said his carrier pulled back its fares Monday not so much because of such negative reactions, but as “a competitive response.” He said the higher fares were in place such a short time that he doubted most people were aware of the increases.

United Airlines’ initial fares Monday indicated they had withdrawn the 5 percent increase. A United spokesman said an industry company that transmits new fares had misunderstood - the carrier wanted to withdraw the increase in selected markets, such those in which it competes with Southwest Airlines, which didn’t raise fares last week.

Spokesman Joe Hopkins said the higher fares were being reinstated in other markets.

“Fares are volatile in the airline industry,” Hopkins explained. “Fare changes are made at lightning speed, and that’s the nature of this very competitive business.”

“Imagine how confusing this is to the consumer,” said DePace.

The increases over the weekend had boosted an unrestricted coach roundtrip between Dallas-New York from $1,508 to $1,584; Washington-Minneapolis from $1,016 to $1,066 and Chicago-Los Angeles from $1,768 to $1,856.

Southwest Airlines had declined to go along with the increases.

“Our plan is to stay the course,” Southwest spokeswoman Linda Rutherford said. “Right now, we’re very pleased with the current fare levels.”

Northwest spokesman Jon Austin said officials there were studying the fare situation Monday afternoon. he carrier had started the fare increases by raising its walk-up, unrestricted fares, but Austin said those fares accounted for only about 2 percent of Northwest’s business.

“We thought they were out of line with the rest of the fare structure overall,” Austin said.

Analysts had attributed the fare increases to the continued strong national economy, solid booking levels, and the expected rise in post-summer business traffic. They said the carriers might return later to the higher fares.

Business travelers on tight schedules often have little alternative but to pay the unrestricted fares.

“This is the group that the fares hit the hardest,” said Nancy Dunnan, managing editor of Travel Smart magazine. “I don’t think they just shrug off increases.”

She said in times of corporate layoffs, business travelers often make better efforts than in the past to keep down expense accounts.

She and other industry-watchers said some business travelers are trying harder to schedule trips in advance to qualify for lower fares, using travel clubs or Internet services to find last-minute bargains, or bypassing frequent flier miles to travel on small carriers.