Airlines Turn To Internet To Help Fill Empty Seats Special Deals Available For Computer-Savvy Travelers Who Have The Freedom To Be Flexible

Terrence J. Randell, 26, took a trip through the Internet last week.

While surfing the World Wide Web one afternoon, Randell, a systems administrator at the National Academy of Sciences cruised to the home page of USAir. And there he found his weekend escape from Washington - a $79 round-trip air fare to Rochester, N.Y., a huge discount from the going rate of $430.

“If I were the kind of guy who did a lot of traveling, I’d like to keep this a secret,” said Randell, who left Saturday to visit graduate school buddies in Rochester for the weekend.

Randell is part of a growing group of mostly young, computer-savvy consumers who are capitalizing on dramatically discounted air fares offered exclusively on the Internet by some major carriers. In exchange for time spent searching on the Web and the flexibility to travel at short notice, some travelers are receiving better deals than those advertised by the airlines, even at fall sale prices announced last week by several major carriers.

For the airlines, cybersales provide a solution to a nagging economic problem: How to fill, at the 11th hour, seats that would otherwise go empty.

“The airline industry has come up with what I think is an extraordinarily smart answer to the billions of dollars they lose every year on vacant seats,” said John Ash, managing director of Global Aviation, a consulting firm. “It’s an illustration of the airlines truly entering the computer age. And surprisingly enough, it’s an example where both the airlines and passengers are benefiting.”

Executives at major airlines say they envision the cybersales as lucrative marketing tools to capture the loyalty of twentysomethings, encourage them to join frequent-flier programs and turn them into long-term customers.

The Internet fares aren’t being promoted by the airlines, which prefer to keep the concept low-profile as they study the economics. Rather, the concept has become popular in a fashion common in the computer counterculture - through flying e-mail messages and electronic gossip.

“You know how these things get started; one person sends an e-mail to their friend and so on and so on,” said John Samuel, American Airlines director of distribution planning. The 33-year-old executive was the first to employ the concept, which he hatched after watching a new American Airlines cable channel in a Dallas suburb, which offered similar special fares.

The Internet fares - unavailable by calling the airline cold, and as much as 70 percent to 80 percent less than full fares - save the airlines on travel agent commissions, ticket printing and other processing costs that make up about 25 percent of a carrier’s annual expenses.

“We’re all attacking distribution costs, and ultimately, there are some airlines that may only sell (full-fare) tickets through normal channels,” said Al Lenza, Northwest Airlines’ managing director of distribution planning.

Since American Airlines launched its cybersales in March, the program has netted “several million” dollars in sales and drawn more than 200,000 subscribers who peruse its list of “netsaavers” when it is changed every Wednesday at 1 a.m.

Other airlines that have employed the concept - including USAir, Northwest and Continental Airlines - say thousands of potential travelers are checking out their Web fares.

It doesn’t take a hardened Web veteran to access these fares. Consumers can receive a weekly listing of discounted fares by e-mail from American, USAir and Continental by sending their e-mail address through the airlines’ Web sites, which places them on a subscriber list. Consumers are then greeted each Wednesday morning with a list of bargains for that weekend. Northwest requires potential fliers to check its Web site for its “cybersaver” deals.

There are several methods for getting your seat assignment, but the easiest is to call the carrier directly through a phone line provided to e-mail subscribers. Tickets are processed at the airport, or consumers can ask for “electronic tickets,” similar to confirmation numbers for hotels. The Internet service is free.

There are some catches, however. First, one must have access to a computer, and in most cases, must have an Internet address. Also, you must be able to fly on a Saturday and book a ticket no more than three days in advance.

Stays are no more than three nights. And while some hot spots - such as Miami, New York and San Francisco - often show up among bargain fares, not all the destinations prove as popular - Syracuse, N.Y., and Lubbock, Tex., for instance, are staples.