Good news, bad news for travelers

When Seattle paralegal Laura Gold booked a trip in May to Maui for a friend’s October wedding, she was happy to find an Expedia package that included nonstop flights for herself and a companion.

Two months later, Expedia sent an e-mail asking her to call immediately. Delta Air Lines had canceled the flight.

Offered a new itinerary with a stop in Los Angeles on the way over and an overnight layover in Salt Lake City on the return, she applied for a refund, then spent several frantic hours searching for an alternative, finally rebooking on Hawaiian Airlines for $125 more per ticket.

“I probably worked on it five or six hours, looking at various airlines,” she said. “Delta said it was because they were canceling a lot of their flights and … that was it. Too bad.”

With Labor Day signaling the end of the summer travel season, fliers between now and the Christmas holidays will notice changes as the airlines struggle to fill seats and boost revenues.

The good news is that fares, far cheaper than they were last year when fuel prices skyrocketed, are likely to stay low, even for holiday travel.

But as airlines continue to cut capacity – either by eliminating flights or using smaller planes – the result will be less-convenient routes and fewer nonstop flights.

Flights in and out of Seattle-Tacoma International Airport will be less affected than in some other cities, mainly because Alaska/Horizon – which accounts for nearly half the airport’s passenger traffic – made its biggest route adjustments earlier this year.

Policies vary on how far airlines will go to re-accommodate passengers when they cancel or change flights. Refunds are almost always offered, but that doesn’t help anyone faced with a last-minute change.

Alaska’s policy calls for letting passengers move their departure or arrival by a day with no change fee if a more convenient flight is available. It will also rebook passengers on another carrier’s flight.

Southwest doesn’t offer that option but will allow rebooking on another Southwest flight within a 14-day window without penalty.

Capacity cuts usually mean airlines can raise fares, the theory being that the remaining flights should be fuller with fewer seats available.

But “with the drop in business travel, the bottom line is they have to keep those planes packed with leisure travelers,” says Rick Seaney, an air-travel expert and CEO of FareCompare.com, a Web site that keeps track of fare changes.

Seaney recommends shopping within a three-month window of when you plan to travel, and not booking too far ahead.

“Nobody should even be looking past January,” Seaney says. “Any trip after that, you should be waiting.”