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A holiday gift for travelers: lower airfares

Late ticket buyers can reap benefits of slow economy, oil price dip

By Chris Walsh, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published November 18, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.

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Grandma keeps asking when you'll arrive for Thanksgiving.

The in-laws are already preparing the basement bedroom for your visit this Christmas. And your buddies are gearing up for New Year's Eve debauchery in Las Vegas.

But you haven't even booked your airline tickets yet.

Normally that would be a bad thing: Airfares often rocket the closer it gets to the busy winter holidays.

Your procrastinating ways, however, might pay off this year.

Airfares for travel near Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's have dipped on many routes - particularly those from Denver - in the past few weeks. In some cases, travelers can save hundreds of dollars from what they would have paid a month or two ago for the same tickets.

"I think you were very smart this time if you waited," said Tom Parsons, who runs travel site BestFares.com. "It's clear that, compared to five or six weeks ago, we've seen a major drop in holiday fares."

To be sure, average fares for the holidays are still up from a year ago - and that doesn't even count the new charges airlines have instituted over the past year for checking bags and changing flights, among other things.

And some fares, particularly for travel on peak days and to warm-weather leisure destinations such as Hawaii and the Caribbean, remain high.

Yet there are plenty of good holiday deals out there from Denver, and in some cases fares are even less than you might pay at other, slower times of the year.

Round-trip fares between Denver and major cities such as Atlanta, Chicago, St. Louis and Washington, D.C., for travel near Christmas and New Year's Eve have dropped by an average of $57 compared with October, according to data from BestFares.com. In fact, fares dropped in more than 70 percent of those markets.

Airfares for the winter holidays from Denver are averaging $424, down from $438 several weeks ago.

Chalk it up to an unstable economy, a sharp decline in the price of oil and a resulting dropoff in demand.

"This is very rare," said Bob Harrell of New York-based airline consultancy Harrell Associates. "Fares normally don't go down the closer you get to the holidays."

Earlier this year, as oil prices soared to record levels, airlines raised fares, implemented fuel surcharges, raised fees for a host of services and tacked on new charges for things like checking bags.

They have been slow to lower fares and fuel surcharges as fuel prices drop, saying they were late to enact them in the first place. Airlines also were hoping to keep prices high by eliminating flights - and therefore reducing the supply of seats - this fall and winter.

But consumers looking to rein in their spending habits are swinging the cost-cutting ax at travel.

That's forcing airlines to lower prices, as demand is falling more than expected. Consumers also are starting to push back now that fuel prices have declined so dramatically.

"Airlines were going for the jugular by cutting back flights, and when fuel started going down they were dancing in the streets," fare expert Parsons said. "But they didn't see this economic crisis coming. So some people are rethinking travel plans, and airlines aren't able to charge these outrageous prices anymore."

While holiday fares are dropping nationally, Denver has seen some of the biggest dips, Parsons said.

The city is in a unique position with three large carriers. While two of them - United Airlines and Frontier Airlines - have been eliminating flights, the third-largest carrier in Denver has been adding service. Southwest Airlines has, in fact, more than doubled its presence here this year, nearly offsetting the cutbacks by its competitors.

"Denver is a little bit of a different animal than the rest of the country," said Frontier spokesman Steve Snyder. "A lot of other cities are feeling the impact of capacity reductions, so there's less of an inventory around Thanksgiving. But in Denver there's been little overall capacity reduction, so fares are relatively stable."

Average fares out of DIA in general have been up most of the year. During the first half of September, listed fares were 13 percent higher than during the same period a year earlier, Harrell said, adding that weekly numbers fluctuate greatly. By the beginning of November, however, fares were flat compared with a year earlier, Harrell said.

"Fares are really leveling off" in Denver and nationwide, he said. "I think the airlines were dreaming when they thought they could hold fares at those levels."

Tips on making your trip smooth

With all the changes, holiday travel could shape up to be more confusing and time-consuming than ever for consumers who haven't flown in a while. Following are tips to make your trip as smooth - and cheap - as possible.

Avoiding fees and saving money

* Pack as light as possible and try to avoid checking bags in the first place.

* Consider flying Southwest Airlines, which doesn't assess many of the baggage fees and other charges its competitors have instituted in recent years.

* Check out individual airline Web sites for any one-time reductions when it comes to the new fees. United Airlines, for instance, is now offering a 20 percent discount off the $15 fee for a first checked bag for travelers who pay for it via the carrier's Web site between Nov. 10 and Jan. 31.

Moving through ticketing and security

* Print your boarding pass at home, particularly if you don't plan to check bags, which will allow you to avoid the longest lines at the ticketing counters.

* Be prepared to shell out more money at the ticket counter. Fumbling for a credit card to pay for your checked bags not only delays the process for you but for everyone else in line as well.

* If you're traveling with children, or if you simply need more time to go through security, use one of the new "family" lanes the Transportation Security Administration has rolled out at airports nationwide.

* If you don't want to hassle with long security lines, sign up for the Registered Traveler program, which allows members to use a separate lane at participating airports. At Denver International Airport, a company called Clear runs the program.

Perks

* Be wary of voluntarily giving up your seat on overbooked flights for cash or a voucher. Often you'll have to fly standby on the next flight out of town, which means you could get bumped again. Ask the airline when it can give you a guaranteed seat assignment.

* If you haven't bought a ticket yet, keep checking to see if you can use frequent flier miles for holiday travel. Many airlines will release more reward seats as the departure date nears for flights that aren't full.

Deals from Denver

Airfares for holiday travel have started to creep down in recent weeks, especially in Denver. There are some good deals if you're flexible and can travel on nonpeak days. Some round-trip fares we've found in recent days:

THANKSGIVING

Denver to Chicago

* Lowest price on peak days (Nov. 26-Nov. 30): $352 on United

* Lowest price on other days (Nov. 26-Dec. 2): $189 on Southwest

Denver to Los Angeles

* Peak days: $344.50 on Southwest

* Others (Nov. 25-Dec. 2): $199 on United and Frontier (Nov. 24-Nov. 28); $199 on Southwest (Nov. 26-Dec. 2)

Denver to Orlando, Fla.

* Peak days: $622 on Southwest

* Others (Nov. 25-Dec. 2): $278 on Southwest

CHRISTMAS

Denver to Atlanta

* Peak days (Dec. 23-Dec. 28): $466 on Northwest

* Others (Dec. 21-Dec. 26): $424 on AirTran

Denver to Phoenix

* Peak days: $189 Frontier there, United on the way back.

* Others (Dec. 20-Dec. 26): $159 on US Airways

Denver to Washington, D.C., area

* Peak days: $511 on United to Baltimore

* Others (Dec. 25 - Dec. 31): $269 on United

NEW YEAR'S

Denver to Las Vegas

* Peak days (Dec. 3 0/31- Jan. 4): $174 on Frontier

* Others (Dec. 31-Jan. 5): $159 on Frontier

Denver to New York

* Peak days: $388 on United

* Others (Dec. 29-Jan. 5): $360 on United

Denver to New Orleans

* Peak days: $372 on American

* Others (Dec. 29-Jan. 1): $199 on United

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