AirTran fakes a fare sale
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The other day, FareCompare.com CEO Rick Seaney sent over an analysis of AirTran’s recent fare sale. “When is a fare sale not really a fare sale?” The answer: When the airline hikes its fares, only to lower them with great fanfare a few days later. Hooray for the status quo?
Rick suggests that this is tantamount to those stores that once lined the streets of midtown Manhattan, declaring they were going out of business. That is, until you saw that the name of the store was “Going Out of Business, Inc.” or something like that.
So how did AirTran join such esteemed company as the all-things-must-go merchants of New York City? Within a one-month period, Air Tran raised their fares three times — twice for three days, once for five days — and then brought them back to the previous level. Each time, their return to normal pricing was heralded with breathless press releases and a marketing blitz, announcing a sale.
Rick is right: This is an at best questionable, at worst deceptive business practice. Think about it: If a department store jacked up its prices for a few days, then brought them back to normal, customers might be filing complaints with the Federal Trade Commission. Perhaps AirTran thinks that the fluctuating nature of air ticket prices makes them immune to such charges, but I think they’re walking on some very thin ice.
So now they’ve been called out on it. We’ll see if they’ll change their tune, of they’ll just keep right on doing it. If enough people catch on, the phrase “AirTran fare sale” might be like the boy crying wolf.
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June 21st, 2007 at 8:58 am |
Don’t know if your comment was tongue in cheek or not, but department stores do this all the time…
June 21st, 2007 at 9:58 am |
Ah, just one more reason to add to my list of why I won’t fly Air Tran.
August 24th, 2007 at 2:58 pm |
The reason the prices change is because they have sales often, and the dates usually overlap. Airtran has a sale (say, August 14 Nov 10). When a sale ends the prices go back up. When they have the next sale (say, September 5 - Nov 20), it will go back down if the dates you are looking at are in the same time frame. Wash, Rinse, Repeat.
October 15th, 2007 at 7:17 pm |
I booked my air fare for Christmas 2 weeks ago (responding to an AirTran sale e-mail). I received another airfare sale e-mail from AirTran and the same flights I booked are now $80 less. I would prefer to not play roulette with flights. I would like to think that if I book early, and take the cheapest flights available, that I am getting the best price for that AirTran flight. Except of course, I can understand the last minute deals if a flight does not fill up.
The way AirTran shows the prices, the cheapest flights go first. I took the cheapest seats available for the days I wanted to travel. Then they offer more seats at a lower price, 2 weeks later? The lower price should have been offered previously.
I have written AirTran and will see how they respond. Really, I have been very happy with all my flights with AirTran.