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Show It Lake Tribune BUSINESS Surnday, November10, 2002 Air Fares Have Fallen, But Best Deals May Be Already Gone BY NICOLE HARRIS THE WALL STREET JOURNAL In recent years, fliers have faced extra fees for everything from security costs to runway landing charges. Now, just in time for the holiday season, there is a price to pay for procrastination as well. Faresare at their lowestlevels in more than a decade, but asairlines cut back, seats have become increasingly scarce. For buyers, that means fewer of the deep last-minute discounts that fliers have gotten used to in recent years. In short, the holiday bargains you currently York to Chicago is priced at offer the seat for peak travel $174 on the travel Web site times around the Thanksgiv see are mostlikelythe bargains you are going to get. Orbitz.com for flights leaving Asa result, the now-familiar NewYork-to-Los Angeles ticket is $266, departing Nov. 26 and returning Dec. 2. Already, the cheapest of the cheapfares are starting to dis- ing holidays was $328 on the route. “The cheapest tickets are already gone,” says Bob practice of playing. chicken with the airlines — trolling the Webuntil the last possible day — mightbackfire this season. This year, average domestic fares are about 18 percent cheaper than two years ago, excluding taxes and fees, their Nov. 27 and returning Dec. 1. A age of bargains for procrastinators is the airline industry's appear. According to fare trackers Harrell & Associates, financial crisis. Faced with heavy losses, carriers have the cheapest fare for Fort Lau- been busycutting down on the number ofplanes they are fly- Association trade group. Cur- derdale, Fla., to NewYork was $128 as of last week. However, the actual lowestavailable fare — in other words, the price at rently, a roundtrip from New which airlines are willing to lowest pointsince thelate '80s, according to the Air Transport Harrell of Harrell & Associates. Behind the looming short Karen Hanrahan, a 54-year- old school administrator in Fairfax, Va, booked her Christmas travel from Baltimore to San Diego in early ago. Meanwhile, demand is running ahead of last year's levels meaning there will be September to make sure she could get the times she wanted Back then, fares on the route were more than $300, but have soared past $400 since then. lots offull planes. It may already be toolate, for instance, to find inexpensive holiday seats to some warm spots such as Mexico. Jinny Nissenbaum of Touraine Travel & Cruises in Bostonlast Attractivefares still may be available for travelers willing to work around blackoutdates. For example, if an airline has sold out ofgood deals on tickets week couldn't find any round. with travel on the day before Thanksgiving and the follow ing Sunday, try leaving on Thanksgiving evening and returningthe following Tuesday, after most fliers have already trips between Boston and Dallas over Thanksgiving forless ing,in order to save money. As than $700. “Nowit’s more a a result, there are about 8 per- question of what's available, centfewer seats available this rather than what you want,” year compared with two years she says. gone home. Fliers’ Water May Not Be as Safe as Airlines Say BY NANCY KEATES and JANE COSTELLO THE The Next Stage” WALL STREET JOURNAL WhenJuanita Green needed to take some medication on a flight to Los Angeles, she washed down thepill witha cup of water from the plane's bathroom faucet. It tasted funny, but shetried notto think about it. “For peace ofmind,”says the nurse from Miraloma,Calif. “I just hope sterilized.” it’s clean and For years, fliers have wor- ried about everything from stuffy cabin air to bad meals. But whataboutthe water? Whileairlinesinsistit’s safe to drink, some little-noticed studies from Japan to the Netherlands have turned up someunfriendly bacteria in the tank water, including E. coli and the germ that causes Legionnaire'’s disease. U.S. researchers havetested it, too, with mixed results that suggest you don’t know what youare drinking. Ina WallStreet Journaltest, staffers packed sample vials andtook to the skies, hopping on 14 different flights every- Wells Fargo EquityLine with FlexAbility”"— the smart way to prepare forall oflife's stages wherefrom Atlanta to Sydney, Australia. On each, water was collected from the galley and lavatory taps, sealed up and sent to a lab for analysis. The results of the water-quality snapshot: a long list of microscopic life you don’t want to drink, from Salmonella and Staphylococcus to tiny insect eggs. Worse, Increase your ability to flex your home's purchasing powe =a er) ic Fargo contamination wasthe rule, not the exception: Almost all the bacteria levels were tens, sometimes hundreds, of times above U.S. governmentlimits. “This wateris EquityLine with lea daliig) account line to loan fle ibility lets you convert not potable by any means,” Ell ogy Laboratories in Muncie, into 4 Tt xed-rate says Donald Hendrickson, the director of Hoosier MicrobiolInd., which tested the samples. yrtion of The good news, of course, is that this water isn’t the main drinking supplyfor passengers, whousually get bottled water from the beverage carts. But plenty of people depend on the plane’s taps to wash their hands and brush their teeth. Andwhilethe airlines say they ie) your line of credit’ fixed-payment. loan’ abou] em yels] ay Ore 1adel0] (el ar ye of life rarely serve tap water, many Open your EquityLine with FlexAbility led water runs out, they turn to account today with your Wells Fargo flight attendants say it isn’t that uncommon. Whenthe botthe tanks — which, underfederal regulations, are supposed to provide drinkable water. Fortheir part, the airlines say they closely follow federal guidelines for drinking water, and say no passengers have ever complained aboutgetting sick from it. “It’s absolutely drinkable,” says a United spokesman. They called the Journal's water tests ea tific, and said the samplers could have Cintiinted the results. But the Journal's experts said human contamination wouldn’t explain all the results. Someof the watercollected on a short flight to St. Louis,for ex ample, contained Pasteurella pneumotropica, a bacterium primarily carried by rodents. Similarly, our Chicago-to-Los a. range of infections. And while the U.S. government sets a maximus bacterial level of 500 “colony-forming units” per milliliter for municipal drink ing water, our lab counted tainted raw hamburger, Hen drickson says. “If| were the airline, | would worryabout what theseresults say about the sanitation in oe ir galleys,” says ee Sa vers, outgoing presidentof the American Society for Misch ology and a professor at the University of Mlinois at Urbana-Champaign. . COPY banker, call 1-800-777-3000or visit us at wellsfargo.com. |