Show irSX lOfr The Salt lake Tribune Sunday November 20 1988 Tickets Are Boon for Fliers Bane for Airlines f Hidden-City- ’ J By Robert E Dallos Los Angeles Times i iNEW YORK — Herbert Comrov had to go from Chicago to New York oq business not long ago — so he bought a Continental Airlines ticket to Washington D C It might sound zany but when the plane made an intermediate stop at Newark International Airport just outside New York Comrov got off the plane and tore up the remainder of his ticket to Washington By doing so he saved a lot of money round-triThe fare was $186 at the time But the Chicago-Newar- k p round-tri- p even though it was a longer journey cost only $110 Comrov flies 100000 to 125000 miles a year on business and between his home in Los Angeles and his office in Chicago He is a partner in No Surrender Inc a small Chicago company that makes and sells security equipment to department stores His partner and the company’s chief technician are also frequently on the road He calculates that the company saves between $15000 and $20000 annually by taking advantage of air fare anomolies like the one that allowed him to save $76 on his flight to Newark and back "The savings are phenomenal" Comrov said But he has another reason for playing the game “It is fun to put one over on these sophisticated airlines with their big computers" he said "It’s great to beat them at their own game" Stanley Phelps director of security for the Dalton and Barnes & Noble book store chains is on the road between 30 and 40 weeks a year He also seeks out and uses such "hidden-city- " ticketing loopholes When he needs to go from his New York base to Detroit for example he buys a Northwest Airlines ticket from White Plains NY to Cleveland When the flight stops at Detroit he gets off and walks away not using the rest of the ticket for the connecting flight to Cleveland "I save about 50 bucks” he said Phelps encourages his subordinates to do likewise "My job is to get the company the best price on everything so long as I am not breaking the law to do it In my opinion every manager should negotiate the best price on everything" Comrov and Phelps are among an number of frequent fliers who are saving themselves or their employers millions of dollars by taking advantage of quirks that are largely the result of deregulation When the airlines were deregulated a decade ago they were permitted to fly any routes and to charge any fares the market would g bear On routes to airlines’ hub cities is usually very little competition According to a recent study by Airline Economics a Washington consulting firm there are 18 hub air there ports in the United States where a single airline has cornered more than half the market As a result fares are usually highest on flights to or from an airline’s hub Fares are much lower for passengers simply passing through the hub en route to other airports where there is more competition With fares rissome hidden-citon the week this savings ing fares become even more meaningful There are interesting variations to the game A Chicago lawyer who insisted on anonymity travels to New York about once every six weeks He normally returns the same day or at most stays over one night The last time he did it a round-tricoach ticket purchased without an advance reservation cost $565 But fare with an advance the round-tripurchase and a required stay over Saturday night in New York came to $118 The lawyer buys two such round-tritickets for $236 uses one of them for the morning trip to New York and the other one for the trip back in the afternoon — and saves $329 If he has to make two round trips to New York in a short period of time and plans his ticket purchases carefully he can save even more money using the other halves of the two tickets "The airlines have caused these situations" the lawyer said “If one is bright enough to find these things advance-reservatio- n y p p p one should be able to do them No law is being violated" As might be expected the airlines are more than annoyed by such practices They would just as soon these hidden bargains remain just that: hidden In an effort not to give the uninitated any ideas they are reluctant even to discuss the subject And they say that it is impossible to calculate the loss of revenues they incur from passengers exploitation of fare anomolies While conceding that such fare beating is not illegal they warn that it violates published airline tariff regulations "We would not encourage anyone to violate the rules" a United Airlines spokesman said "If we find anyone cheating we will enforce the full price of the ticket" But uncovering such violations is difficult How for example does an airline tell the difference between a legitimate “no show" for a flight and a deliberate effort to deceive? Also there is no way an airline can restrain a passenger from getting off an airplane or force him to reboard it It is virtually impossible for a hiddeflier to be caught at the airif the tactic is used for one way port flights only But alert ticket agents flido occasionally catch round-triers when they show up at the airport for their return flights If the computer at the ticket counter shows that a round-tripassenger left a flight at an intermediate stop and did not complete a subsequent leg of a ticketed trip the passenger's reservations for the return flight are canceled Then when the passenger shows up for the flight home the airline will not honor the ticket and will demand payment of full coach fare There is another drawback to usfares: Passengers ing hidden-citmust take no more baggage than they can carry on board because checked baggage is sent to the final destination stated on the ticket Some airlines are taking a hard line against the practice American Airlines sued the owner of two travel tickagencies for selling hidden-citets The case was recently settled Airlines say that most passengers are too unsophisticated to know that such low-farpossibilities exist and that the piactice has been inspired and encouraged by travel agents trying to get their customers the lowest fares Many of the agencies' customers are companies with large travel budgets but they too are trying to cut corners Understandably travel agents will not speak for attribution about the practice They fear that if the airlines know that they are involved in such schemes they will lose the right to issue tickets But agents agree that it is corporate customers who most often ask for tickets providing "hidden-city- " fare advantages Individual travelers seldom ask because as one agent Raid “They know about it but not how it works" The owner of a large travel agency in the South with major corporate clients said she never suggests "hidden-city" ticketing to customers but does accommodate them when they n-city e request p p y y it Includes 3 Years Service Lease a Canon NP1215 copier for $9900 per month before Dec 31 and we’ll include service for 3 years or 72000 copies!! DON’T BUY THAT H? USER JET PRINTER WITHOUT FIRST LOOKING AT: and get a Canon 35mm Camera FREE! jjlbOCERa The NP 1215 Compart convenience at a touch Copies up to 11” x 17” Convenient Front loading poper cassette 79 RESIDENT FONTS 15 MB MEMORY 10 PPM 7 EMULATIONS DUAL PAPER TRAYS a Advanced zoom (50to 200) Stationary platen Coma In for a Demonstration and gat a Canon Pocket FREE Calculator Canon NP1215 Sea Daalar for Datails Associated Business Products Inc SALT LAKE CITY 193 West 2100 South T WE SELL IS SATISFACTION An Ako Standard Company GIVE A BRIGHTER FUTURE! Generic With Free $9050 disk storage case Ideal for the serious investor 299 MAGNAV0X YGA MONITOR DISK DRIVES 529 MAGNAVOX Hard Drives: 20 mb to 70 mb Floppy Drives: 360K and 12 mb (5'4”) 720K and 144 mb (35") for DOZENS OF PC and CARDS AND PRODUCTS AT Compatibles Ribbons for Dtskehts 425 MAGNAV0X nost poputo printers S' and $' V — generic end Roper end occestones IBM-AT- ® Compatible Accounv 200 woH power supply AT style keyboard S12K RAM (sere wait state) 9 expansion slots (C-- 6 at type) 12m floppy disk drive 6 or 12 Mhi switchabie Senol and parallel pari Clock calendar 4 Monochrome graphics and Hercules compatible a Monochrome TTL monitor PAF Ganaalogy Software Included Simple to aparcita 14" monochrome monitor disk drive printer DUAL FLOPPY DRIVE lufgetted retail prxa 3 nomebrand Best Price on any Genealogy System! All you odd it ADD-O- N For IBM® Compatibles EGA COLOR MONITOR 3'V Looking for high Money Market interest but not willing to tie up your funds for months at a time? Then First Federal Savings new Silver Money Market Account is right for you RGB COLOR MONITOR DISKETTES Si Earn interest a full V percent higher than the Treasury Bill rate ® Convenient daily access to your money Si Interest compounded and credited montlily Sj Accounts insured up to $100000 by an agency of the Federal Government vf Kates adjust monthly 91-d- Pnnter port $1 199 00 DOS 4 0 One year warranty OUR PRICE ONLY 749 SINGLE FLOPPY WITH HARD DISK 999 retl prxt $1699 00 OUR PRICE ONLY COPAL 1250 s!4®5 PRINTER Bidirectional printing at 144 cp 80 column! (pica tixa type) Near laltar quality print (dual pott) Epon or IBM" graphic emulation Raarfaed troctor or single shaats Standard parolltl interface 1 yaar warranty 6 cable included For uunplt if inli 200 : ay niition m this hijih virld DOWNTOWN: 421 South 400 Salt Lako City Ut 84111 9 rl Sot MIDVALLEY: 3672 9:00-3:3- 10-- 2 0 South Redwood Rd Ut Taylorsville 531-138- STORE HOURS Mon-F- last NEW LOCATION Mon-F- rl Sat Fifth cuiritv munci market account call am First Federal office today FIRST FEDERAL SAVINGS BURGOYNE COMPUTERS INC 331-138- Outside SLC Call Earn High Money Market Interest-Wi-th Convenient Daily Access M g'MH 50 486-923- 6 - The Human Touch 84118 9 (extended hours) 10-- 8 10-- 4 QUALITY COMPUTER PRODUCTS SINCE 1975 1 Pluu Fugle (late 505 List jotl South 531780(1 tki Fast South Temple Member FsllC 533 HO'Xi Foothill 1 1 13 Foothill Ur 583 5005 Fashion Place 6123 South State Murra- v- 531 7811 C Price 308 East Mum Price — 637-344- 8 First Federal Savings 1988 |