By Michael Hill
Correspondent
“Absolutely, true. That has been my experience,” said Ann Marie Cosentino of Freehold.
Cosentino frequently flies for business and says she has seen a huge price difference in booking a multi-city trip versus several one-way tickets, the kind of difference Sen. Bob Menendez pointed out today as he accused three major airlines of price gouging.
“It’s yet another stealth airfare rip off,” he said.
The senator says his staff called one of the three big airlines yesterday and found a multi-city round trip ticket — Newark to Los Angeles to San Francisco and back to Newark — costs $1,311. But if staff booked it as three, one-way tickets — one from Newark to L.A., and a separate one L.A. to San Francisco, and back to Newark — the cost drops to $592, a $700 price difference.
“That makes no sense. You’re riding same plane with the same crew using the same amount of jet fuel, even sitting maybe in the same seat. It shouldn’t cost hundreds of dollars more,” Menendez said.
“I think it’s unfair. I think there needs to be some controls put in place so that doesn’t continue. But, we’re at the mercy of the airlines. They’re allowed to charge what they want to charge,” Cosentino said.
Last week, the chairman of the Business Travel Coalition asked the Justice Department to investigate whether American, Delta and United had colluded to set prices, writing, “Perhaps most troubling is how the airlines knew that their competitors had made this change (virtually at the same time) given that there was no public announcement.”
In calling for the U.S. Department of Transportation to investigate, the senator echoed that.
“It seems to me the nation’s big airlines are working in concert to deceive and cheat the flying public,” Menendez said.
But, in a written statement, United says, “We disagree with the allegation that the fare change rule is deceptive and unfair. The previous combinability rule permitted connecting customers to circumvent United’s inventory controls by combining two one-way fares into the same ticket, often resulting in a price far lower than intended for the connecting itinerary. United changed the fare rule to disallow these unintended fare combinations. Changes made to base prices and fare rules are made unilaterally, to ensure marketplace competitiveness.”
American Airlines said calls for an investigation are unfounded and its change was unilateral: “We eliminated what was, in effect, a loophole in the fare rules that allowed some people to construct connections that combined two nonstop fares. These unintended connections were absorbing some of the seats that were meant for local passengers on the nonstop route.
Is it more a matter of travelers being better consumers and comparing prices?
“It’s harder for consumers if you are deceptive in the process,” Menendez said.
Travel advisors urge buyers beware, do your homework.
