Discount airfares arrive in first class
By Chris Woodyard
USA Today
Airfare wars have moved to the front of the cabin as airlines slash prices for domestic first-class seats.
The price cutting is being led by discounters that offer first-class sections, such as AirTran, Spirit and America West. It's widening as major airlines match fares on routes on which they compete.
The lower fares represent a huge turnabout for airlines, which have rarely discounted first class. Matt Bennett, editor of FirstClassFlyer.com, says: "Premium seats were sacred. There was no discounting — ever."
Some discount airlines — not Southwest, Frontier or JetBlue, which remain all-coach — see first-class discounts as a lure to attract business fliers who may have shunned them in the past. "It's the No. 1 requested amenity for business travelers," says AirTran spokesman Tad Hutcheson.
Many of the new, lower first-class fares are non-refundable or require advance purchases. America West, for instance, is charging a non-refundable $998 for a seven-day advance-purchase roundtrip ticket on its New York-to-Los Angeles non-stops in first class.
That compares with a first-class, fully refundable fare of $2,262. In the first three days after the new pricing went into effect Feb. 17, America West says, first-class purchases more than doubled.
There's more to come: Discounter ATA, the nation's 10th-largest airline, plans to add a 12-seat first-class section to all 60 of its Boeing 737s and 757s by November. Fares will be capped at no more than $798 for any round-trip ticket in the continental United States.
The lower fares, however, come at the risk of alienating frequent fliers using mileage credits to upgrade. America West spokeswoman Elise Eberwein says 6 percent of passengers bought first-class tickets before the change. So even tripling of demand would leave plenty of seats for upgrades, she says.
Northwest is matching America West's $998 first-class fares between Phoenix and Detroit or Minneapolis-St. Paul. But it is sticking by its $1,408 first-class round-trip fare between Detroit and Los Angeles partly to accommodate upgrade requests, says spokesman Kurt Ebenhoch.
