Air-un-Fair?
by January 8, 2001 12:00 am 65 views
We’ve heard from a couple of retail and logistics vendors about recent airfare price hikes going in and out of XNA — the regional airport in Highfill.
One example: what was a $469 round-trip jaunt to Chicago in late November, with a 14-day notice on American Airlines, is now more than $800 with a 30-day notice.
That’s for both American Airlines and TWA. We were too embarrassed for the airlines to print the short notice prices, but suffice to say they’re higher than the gross national product of several third world nations.
The same flight out of Tulsa, by the way, was $281 plus an hour and a half drive. There were similar comparisons between flights from XNA and Tulsa to Dallas.
A quick fix for the future — check out price comparisons at www.expedia.com.
One executive at a Fortune 500 company that’s based in Northwest Arkansas said although his firm would probably spring for the gouged prices, he’d rather drive to Tulsa so he can make several trips for the price of one.
“It’s just smart business to go with the better price,” he said.
Sam Walton would be proud.