All's Fare

On U.S. airlines, there are 49 different fares for a flight between New York and Miami, depending on the passenger's marital status ("family rates"), occupation (members of the clergy and military men fly cheaper), whether he is going first class or by air coach, by jet or by piston, at night or by day. Age has become a particularly significant factor in the cost of air travel: in the last month eight major carriers, including American, which pioneered the plan, have begun offering half-fare service on a standby basis to young people between twelve and 21 who had previously paid $3 for an age certification card. It's a case of all's fare.

Not the least of the air-fare confusion has been caused by the fact that the airlines, rapidly phasing out piston-driven planes in favor of jets, understandably prefer to charge more for the jet rides. And for a long while the Civil Aeronautics Board permitted them to do just that: there was a well-established average surcharge of 10% for jet travel. But just as understandably, CAB Chairman Charles S. Murphy last summer decided that the airlines were making so much money that, in the public interest, rates ought to go down. The CAB thereupon decreed that there should be no surcharge on routes newly converted to jet. The airlines, claiming that this decision would cost them some $50 million a year, raised a hue and cry. There the matter more or less rested until last week--when the CAB accepted a compromise offered by United Air Lines President George Keck.

Keek's plan will go into effect March 27. In return for CAB permission to restore the surcharge on new jet routes, United and other major U.S. airlines will offer a new, round-trip "excursion plan" cutting 25% off present jet coach rates--under certain circumstances. Thus a jet coach round trip between New York and Chicago will, given those circumstances, come down from $87.40 to $65.55.

Those circumstantial limitations are considerable. The excursion reduction would not apply to flights taking off between Friday noon and Saturday noon, between Sunday noon and Monday noon, or during major holiday periods. Moreover, to qualify, a passenger must begin his round trip in one calendar week, finish it in another, but not take more than 30 days in all.

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