Airlines rethink fare rules

But once the government controls were lifted, the airlines needed to find a way to serve as many people as possible, as cheaply as possible. So they developed what's called the "hub and spoke" system. That way, even if, say, US Airways doesn't fly directly from Boston to Cleveland, it could get you there via a layover in another city.

To cover fixed costs such as labor and fuel, airlines charge lower prices to passengers who book early, while the last-minute buyers, usually businesspeople, pay a premium.

In another bid to increase profits, the airlines instituted the Saturday-night stay requirement. The idea is to charge an even higher premium to business travelers who want to get home for dinner with the kids on Friday night.

For instance, a 14-day advance purchase of a round-trip ticket between Dallas-Ft. Worth and Los Angeles is $1,490 without a Saturday-night stay, but only $290 if you're willing to go home on Sunday morning.

The intricacies of the system have led travelers to come up with ways around the restrictions. The most common are the so-called "back-to-back" and "hidden cities" opportunities. For instance, it is cheaper to buy two round-trip tickets at $290 each, one originating in Dallas the day you want to leave, the other in Los Angeles the day you want to return. The traveler would save $910.

The only problem is that if you buy a round-trip ticket intending to use only one portion, that amounts to fraud. Passengers enter into a legally enforceable "contract of carriage" when they buy a ticket, which says they will travel where the ticket says and use all portions of it in order.

While some members of Congress have proposed legislation that would do away with the prohibition against "back-to-back" pricing and other such methods, many industry experts oppose the move. They contend that as frustrating and complex as the system is, it has brought about overall lower prices and better service than 20 years ago.

"Any tampering of the system of pricing runs the risk of creating much higher fares for everybody," says David Stempler of the Air Travelers Association in Washington.

But other aviation experts disagree about the impact on consumers. They maintain that if the airlines did raise prices dramatically, it would be only for the short term, and it would in the long run spur greater competition, more efficiency in some of the bigger airlines, and better prices overall.

"The egregious nature of those fares would catch the public's attention and entrepreneurs' attention sufficiently to do something about it," says Alan Bender, at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University at Daytona Beach, Fla. "It's perfectly understandable why the airlines keep their complex pricing with restrictions. It's one of the only ways inefficient, high-cost airlines are able to keep operating in the deregulated environment."

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