What Happens if an Airline Breaks the Unwritten Rules?
Here are two examples. America West is struggling to maintain viable profitability. It decided to drop the requirement to stay over a Saturday night to qualify for its cheaper fares – this being, of course, one of the key founding ‘rules’ of the major airlines’ fare structures. Its fares for such itineraries are now only one third to one quarter of the fares charged by the major carriers!!! Guess what happened? In what USA Today described as being ‘thrown out of the club for breaking the rules’ Continental ‘coincidentally’ announced, two days later, that it was ending its eight year code-sharing, lounge-sharing, and frequent flier associations with America West! America West is now looking for another major airline partner to ally with (and do you want to guess at how successful it will be?). Another interesting thing happened to America West just yesterday. Orbitz – the website jointly owned by several of the major zero commission carriers – suddenly started charging a $5 fee on any A
