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4 Airlines Drop Their Discounts for the Elderly
Four major airlines have quietly dropped their 10 percent ticket discounts for senior citizens, and American Airlines says the change will probably be permanent. American, Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines all dropped the senior discounts on Friday, after a similar move by US Airways two weeks ago. Southwest Airlines said it would not remove its senior discounts. A Continental spokeswoman declined to comment on Saturday, and a United spokeswoman said she thought the discount remained in effect but could not confirm it; United's reservation number said the discount remained in effect. Northwest also halted the sale of discounted flight coupon books for seniors, saying it no longer wanted to allow the discounts on top of already heavily discounted fares. The coupon books were no longer a value compared with discounted tickets, and the paperwork involved was too costly, spokesman Kurt Ebenhoch said. He said he could not comment on how much money Northwest could save by eliminating the promotions. "It's consistent with our strategy of discontinuing discounts on already deeply discounted fares," he said. Northwest will offer a new special fare for people 65 and older, but it might not always be the lowest fare available, Mr. Ebenhoch said. Delta also introduced a new senior fare, requiring a two-week advance purchase and a Saturday night stay, a spokeswoman, Wanda Rodwell, said Saturday. She said she did not know why the senior discount had been eliminated. US Airways still offers a discount to seniors if they buy multiple tickets in a booklet, a spokesman, David Castelveter, said on Saturday. "What we found was that the vast majority of seniors are traveling with plenty of advance notice, and the best fares they could get were through the AARP or the booklets," he said. American became the fourth major airline to drop the discount late Friday. A spokesman, Dale Morris, said on Saturday that American was matching the other airlines. He said he expected the move to be permanent. FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Global Action on Aging distributes this material without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. We believe this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in 17 U.S.C § 107. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
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