The Airlines are trying to Squeeze Capacity

The Wall Street Journal is a great place to discover travel hints. Scott McCartney, who writes a regular feature called "The Middle Seat", notes in the WSJ of Tuesday, April 20th, that the airlines are parking more planes in an effort to limit the number of available seats for any given flight. This, in an effort to raise prices.

Many of these airliners, some only a few hundred hours old, are being dead-stored in Marana, Arizona, which used to be a "secret" CIA base, home to Evergreen Airlines. The maintenance personnel tape over all the openings, check the fluids, roll the tires into "bags" and maintain the planes once a week. For this (the example as used in the story) an airline will pay $60,000 per MONTH to store a 747, in addition to paying the note with the bank. It's still cheaper to do this than fly a load of empty seats around the sky.

What this mean to you is that the airlines want to raise fares. If you were not aware of it, several lines DID raise fares this past week, only to lower them again when other lines didn't also raise theirs. (That's called "Who Blinked First.")

If you plan to go somewhere this spring, summer or fall, now might be a good time to firm up travel plans and buy those airline tickets. At this moment SPIRIT AIRLINES is having a ONE-DAY SALE, a real "flash sale" with fares as low as $18. Read it for yourself HERE.

If you are looking at Las Vegas, which would be REALLY PLEASED to see you, the Las Vegas Hilton has a flash sale with prices from $50 - $60 per night (including weekends) with a load of extra goodies included. The resort is on Paradise Road just across the street from the Las Vegas Country Club, and the Monorail is right out front.

And if Las Vegas IS your destination, the show at Bally's, "Jubilee!" is discounting tickets about $35. I have seen that show three times, and it is a great piece of production.

If this interests you, the specials are all from Travelzoo, and you have to do your booking through the site links here. I'll be watching for more specials, so please come back to check.