Majors Expand Zone Offerings
<H1> Majors Expand Zone Offerings</H1>By Lauren Bielski
<B>J</B>ust when it looked like the airlines had lost interest in providing new discounts to attract meetings business, two major carriers are stirring things up.
Most significant is Delta Air Lines' expansion of its zone fare program, which lowers fares and eases restrictions to 304 destinations in 31 countries.
Continental also has announced a new program, which is open to any participant in a Houston-based meeting and permits side trips to any of its 23 destinations in Mexico, Central America or South America for a small additional charge or, in some cases, no extra charge. The Houston "stopover" for the meeting is allowed in either direction for use before or after the meeting.
A five-day window on both sides of the meeting dates offers opportunity for this travel, said Brenda Davis, Continental's manager of group and incentive sales. Instead of being charged for two round-trip ticket prices, the customer takes the 5 percent MeetingWorks discount off a single "round-trip" fare from the home city to the South American destination, and pays an additional stopover charge for the meeting.
The Houston program is part of an overall effort to review and simplify Continental's zone fare program, which uses zones based on five geographic regions and one fare-basis code assigned to each region, Davis said. Continental also reduced fares in some of the zones.
Meanwhile, Delta's Meeting Network program has relaxed the minimum advance-purchase requirement from 14 to seven days for its zone fare program and has lowered fares up to 30 percent to North American cities served by Delta and its partners.
Delta's Meeting Network, which lets planners purchase tickets with a two-day minimum stay and no Saturday-night stayover required, also has added destinations to its program.
Zone fare tickets can be used for corporate meetings as well as association and incentive group movements.
Gail Childs, Delta's system manager-meetings and incentives, acknowledged that low-cost carriers' success in attracting group business has prompted the re-evaluation of rates. "We looked at our fares and lowered them to stay competitive with the fares we saw in the market," she said.
Because of the simpler rules, Delta hopes zone fares will be more attractive than 5 percent off the lowest published fare, an option that many planners tend to rely on for groups (<I>Meetings Today</I>, May 20).
"Our thinking is that if the program is very fair and easy to use, planners will opt for a zone fare," Childs said. "It allows them to better budget their costs because it is a flat discount not dependent on inventory fluctuations."
At the same time, Delta is expanding its zone fare program beyond the destinations it previously offered to include travel to and from Alaska, Hawaii, San Juan, St. Thomas, St. Croix, Nassau, Bermuda, Canada and Mexico.
The program, which runs from July 1, 1996 to Dec. 31, 1998, applies to groups of 10 or more traveling to a meeting or convention, and can be purchased even if the flight was booked at previous fares.
Planners who do want to revert to published fare tickets can trade in their zone tickets, provided they meet ticket purchase requirements.
Delta's zone-fare program expansion comes at a time when airlines are profitable and have load factors as high as 70 percent, and when many analysts assert carriers don't need meetings business.
To decrease operating costs, Delta last year realigned its domestic route system, increasing flights to its Atlanta, Cincinnati and Salt Lake City hubs, and decreasing flights to and from airport hubs in Boston, Dallas/Forth Worth, Los Angeles and Orlando.