FARE MAP CHANGES
We started Fare Check to demystify the ticket-buying process. Each week, this column takes a particular destination from Chicago and exposes the restrictions behind some of the fares (there wouldn’t be space enough to print all of them). We’ve run the low-fare map for a long time, but we expanded it and added Fare Check in March. It’s still a work in progress.
Our sources: A Florida-based travel agency that is connected to the SABRE airline reservations system researches the fares for us and provides the raw numbers for the map. You can call 800-FLY-4-LESS (listed in the lower right-hand corner of the map) and talk to the same people. We at the Tribune then study the week’s fares and determine which one to target for Fare Check, for which FLY-4-LESS also provides the raw data.
Research dates: The Travel section is printed on Thursday but we must have all the information gathered, written, edited, typeset and double-checked by the end of the day Tuesday. In order to have adequate time for reporting and writing Fare Check, FLY-4-LESS researches the fares on Mondays. Of course, the fares cannot be guaranteed because any airline can change its fares without notice and at any time. That is why the fine print at the lower left-hand corner of our map says that fares are subject to availability and all sorts of restrictions.
Travel dates: We had been basing the research simply on the lowest, yet least restrictive, fares, regardless of travel dates. As a result, we published fares that were low, certainly, but too often applicable for travel only in the off season, usually fall or winter. You told us that was impractical. We have responded with a map whose domestic fares reflect travel within the next 30 days, and international travel within the next 60 days. This new time frame provides information on the current travel season (though some fares you’ll see now will cover travel dates in early fall) and still lets you meet advance-purchase requirements.
