By Byase Luteke, Dar es Salaam:
There’s a general notion that
cheap things quite often end up being expensive. I’ll expound on this belief.
We’re always cautioned, for instance, by the Tanzania Bureau of Standards not
to buy cheap items like motor vehicle spares, tyres, drugs, and other
consumables you can think of, because pocket-friendly as they may be, they might
end up causing you a lot of inconvenience thus costing you so much more
financially and even to the extent of compromising your health status!
In all modes of travel the
airline industry is probably the leading industry when it comes to offering
various competitive price offers to customers. Quite often you get to hear that
a certain airline is offering various fares such as introductory, discount, special
fares, etc- all being cheap prices compared to normal fares. The whole concept
hinges on the demand and supply axiom. Because air travel is a price elastic
good, airline managers use this as a tool to induce demand to jerk up the load
factors in order to try to balance the supply and demand equation. For those
who’re not conversant with the price elasticity concept it simply means that
when the price of a certain product in the market is reduced its demand increases
and vice versa. However, not all products conform to this notion.
Special fares are usually
offered during the low season when the demand for travel is low. These are seemingly good and cheap prices but
before you “swallow” them hook, line and sinker take time to know what the
terms and conditions thereof entail lest you end up in deep trouble. For
instance, when Precision Air (PW) introduced two new international routes from
Dar es Salaam to Johannesburg and the Comoros. Because PW’s product was new as
far as these two markets are concerned there’s no way an airline can get
customers right away except to start by offering rock bottom fares known as
introductory fares. For example, PW’s introductory fare to Jorburg and return was
$259 taxes inclusive. Compare this to
South African Airways’ (SAA) return fare of $422 for the same journey. Under
normal circumstances you would have expect SAA to react but it did not because this is a normal industry practice.
However, introductory fares can
only last for a maximum period of three months because it’s believed that after
this period the new airline on the market should ideally be in a position to
compete with its peers on more or less equal footing. Travelers are enticed to
take advantage of introductory fares because terms and conditions thereof are
tempting. There’s a downside to such fares though. If an airline realizes that
the going in the market is really tough it can decide to cut its losses and run
leaving customers stranded in the wilderness like it happened in Tanzania
in 2008. Do you recall Community Air’s crumbling?
Special fares like the sometimes offered by British Airways to/from Tanzania to
various destinations could be tailor made to cater for specific objectives. For
instance, an airline may offer a promotional fare just to promote tourism in Tanzania northern
tourist circuit. Such fares are known as destination fares. Just recently
Emirates Airlines offered a very well-priced destination fare to Copenhagen, Denmark.
Nevertheless, destination fares cannot be opened ended, they are time specific.
Travel must be accomplished within the specified period only.
There’s also what is known as
group fares. For example, if a travel agent has a group of people, like a choir
or a soccer team, traveling together, he/she can approach an airline for a
group fare which is relatively cheaper than a normal fare applicable on the
route. Of course the conditions are that such group must have a minimum number
of passengers (usually 10) who must be traveling together both for the going
and return legs. If you are part of the group make sure you come back as a
group or else be prepared to face the music.
Have you ever heard of a
Christmas fare? For those who have been to Western Europe and the US will agree
with me that Christmas day is arguably the most revered day in that part of the
world. In the UK,
for example, public transportation like the metropolitan under-underground
train system almost comes to a standstill on Xmas day. In short
There’s drastic reduction of
travel activity in all modes of transport. Some airlines go to the extent of
canceling flights on that day.
That said, some airlines offer very cheap
fares known as Christmas fares to induce travel on Xmas otherwise the flights might
go empty. The proviso is that the outward journey/flight must be on Christmas
day. Not before or later, while the return flight is strictly subject to space
availability. In case you miss the return flight you must dig into your pocket
to buy a new ticket.
Special fares are many but
for the interest of readers there is what is known as Inclusive Tour (IT) fares
also known as package fares. Travelers buy IT fares normally from tours
operators. These include the cost of an air ticket, ground transportation and
accommodation at selected hotels. The choice of class of travel and the kind of
hotel depends on your pocket power but usually the fares are quite competitive.
IT fares are also time specific and therefore the need to plan in advance
because of the hotel booking element. In case you miss the flight due to your
own fault the ticket could be nullified at a great loss!
I have gone to great lengths
to explain the notion of special fares because in most cases travelers see or
hear about this kind of fares being offered and just rush to buy them without
knowing what they entail. Special fares as we have seen may be pocket friendly
but might not necessarily be user friendly. It’s advisable to ask the airline
or your travel agent to give you more insight on the terms and conditions of
the specific fare offer that you wish to go for.
For example, whereas an
introductory fare by Kenya Airways to Guangzhou,
China
could be ideal for a merchant, a seasoned travel consult wouldn’t advice a similar
offer to a corporate client from a top notch company. Introductory fares are very
restrictive with inherent risks. For
instance, one may to travel to Guangzhou for official business on such a fare but
just in case of emergency and he/she is required to return back to base
urgently might be told that his/her ticket cant be endorsed to any other
airline, is date-fixed for a particular flight and non-refundable. In that case
one could end up buying another one-way ticket at an exorbitant price. No doubt
special fare offers are good for your purse but if not properly understood can
turn out to be problematic. Would-be travelers are advised to acquaint
themselves with such fares before falling in love with the unknown.