The New York Times-20080129-Super Bowl Hasn-t Started- But Airlines Are Scoring

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Super Bowl Hasn't Started, But Airlines Are Scoring

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-- I WAS planning to get out of Arizona this week, partly because my annoyance level for the Super Bowl XLII hype has reached XCIX on a scale of I to C.

But then I noticed the staggering prices for accommodations and other services for those flying to this combination football game-business travel toga party. And I got to thinking: Easy money?

We have a house here on five acres of Sonoran Desert. In Phoenix, people are renting houses for $10,000 this week, and decrepit motels that you wouldn't stay in unless you were fleeing a drug cartel are asking $600 and more a night for Super Bowl weekend.

If your demand for personal space is flexible, our desert compound here in Tucson could easily sleep 20. And I can pitch another 30 pup tents outside, though care must be exercised not to roll over onto a cholla cactus or taunt the nocturnal javelinas. Prices negotiable.

Phoenix is a mere two hours north on the Interstate. I could provide chauffeur service. My neighbor is a builder who has a big front loader whose scoop can easily accommodate four, perhaps on a bale of hay. Another neighbor is a psychiatrist -- just the ticket for people spending the kind of money being demanded for Super Bowl festivities, because in my opinion they need their heads examined.

But truth to tell, I'm closing up the house and flying back home on Tuesday on Continental Airlines -- nonstop, first class, Tucson to Newark.

And lest you think I am some good-time Charlie paying the kind of fares airlines are demanding for travel this Super Bowl week, let me add that my first-class seat to Newark (with a return coach ticket for April) cost me 35,000 frequent-flier miles plus $5 in taxes.

It's all about supply and demand. It also shows that you can still spend those frequent-flier miles with great benefit, assuming you're flying when and where there is no huge demand, like Tucson to Newark at the end of January.

But assuming you're making late arrangements to fly when and where there is huge demand -- say, from the Northeast to Phoenix for Super Bowl weekend -- well, be prepared for sticker shock.

As huge Super Bowl demand suddenly materialized from the big Northeast market two weeks ago, some airlines quietly raised top coach fares on those routes. In many cases, they also yielded up, meaning they greatly reduced the proportion of cheap fares available on any flight and increased the proportion of seats at the highest fares, said Rick Seaney, the chief executive of FareCompare.com. Usually, there is limited demand for those high-fare seats.

Here are some examples from airline Web sites: For New England Patriots fans, US Airways had a round-trip coach fare of $2,077.50, leaving Boston on Friday and returning next Monday. Make the same booking one week later -- departing Boston for Phoenix on Feb. 8 and returning on Feb. 12 -- and the round-trip fare is $649.

New York Giants fans, meanwhile, could book a round-trip coach ticket from Newark to Phoenix on US Airways, leaving this Friday, returning Monday -- for a cool $3,309.

Why are some fares four times the usual? Valerie Wunder, spokeswoman for US Airways, agreed with Mr. Seaney's assessment that airlines saw major demand on fairly short notice and made yield-management decisions about how to allocate the various fares available on any flight. It's supply and demand, she said of the higher fares. We actually do have those fares on any given day, but it is rare we would sell many.

US Airways is not the only airline charging high Super Bowl fares. United had a round-trip coach fare of $2,450.99 between Kennedy Airport and Phoenix, for example. American listed a fare of $1,857 from Kennedy.

Terry Trippler, of Terrytrippler.com, was among the fare experts shaking their heads over the deft way airlines realigned fare structures for the Super Bowl. The demand is great; the supply is limited, Mr. Trippler said. As soon as New England and the Giants won, everybody ran to their computers.

That is if you're defining everybody as both passengers and airline yield managers. The game was on.

[Illustration]DRAWING (DRAWING BY CHRIS GASH)