Delta offered a very nice roundtrip fare from Birmingham, Alabama to Los Angeles: $198 USD. At Delta.com, you read the list of cities available and then hit the reservation button to continue with booking.
So I punched in requested information, careful to pick dates between March 1 and August 1, the run of the sale.
I chose the last week of May and waited for my price.
The cheapest itinerary comes out $325 USD, some $127 more than the promotional fare.
What happened?
I hit a "blackout" date in the sale, which means I'm paying regular prices for this trip.
Time to try another date. How about April Fool's Day?
The cheapest fare this time shows up at $274 USD. In fact, as I scroll down, there are fares as high as $327. Still quite a bit more than $198.
The date I punched in fell on a Monday. The fine print at Delta.com says the promotional fare is valid for travel on Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday only.
Let's try a third time. For this attempt, I schedule a Saturday-Saturday itinerary.
Result: a fare of $234 USD...still $36 higher than the promised fare. Why?
Again, the fine print states clearly that a $3.30 federal excise tax applies to all "segments" of the trip. This one goes Birmingham-Dallas, Dallas-Los Angeles, Los Angeles-Atlanta, Atlanta-Birmingham. Four segments multiplied by $3 for a total of $13.20.
The "Terms and Conditions" section also says a facility charge of up to $18 is possible, and a September 11 Security Fee of up to $10. The extras total $40, so at $36, I'm paying just less than the maximum.
Delta, to its credit, is among the airlines that puts the terms and conditions on the same page with the promotional prices.
The numbers become even more dramatic with international travel. Click "next" to see an example.
