Turkey Wings

Thanksgiving, one of the peak travel times of the year, brings bounteous business to the airlines. One perennial problem, though, is that almost everyone schedules flights on just two days, the Wednesday before the holiday and the Sunday after. During the time in between, jets crisscross the country at only about 30% of capacity. Last week American Airlines launched a drastic fare-cutting plan to fill some 220,000 empty seats with travelers who ordinarily would stay home. The carrier offered a $29 one-way fare for any trip up to 500 miles, $49 for voyages between 501 and 1,500 miles and $79 for those over 1,500. Such fares, which give travelers a coast-to-coast round trip for just $158, represent savings of as much as 85%. The deal contained several catches, notably that customers must depart on Thanksgiving Day or Friday and return by midnight Saturday.

American's splashy offer jolted most of its rivals like a sharp downdraft. Within three hours, United responded with similar fares. Then came a squadron of others, including Delta, Eastern, Northwest, Republic, Pan Am, TWA and Piedmont. Consumers dived for their telephones when they heard the news. During one 29-hr. period Tuesday and Wednesday, American received 430,000 calls, 80% more than normal. Said United Vice President Charles Novak: "The response has been tremendous."

A few frustrated consumers, though, were calling the whole episode a turkey. When they tried to reserve discount seats, they discovered that some flights were already booked by customers paying regular or supersaver fares. Griped a ticket agent who works in Detroit for one of American's rivals: "Seats to all the really good places are sold out anyway. American may have five or six routes where tickets hadn't been selling, and they wanted to fill those planes." One airline that has abstained so far from the Thanksgiving bargains is People Express. The discount carrier said it was busy enough and had already lowered some prices to Western destinations served by Frontier, the airline that People acquired in October.

The big question for travelers is whether the airlines will repeat the bargains for Christmas, when they have similar feast-and-famine traffic patterns. Delta has already made the offer and sweetened the deal by throwing in a $9.99-a-day rental car. Others are holding back, at least for the moment. Predicts Richard Henderson, an airline analyst for the investment firm Pershing & Co.: "You probably can look for another round of discounts during the Christmas holidays." Budget-minded consumers could hardly ask for a nicer present.