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Net Discrimination
Cheap Charlie · June 16, 1999

A couple of weeks ago I went into the Web to make reservations for my 80-year-old mother on US Airways. After working my way through the set up screens, punching in frequent flier numbers, searching for fares, clicking on seats and getting ready to pay, I remembered senior discounts.

I went back through the reservation program to see where I may have missed the button for seniors or the place to list age of passenger.

There was none.

Seniors cannot use this system. Amazing. An entire section of the traveling public -- one normally coddled by the industry -- is being totally ignored.

Frequent fliers are being bombarded with reminders to use the Internet booking programs. Full-page newspaper and magazine ads are touting the "new world" of reservations possible from your computer. Nowhere, it seems, do the airlines tell seniors that they shouldn't waste their time attempting to participate.

My foray into the US Airways Internet reservation system took approximately 20 minutes of working through the system to discover that there didn't seem to be any senior discounts, then another half-hour to reach the technical desk for Travelworks, who informed me that there was no work around.

They told me that if I wanted a senior fare I had to book through the normal 800 number. When I called the 800 number and requested 1,000 frequent flier miles for my mother that I was being denied, they told me there was nothing they could do. The only way to get the bonus was to book through the Internet.

Of course, I called customer service (a non-800 number) and explained the problem. The representative was most helpful and assured me that the bonus would be credited to my mother's account. This column started as a tirade against US Airways' Travelworks program, but journalistic curiosity prevailed and I entered other airline Web reservation programs. Was I surprised! Out of the seven major airlines I checked only two, Northwest and Continental, offered an Internet system for seniors to make reservations and pay for their discounted airline tickets. American Airlines, Delta, Southwest, United and US Airways do not allow seniors to use their system to book senior-discount tickets.

It seems that these airlines use the same reservation engine that does not factor in senior citizens. Continental and Northwest work with the Expedia reservation platform that does an excellent job. Of the major online reservation services, Expedia.com and 1Travel.com have provisions for senior discounts, however Travelocity.com and Trip.com do not.

The bottom line:

1. If you want your airline frequent flier bonus, call the customer service office of the airline upon which you booked your senior ticket and ask for them to make sure you get your bonus.

2. Use Expedia.com or 1travel.com to make your reservations.

3. Limit your flights to Northwest and Continental until the other airlines wake up.

I already contacted a number of them last week, however only United Airlines has managed to get back to me with some answers. Their spokesperson said that they hoped to include seniors in their Internet reservation engine "by the end of the year or the first quarter of 2000."

Next week I'll let you know what the other airlines have to say and how their customer service representatives handle the question about the Internet bonus for those not permitted to book by the system.

Charlie Leocha is the Boston-based author of Travel Rights: Know the Rules of the Road and the Air Before You Go. Cheap Charlie appears every Monday on this site. E-mail him at cheapch@aol.com or access his Web site.