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(c) Elliott Publishing.

Hub Deals
Cheap Charlie · March 1, 2000

Deregulation of the airline industry has certainly brought an overall reduction in airfares from the days of years gone by.

But government control has been replaced with a more insidious industry form regulation, the "fortress hub" systems.

Once, the government set prices, but today, the airlines have managed to carve out markets where they can control prices for the most part with complicity from competing airlines.

Every major airline has at least one, sometimes several, fortress hubs. Delta has Atlanta and Cincinnati, Northwest has Minneapolis and Detroit, American has Dallas, Continental has Houston and Cleveland, United has Denver, US Airways has Charlotte and Pittsburgh, and TWA has St. Louis.

It is rare, very rare, that one major airline takes a stab at stealing away passengers from another major airline in that airline's fortress hub. But exactly such a skirmish between Northwest and Delta is offering bargains in the Atlanta market, albeit only on the Internet.

It seems that Delta's protection of Atlanta as a fortress hub has crept into the brave new world of the Internet through Priceline.com.

As one of the original airlines involved with the innovative "name-your-own-price" Internet site, Delta has managed to block airlines from offering low, name-your-own-price fares through Priceline from Atlanta.

Northwest has cried foul and now has organized an Internet sale that undercuts Delta's bargain fares and hopefully will force Delta to open up the market for the name-your-own-price tickets at least within the Atlanta market.

Here is the deal: Passengers must book their travel through Northwest's Web site at nwa.com. All travel must be to or from Atlanta, and tickets must be purchased at least seven days prior to departure.

The fares apply only to flights operated by Northwest Airlines and Northwest Airlink. Seats are limited and other restrictions may apply.

Some examples of roundtrip fares being offered are: $98: to Washington, D.C.; Baltimore, MD; Ft. Walton Beach, FL; Jackson, MS; Little Rock, AK. $138: to Chicago, IL; Indianapolis, IN; Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN; St. Louis, MO; New York City, NY; Milwaukee, WI; Oklahoma City, OK; San Antonio, TX; Philadelphia, PA $218: to Phoenix, AZ; Los Angeles, CA; Denver, CO; Portland, OR; San Francisco, CA; Seattle, WA; Salt Lake City, UT; Bozeman, MT

Atlanta residents can take advantage of these exceptional values by visiting Northwest's Web site and booking roundtrip tickets good for travel between Atlanta and Northwest destinations throughout the U.S. from February 2 through June 10, 2000.

For Atlanta passengers being held hostage to Delta's hub mentality, Northwest's Internet foray against the fortress hub offers a welcome bit of discount ticket relief, at least through early June.

Heck, with the right media in Atlanta, Northwest may begin to look like the good guy. This Internet strategy may, in the longer run, help them protect their own hubs from incursions by Atlanta's low-cost carrier, AirTrans.

Northwest's well-planned Internet attack on the Atlanta hub may turn out to be a clever defense of their own home turf.

In the meantime, Atlanta has some more low fares to enjoy.

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 charlie@ticked.com or access his Web site.