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SW axes mtg. fares: as buyers name SW second to AA in mtgs. price flexibility.

Article Excerpt
Southwest Airlines last month eliminated all meeting fares, bucking all other major airlines by discontinuing its longstanding program of flat 10 percent discounts for any group of 25 or more passengers. No major carrier matched the move by press time, and most insiders expect none to do so in the immediate future.

Southwest will honor existing meeting contracts for travel through the end of 2004 but has canceled "five or six" contracts for meeting travel in 2005, said Southwest senior director of marketing and sales Richard Sweet.

The airline's program--which in addition to the flat discount also offered buyers one free fare for every 40 fares booked--did not generate enough revenue to justify its cost, Sweet said. "Essentially, we were discounting an already discounted fare," he said. "We're not immune from reassessing ourselves. "We have to focus on our core product, and we have the product and prices that we want."

Ironically, Southwest eliminated its meetings program at the same time the carrier was rated by buyers as the second-most flexible airline in terms of negotiating group and meeting pricing in Business Travel News' Annual Airline Survey (BTN, Nov. 10). That finish was viewed as a fluke by the airline and observers, as Southwest does not negotiate its meeting fares.

The problems with Southwest's meetings program went beyond revenue, Sweet said: Unlike transient fares, attendees could not book meeting...

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