Inside Track: Carriers Reviving Saturday-Night Stay Requirements
Business Travel News, 2/4/2008
Continental Airlines, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines during fourth-quarter earnings calls last month said they have reinstituted Saturday-night stay requirements in select markets. In fare analysis conducted for BTN, Harrell Associates found the six legacy carriers placed Saturday-night stay restrictions on 4 percent on [sic] the 2,813 one-way or roundtrip fares evaluated in late January in each carrier's top 40 routes. That is slightly up from the 3 percent of restrictions found for the same carriers in the same markets last September. However, the most recent data from Harrell shows that of 763 roundtrip fares evaluated, 13 percent carried Saturday-night stay restrictions. Robert Mann, president of airline consulting firm R.W. Mann & Co., said the restrictions are "the sort of thing that will, without changing prices, fence business travelers into the higher fare categories—it will also tick them off, but that's a separate issue." Not all legacy carriers have joined the Saturday-night stay reintroduction. "We have not done that anywhere yet and frankly don't see that happening across the industry," US Airways CEO Doug Parker said in the carrier's earnings call last month.