Round-trip flights get more pricey

Frequent business travelers Mike Prozzillo and Derek Keene know booking airline tickets for a one-day business trip to Miami can be pricey.

The Cherry Hill executives routinely scour the Internet for the best deals and often buy one-way tickets on different carriers. They flew to Miami on Thursday from Philadelphia on US Airways and came home Friday on American Airlines.

The cost of a round-trip US Airways fare was $600, they said. By choosing two one-way fares, they paid $240.

"A lot of our trips are just overnighters," said Prozzillo, vice president of Keystone Industries, a Cherry Hill dental equipment and supply company. "Both Derek and I have families. We want to get back. We don't want to stay over on a Saturday or Sunday in order to take advantage of those lower rates."

In this era of piled-up fees for checked bags, choice seats and soda, here's one more airline land mine to look out for:

Business travelers everywhere are encountering hefty fares on quick-turnaround trips because airlines are reviving minimum-stay requirements to qualify for the cheapest fares.

The requirements are aimed at business travelers who want to go and return, often the same day. Airlines are reviving them to generate revenue and counter soaring fuel costs.

The minimum stays require a one-, two-, or three-night layover, or a Saturday stayover, to get the lowest round-trip fares.

The fares were common in the 1980s and '90s, before low-cost carriers such as Southwest and AirTran came along. Now, they "are making a comeback," said Rick Seaney, chief executive officer of FareCompare.com, a consumer airline ticket research Web site.

FareCompare recently looked at more than 40,000 round-trip airfares between 50 U.S. cities. More than half of current round-trip airfares now have a minimum-stay requirement for the lowest ticket prices, Seaney said. About one-third require a one-night stay. Most require a two- or three-day stay, or a Saturday or Sunday night stay.

Standard airfares come in two flavors: round-trip and one-way. Travelers may be surprised that most tickets sold by airlines are based on one-way fares, even when the passenger is traveling to and from a destination and purchases the tickets for each leg of the trip at the same time.

Major airlines, such as American, United and US Airways, have both fares, but impose minimum stays only on some of those that fall technically in the airline's round-trip category of fares.

Most low-cost carriers, meanwhile, sell only one-way fares and do not require minimum stays.

About 86 percent of US Airways' fares from Philadelphia are one-way fares and not subject to minimum stays, Seaney said.

Of the rest - about 220 US Airways fares - 200, or 91 percent, are classified by the airline as round-trip fares subject to minimum-stay rules, FareCompare's Seaney said.

Fund-raiser Dan DiDonato of Shamong, N.J., flew from Philadelphia to Seattle Thursday and planned to stay until Monday because the fare was lower. He paid $400. To fly back Thursday night or Friday would have cost $600 to $700, he said.

"The price is 30 to 40 percent more if you don't stay overnight," said DiDonato, who works for Shepherds Ministries in Union Grove, Wis. "When I fly from Philadelphia to Milwaukee, if I don't stay overnight, the price is $400. If I stay over a weekend, or several days, I can get the trip for $250 or so."

Major carriers can't impose minimum-stay requirements as easily in cities where they must compete with low-cost competition, said Tom Parsons, chief executive officer of BestFares.com, a discount-fare Web site.

"The good news in Philadelphia is you have Southwest Airlines and AirTran," Parsons said. "Philadelphia is better off than many other cities."

In the past, some travelers avoided stay requirements by buying two back-to-back round-trip tickets. Each ticket required a Saturday night stay, and travelers would use only half of each ticket - with the arrival and departure they want - and throw away the rest of both tickets.

While there's nothing illegal about back-to-back ticketing, it is against airlines' rules. Passengers who are caught may be denied boarding, have their ticket confiscated, be forced to pay a higher fare, or have their frequent-flier miles yanked.

"I usually suggest, if you are a business traveler and face a minimum stay restriction, look at alternate nearby airports," said BestFare's Parsons.

If you need to get to Cincinnati but the fares are high or restrictive, fly instead to Dayton, Ohio, where fares are lower and then drive an hour to Cincinnati, Parsons said. (Cincinnati has higher fares because it is not served by a low-cost airline.)

"If you are a business traveler you'd better dig deeper, or learn how to play the game," he said.

Jeff Pikulik lives in Boston and works for PRWT Services Inc., a minority-owned business services company in Philadelphia. On Thursday morning, he drove 50 minutes from Boston to Providence, R.I., to catch a US Airways flight - for $350 round trip - to Philadelphia.

"The same flight from Boston would cost me $600 or $700," said Pikulik, in charge of PRWT's business development and sales. That's because Southwest flies from Providence to Philadelphia, which keeps the competitor's fares lower. "Boston doesn't have a Southwest, and US Airways for the same proximity of flight charges $600 or $700."

"It used to be, six months ago, if you were a smart purchaser, there were $49 one-way trips and I would pre-book them," Pikulik said. "But there aren't those kinds of steep discounts anymore. My travel costs, airfares alone, are on average one-third to 50 percent higher than six months or a year ago."