Vermont cab driver offers “pay what you want” fares

by Katie Hammel on

Websites like eBay and Priceline let consumers pay what they want for everything from designer gowns to airline tickets. Now, if you live in Essex, Vermont, you can exercise that same financial control when it comes to taxi fares. Eric Hagen, a part-time cab driver has been offering “pay what you want” rides in his Recession Ride Taxi since June.

Hagen not only offers passengers the right to pay whatever they feel is fair for the ride, he also applies his unique pricing model to cold drinks available in the cab, and offers a “frequent rider” punch card. After 7 paid rides, your next trip is free.

The local Days Inn now uses Hagen to transport guests to the airport whenever possible, and Hagen says he has been so successful that he’s thinking about expanding and hiring more drivers. He says no one has undercut him, though he has been paid with items like a $10 grocery card and a music CD.

Unfortunately, I doubt this business model could become widely popular, as taxi companies are strictly regulated and drivers are required to turn on their meters for every fare. But perhaps a few intrepid private cab operators will follow Hagen’s lead and bring “pay what you want” fares to more locations around the country.

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[via CNBC]

Favorable fares may be coming to a close

by Tom Johansmeyer on

In past years, Memorial Day signaled the end of sweetheart flight prices. This year, a sinking economy stretched the deals a bit longer, but experts say the good times may be coming to a close. Remember the problems last summer, with higher prices blamed on jet fuel? Well, we could see the cost of oil work the same dismal magic this summer.

Rick Seaney, CEO of FareCompare.com, cites recent fare increases of $10 to $20 per roundtrip as an indicator that we are the brink of an upswing. But, these are counterbalanced by new lows elsewhere. A recent survey by Travelocity shows ticket prices down 17 percent for trips between Memorial Day and Labor Day. So, buyers and sellers are locked in a silent struggle to determine how much your next vacation will cost.

With an eye out for possible deals, customers are waiting, booking their flights 86 days ahead instead of the usual 90. While this doesn’t seem like much, it takes a lot of last minute purchases to bring the average down.

Even if airline fares are coming back, you can still take advantage of the lows now. If you’re thinking about taking a vacation, stop … and take action instead.

Twitter + Fares = Twares

by Brenda Yun on


Twares may not be a word in the dictionary now, but it might be a common word in travel vocabulary soon.

Twares is a noun, and it means you can get special, time-sensitive fare offers from United Airlines if you follow the airlines on Twitter.

A tweet was sent from @UnitedAirlines at around 11:10 a.m. ET on Wednesday to promote a special $63 each-way “Tware” between Washington Reagan National and Chicago O’Hare. The first tware has expired, but United is holding a 10K Twitter follower challenge (it’s at just over 5,000 followers right now). When it reaches that number, another tware might pop up.

It’s time to stop stalling and join Twitter!

You can find Gadling on Twitter, as well as most of the Gadling Team: Mike Barish, Kraig Becker, Catherine Bodry, Alison Brick, Justin Glow, Aaron Hotfelder, Tom Johansmeyer, Jeremy Kressmann, Heather Poole, Jamie Rhein, Annie Scott, Karen Walrond, Kent Wien, and Brenda Yun.

March airline plunge softens in April

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Passenger traffic is still falling. That’s not going to change for a while. But, the decline slowed in April, signaling that the prolonged sharp dips may be behind us. Some optimists even believe that the worst is over – though I maintain a healthy skepticism.

Note the metric being used: passenger traffic. There’s a lot of mileage between asses in seats and money in the bank. On a positive note, increased passenger traffic means that more people are spending money on travel. Of course, deep discounts are responsible in large part for the increasing traffic. The value of these passengers in dollar terms, therefore, is quite low.

United Airlines reported a traffic drop of 10.5 percent in April 2009 relative to the same month in 2008. Delta and American sustained smaller declines. Southwest, meanwhile, showed a 4.1 percent increase.

And, fares fell.

The average one-way domestic fare paid in the first quarter of 2008 was $213 – compared to $246 for full-year 2008.

For now, however, the airlines believe it’s better to sell seats at any price, especially if they have to put a plane in the air anyway.

Fall fares on the way!

by Grant Martin on

Ah, the summer of oil is almost behind us. Looking at the fare charts right now, either there is a giant fare war going on or fall fares are starting to get loaded into the system. Either way, there are some pretty fantabulous fares on the market right now (take that, airline analysts!)

Much of the fare sales seem to be centered around Los Angeles and Salt Lake City, for some reason. So do you have a few minutes to take a look and see what’s out there? Good, here’s the easiest way to do it.

  • Farecompare has a neat little tool that I’ve talked about before that lets you sort fares by Price and Price Per Mile (PPM). Go to this link, plug in your city, select “North America” and click Find Fares. .
  • Sort those fares by either Price or PPM (a good metric in finding good prices for long flights), then scan down the list for city pairs that you like. Departing from Detroit, the second city I found was Los Angeles, for about 200$. Sounds good.
  • Farecompare’s availbility tool is kind of janky, so next, go to Travelocity, plug in the city pairs that you saw earlier and select “Flexible Search”.
  • The results should bring up something near the price that you found earlier. Click that link and Travelocity will bring up a dynamic calendar that shows you what dates are available.

Not finding the dates you want? Yeah, that’s the problem with the cheapest fares — often times they depart on Wednesdays or Tuesdays. But if you’ve got the time to plan far enough ahead or a few extra dollars you can work around most of these setbacks.

Happy travels!