Kidding the Carriers

"To any kid who'd like to go somewhere," clarioned American Airlines' full-page ads, "we'll pay half your fare." Since American's President Marion Sadler launched that youth-fare plan three months ago, eight other U.S. airlines have reluctantly followed suit, and more than 300,000 kids (12 to 22) have bought the $3 I.D. cards that allow them to fly anywhere in the U.S., on a stand-by basis, at half the normal fare. Now some of the carriers want to tell the kids where to get off. Last week, arguing that the plan had brought only "ill will" and "widespread abuses," Atlanta-based Delta Airlines asked the Civil Aeronautics Board to ground the youth plan.

For a Ride. The kids have been taking the airlines for a ride--in more ways than one. Because there is no assurance that there will be stand-by space available on a desired flight, many have caught on to the trick of phoning in a false reservation in advance, then showing up at flight time to take the fictitious no-show's seat. In one of the newer ploys, called "one stop through hop," two teen-age girls recently boarded a New York-to-Minneapolis Northwest Airlines flight with half-fare tickets good only through an intermediary stop, Milwaukee. Gambling that the stewardesses wouldn't check, they kept their seats in Milwaukee, went on to Minneapolis for free.

On board, the kids often fly first class, demand all the frills, including free drinks (which they cannot have unless 21), that the old folks get. When they get "bumped" by adult passengers at intermediate stops, their angry parents keep airline phones tied up trying to locate them. Currently under CAB consideration is Delta's proposal to cut down the abuses and inconveniences by offering the kids reserved flights at two-thirds the normal fare. Privately, Delta and the other carriers wish that Sadler had kept his brain child to himself.

Keeping One's Cool. American still professes itself "delighted" with its president's plan. It has spent more than $1,000,000 on promotion (including a travel guide called Go-Go American, which tells the teens, among other things, where in San Francisco to find "those 'Topless Swim' girls") and has so far earned $2,200,000 flying 100,000 kids, 20% of them first-time air travelers. For the carriers that are losing their cool, onetime Schoolmaster Sadler had some words of admonishment: "You can't carry exuberant girls and boys without having some of them get out of hand now and then."

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