Decreasing competition among airlines at a given airport seldom is positive news for travelers who value cheap airplane tickets and cheap vacation packages. US Airways announced September 1st that it will decrease its Las Vegas schedule of flights by approximately 40 percent.
US Airways is planning to cancel direct routes from Las Vegas to Boston, Dallas/Fort Worth, Fresno, Los Angeles and San Francisco early in 2012. US Airways daily departures from Las Vegas will fall to 21 from a current 35.
This dramatic reduction in the number of daily flights will make US Airways one of the smaller airlines operating in Las Vegas. The airline will fly directly from Las Vegas only to its three hubs (Charlotte, Philadelphia and Phoenix) as well as Washington Regan National by the end of January.
US Airways focus on these four airports is one of its key profitability strategies. It wants to compete primarily in markets where it is a dominant player.
US Airways is hoping to be able to operate more flights at Washington National because of its proposed slot swap with Delta. If the slot swap proposal is ultimately approved, approximately 98 percent of its total flights will operate to or from one of these four airports. When American West Airlines acquired US Airways in 2005 and changed its name to US Airways, it operated a schedule of about 131 daily Las Vegas flights.
Expect Cut Backs in Debit Card Incentives
Travelers experienced in the ways of how to find cheap airplane tickets, discount hotel rooms, and cheap vacation packages know that using certain credit and debit cards further reduces the cost of travel. Now banks are moving to reduce benefits and add fees for using their debit cards as a result of new government regulations which limit the fees banks can charge merchants to process debit card transactions.
The following are just a few examples of banks adding fees and/or taking away benefits for debit card use:
Wells Fargo will shortly conduct a trial whereby it will charge a $3 monthly fee for debit card use for residents in Georgia, Oregon, New Mexico, Nevada, and Washington.
Sun Trust is currently issuing cards that come with a $5 monthly fee.
Regions Bank has announced it will add fees to select cards starting as of October.
Chase is currently testing card fees in select markets.
Chase recently did away with its reward program for debit cards. Many experts expect other banks will shortly take the same action.
If you currently earn rewards using a debit card, you should expect those rewards to soon be eliminated and likely fees to be added. If you want to continue earning rewards, you will need to shift most purchases to a credit card, where banks are still allowed to charge merchants high fees. Those fees provide banks with revenue to offer rewards to their credit card holders.
In the short term, if you want to continue to use a cash card, and your bank starts charging cash card fees, look into moving your checking account to a different bank that is not charging those fees. Currently most larger banks are not adding cash card fees, but long term are expected to do so.
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