Peter Greenberg: Senior Flight Discounts

By: Peter Greenberg | Source: AARP.org | 2008-07-02

Do ANY airlines offers senior discounts/deals anymore? Continental used to have a great deal, but no more. I am talking about deals on a regular basis--not specials.
-Gary, Laredo, TX

It seems that some of the major U.S. carriers offer a senior discount of some sort. However, the trick here is that they aren't usually available online and you can only access them by calling the reservation number of the airlines you wish to fly. On top of that, you need to know the specific dates that you want to fly–and in the case of Delta and Southwest, there is no way to tell which date offers a senior discount or how much the discount is for that date, respectively. This means you would have to try a range of dates to find your ideal “lowest” price. Plus, all discounts are off the regular price, which means that your “senior discount” could actually be a lot higher than regular discounted fares available to everyone.

For example, Southwest offers 20% to 60% off of regularly priced flights for seniors 65 and over, depending what day you fly and where you are flying to–if you call their reservation number and ask for the senior discount. But, since this is off the regular price, you might even find it cheaper to book with their special offers–plus you’ll save yourself the time and headache of having to wait on the phone. Check out http://www.southwest.com/travel_center/seniors.html for more details on Southwest’s senior discount.