Plan Low-Fare Flights Now: Staying Ahead
one of the new, cheap air charters this summer, nowÛªs the time to start making your plans. Given the current improvement in consumer spending and the fact that tax rebates will come around vacation time, those flights might fill up fast,</br></br>The new low-fare plan is called an Advance Booking Charter or ABC. Just approved last fall, for both U.S, and foreign flights, it already amounts to 30 per cent of all charter-flight applications received by the Civil Aeronautics Board and is expected to account for more than 50 , per cent of flights for the summer season as a whole.</br></br>The advantages of the ABC are twofold: (1) ItÛªs about the lowest air fare arrangement you can make, short of belonging to a group that arranges its own charters. (2) You pay only for air transportation and donÛªt also have to buy hotel' accommodations. Although a hotel package can be purchased on the side, by contrast the One-stop Tour Charter' or OTC fare</br></br>The OTC plan is probably the cheapest for people who want to go to one city and stay put for a few days. The ABC is more suitable for those who want to spend more of their vacation time traveling around the countryside, or who donÛªt like the hotels used by the tour operators.</br></br>HereÛªs how the ABC price compares with other bargain fares used by tourists: ABC plans, roundtrip from New York to London, run in the area of $290 to $340, depending on the date you go and the operator offering the tour. One-week OTCs run from $370 to $450, but include hotels and sometimes such frills as theater tickets. Both of these plans are bought through travel agents or tour operators.