Fare

WASHINGTON -- Capping a three-year investigation, the Department of Justice filed a civil antitrust suit yesterday charging eight of the nation's largest airlines with using a computer system to fix prices in the $40 billion domestic air passenger business.Two of the airlines, United and USAir, the largest carrier at Baltimore-Washington International Airport, entered into a proposed consent decree to settle the charges, the department said, while the others indicated they would contest the suit.

The Corridor Transportation Corp. has begun a 30-day period for public comment on potential fare increases that will affect Connect-A-Ride Service and potential changes to its G and H routes. The G route connects Laurel and College Park; Columbia travelers can take the E from The Mall in Columbia to Laurel Mall to connect to the G. The H route connects Laurel to Greenbelt. The proposed fare increase and route changes are scheduled to take effect July 3. A public meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. June 1 in the first-floor conference room at Corridor Transportation Corp.

I'd like to travel from Venice, Italy, to Frankfurt, Germany, and then to Amsterdam, the Netherlands. How can I find a low-fare airline on the Internet? Two sites that have listings of low-fare airlines flying throughout Europe are Whichbudget.com and Attitude travel.com. Popular carriers include Ryanair, Flybe, easyJet and LTU - although they might not fly to your destinations. In fact, although we found a 50-euro fare on Ryanair from Venice to Frankfurt's Hahn Airport, we weren't able to locate a low-fare airline that flies from Frankfurt to Amsterdam.

"HOT London deals on Virgin Atlantic -- $516." "Fares for less than $200 round-trip! -- $83." "Fly anywhere and save! World-wide fare sale: Roundtrip from $95+." These were just a few of the deals advertised on popular travel Web sites in the past few weeks. All of them came with a good amount of fine print detailing blackout dates or other restrictions. Not one of them was actually available when put to the test in a recent search. And each of them was easily bested by comparing rates on other Web sites or simply by widening the search to include other airlines on the same Web site.

My husband and I want to visit Scotland but can't find any online deals. Are there Web sites that will alert me when they have low airfares? There are plenty. Travel search engines such as SideStep.com, Kayak.com and Mobissimo.com scour airline and other travel sites for prices, then - after you pick the fare you want - send you to those sites to make your purchase. Each has individual features that allow you to comparison shop, but only Kayak.com and SideStep.com offer fare alerts - they'll notify you when fares fall.

A plan to alter or eliminate nearly a third of Baltimore area bus routes has been delayed a month by the Mass Transit Administration because of scheduling problems.Slated to have gone into effect Sunday, the route changes will now coincide with rate increases March 10. Twelve of the 66 bus routes will be discontinued or shortened. Eight others will be rerouted.MTA spokesman Anthony Brown said the changes were delayed because bus drivers have not had enough time to learn the new routes. He said this winter's snowfall put training sessions two weeks behind schedule.

THE MASS TRANSIT Administration's plan to remake its system in the Baltimore region is motivated neither by racism nor a preference for suburbanites. In fact, one could easily make the counter-argument: That the MTA is trying to get suburban residents to carry a greater share of funding mass transit, the burden which now falls squarely on the shoulders of Baltimoreans, who comprise 90 percent of the ridership.The 50 people who turned out at Lexington Market on Martin Luther King Day to protest the changes, and who were incited by city Councilman Melvin L. Stukes and the All People's Congress to view this in terms of race, have the impact reversed.

Megabus.com is offering 200,000 free seats on its buses for travel early next year. The express bus service, which offers travel from Baltimore to New York City and about 9 other cities, will make the free seats available for customers who travel Jan. 4 to March 1. Travelers can book a seat beginning today by using the promo code GOFREE. During a quick check of the website, I was able to find the free seats for a January weekend trip from Baltimore to New York. Megabus.com says that while there is a cap on the number of free seats you can book, it's possible to get a free round-trip fare for one or more travelers during the same booking.

Southwest Airlines' earnings plummeted nearly 72 percent during the first quarter, as other carriers gave the Dallas-based airline a dose of its own low-fare medicine.Southwest earned $11.8 million, or 8 cents per share, in the three months ended March 31, compared with $41.8 million, or 28 cents per share, in the same period a year earlier. Revenues were $621 million compared to $619.4 million in the first quarter of 1994.While the airline, unlike some others, is still making a profit, its results recently have been far less impressive than previous years, when the carrier seemed to have cornered the low-fare market.

We have a cruise to Europe planned for October of this year. I haven't booked air travel yet because I want to get the lowest rate possible. When is the best time to do so? My wife thinks it should be as soon as possible. The time to buy an airline ticket is like the time to buy an antique, and that is usually right now (if it's what you want and the price seems reasonable) because it might not be there when you go back. I can't tell you the number of times I've waited to see if the fare would drop, only to regret it later.