Are $10 airfares too good to be true?
A Globe reporter booked a trip aboard the über-low-cost start-up Skybus Airlines Inc. to find out. The airline, which launched last year, garnered much attention for bringing new lows to airfares by setting aside 10, $10 seats on each flight. That would mean one could fly to, say, Kansas City, Mo., for $40 roundtrip, plus taxes and fees. That's cheaper than the $200 or more it can ordinarily cost to fly from Boston to Kansas City.
Skybus can offer such cheap fares because a lot of amenities are usually included in a tickairfares are not. Passengers must pay for beverages (water costs $2 a bottle), checked luggage ($5 a bag per flight), and pillows ($12 each). And you'll have to drive to Portsmouth International Airport in New Hampshire to catch a Skybus flight. But the biggest hurdle is scoring one of the coveted cheap seats.
In the end, we found the airline's $10 deal works best for people who have lots of time and flexibility. The airline uses smaller, out-of-the-way airports, so travelers may have to drive an hour or more for good deals. The best way to snag the $10 seats is to sign up for e-mailed airfare updates that can arrive at 4:15 a.m. and rush to Skybus.com since that's the only way to book Skybus tickets.
And having flexible travel dates helps. Our mid-October search showed the soonest we could take this trip was January due to the scarcity of $10 tickets between Columbus and "Boston," what the Columbus-based carrier calls the Portsmouth airport about 60 miles north of the Hub.
Chief financial officer Michael Hodge said the airline's strategy is to keep airfares substantially lower than competitors'. The bare-bones experience helps offset airfare for those who don't want the perks, he said.
"People appreciate the option to take it if they want, but they appreciate also if they don't want it that they don't have to pay for the sandwich or the drink for the person sitting next to them," he said.
Our original plan was to fly Skybus to San Francisco - a $40 round-trip destination by way of Columbus. But the $10 deals on the daily flight between Columbus and San Francisco vanished by late September. After those seats disappeared, prices edged up to $35 , then to $55, and ultimately to $390 for last-minute fares.
So we went as far west as possible for $20 one-way. We booked two one-way tickets (Kansas City via Columbus from Portsmouth) - even though Skybus doesn't advise passengers to cobble together connecting flights. Those who do must run two separate searches and credit card transactions.