Basically, the difference between charters and discount flights on commercial airlines are as follows:

1. When you fly with a major airline, your contract is between you and the airline. Legally, if anything goes wrong, your recourse is with the airline. On a charter flight you are contracting with a wholesale tour operator who, in turn, has subcontracted with an airline to do the actual flying. If anything goes wrong with your charter flight, you have only the tour operator, not, the airline to turn to. If you have qualms about a tour operator's reliability or solvency, contact your local Better Business Bureau. To find out whether any enforcement complaints have been lodged against a tour operator or charter airline, contact the Department of Transportation in Washington, DC, at 202-755-2220.

2. Most charter flights only fly their routes once or twice a week, offering less flexibility and choice than a major airline with daily departures. The limited choice of return dates may mean less or more time at a destination than you'd planned. However, sometimes the charter flight is the only nonstop flight available, not requiring plane changes or extra stops

3. Economically, charter airlines have a lower average cost per seat than major airlines. Therefore, they can charge lower average fares. Usually all the seats on a charter flight are priced exactly the same, down to the last available seat. This is a significant difference from major airlines, which have several pricing levels, the lowest of which might be lower than the charter price, but also may be available on only a very limited seating basis and likely to be sold out very quickly, leaving you the choice of the higher priced tickets.

Many charter programs focus on Europe, especially during the summer months. In fact, it's often very difficult to distinguish between the charter price for tickets and a consolidator's discount price with a major airline. Often both kinds of tickets are sold by the same people and promoted in ads that don't specify which is which.

For example, during ski season the lowest round-trip excursion fare from Los Angeles to Salt Lake City (requiring seven-day advance purchase, Saturday night stay, traveling on Monday afternoon through Thursday morning only) was $231. The next best fare was $450 for a nonrefundable ticket, requiring a Saturday night stay and a 50 percent penalty for cancellation. The nonrestricted coach fare was $752. However, a charter company flying round-trip nonstop jet service from Los Angeles to Salt Lake City cost only $178. Which one would you take?

There is also a stigma of uncertainty about charter flights:

-Uncertainty over whether the flight will actually take off if there aren't enough seats sold and the operator decides to cancel the flight and replace it with discount tickets on a major airline.

-Uncertainty as to whether the price of tickets, when first announced, will possibly be revised closer to the flight time if too many seats remain empty. Charter operators can raise the price of a fare by as much as 10 percent up to 10 days before departure. Or they can lower the fare at the last minute in a final attempt to fill empty seats.

-Uncertainty as to the reliability of the charter tour operator and whether your prepaid dollars are actually being used for airfare

-Uncertainty as to an unanticipated itinerary change, i.e. a tour operator who compensates for low bookings by combining two or more charters that were originally promoted as separate programs, sometimes resulting in marathon flight times between desired destinations.

We strongly advise that charter flights be booked through major tour operators who have operated their schedules for several years without an unusually high rate of cancellation or major modification in advertised routes. Trip-interruption travel insurance is also recommended to cover the risk of operator failure as well as other contingencies that might cause you to lose some or all of your payment. To protect yourself against airline or operator failure, you can buy "travel protection" or "trip interruption" insurance from a travel agent or tour operator. Insurance costs around $5 per $100 of protection.

In any event, when flying a charter, be sure to have the financial wherewithal-charge card, traveler's check, cash-to buy your way home in an emergency.

Whenever possible, pay for charter flights with charge cards. In case of problems later, you can withhold payment or try to get a refund through the charge-card company. If you can't put it on plastic, make sure your check is made out to the escrow or trust account U.S. operators are legal required toestablish for each charter program. If you make the check payable to the individual tour operator, you diminish your chances of receiving a refund in case of failure.

The Air Charters Guide located at http://www.guides.com/acg/providers is an excellent resource for locating information on Charter Operators, Brokers and general tips on how too book a flight. Another excellent supplement to this information, beyond the scope of The Air Charter Guide, is available from The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association. Entitled Airports 1999, (reprinted annually) this directory shows runway lengths, services, telephone numbers and ground transportation. Although the book's primary purpose is a planning reference for pilots, it is filled with useful phone numbers and service information.