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E L L I O T T' S TRAVEL NOTES
Travel news, opinion and analysis

April 6, 2004

JetBlue Gets No. 1 Ranking
 Low-fare airlines aren't just the cheapest carriers in the air anymore -- they're the best in the business, according to a prominent annual survey, released Monday, that showed low-fare upstart JetBlue as No. 1. The Airline Quality Ratings, compiled by Wichita State University business Professor Dean Headley and Wichita State Aviation Institute Professor Brent Bowen, showed low-fare carriers taking three of the top four places in the 14-airline survey for 2003. Alaska Airlines finished second, with low-fare pioneer Southwest Airlines third and low-fare America West Airlines fourth. Traditional carriers such as United Airlines (ninth place), American Airlines (11th) and Delta Air Lines (12th) finished near the bottom. San Francisco Chronicle | Posted 6 a.m.
-- Herald: First year JetBlue qualified
-- Houston Chronicle: Major airlines "take another hit"

• Another feather in the cap of the low-fare airlines. As I've said all along, the less-is-more attitude of the low-fare airlines works, and people like it. Legacy airlines are slow to embrace change, but they're moving in the right direction. Send us your comments.

Car Rental Companies Sell Harder
Paul Hoppe dreads the wait for the keys at the car rental desk. The agent, he says, invariably tries to talk him into switching to a larger, more expensive vehicle and buying costly prepaid gas options and unnecessary insurance. Mr. Hoppe, an associate professor of accounting at Golden Gate University in San Francisco, says rental companies have been ratcheting up the pressure on him. He recounted a recent experience at the Enterprise Rent-A-Car office at Los Angeles International Airport. "They told me they didn't have my requested car size so they asked if I would upgrade," he said. "They asked if I wanted the optional insurance, and when I said no, they wanted to know which insurance I had." Not every travelers is that lucky. The New York Times | Posted 6:20 a.m.

California Car Firms Attack 'Bundling'
"Bundling" may call to mind a quaint courting practice in colonial America, but if you're in the rental car business, it has an entirely different meaning. Some years ago, at the behest of consumer protection advocates, the California Legislature decreed that car rental companies must quote rates in which all cost factors, except taxes and mileage surcharges, must be "bundled" to give customers an accurate basis for comparison. It was designed to prevent players in the fiercely competitive rental market from quoting low rates to lure in customers, then adding surcharges that would run up their final bills. Sacramento Bee | Posted 6:30 a.m.

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• And finally ... Remember the fiasco over Denver's new international airport a few years back? Now Toronto has its own Denver, according to reports. If history is a guide, the furor over the $3.6 billion new Terminal 1 at Toronto Pearson International, which opens today, will blow over soon. Posted 6:45 a.m. | Send us your comments.

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