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

April 23, 2004

Security Screeners Perform Poorly
Airport security screeners employed either by the federal government or private companies do not detect weapons as they should, a government investigator told a House panel yesterday. Department of Homeland Security Inspector General Clark Kent Ervin said the two groups "performed about the same, which is to say, equally poorly." Ervin's testimony was part of two government reports discussed before the House Transportation and Infrastructure's aviation subcommittee yesterday that described the strikingly similar performance between federal security screeners and those working for private companies in a test program at five airports. Washington Post | Posted 7 a.m.
-- Chronicle: Private security screeners criticized
-- AP: 'We have a system that doesn't work'

• One reason why the screeners are being called inadequate is that the screening process is flawed, as I pointed out when the switch was made to federal screeners. TSA has done little to change itself since then. Send us your comments.

Cancer Patient Denied Boarding
Airport security screeners refused to let a cancer patient board a flight home to Denver because they said she no longer resembled her identification photos. Athena LaPera, 35, finally flew out of Orlando International Airport on a Frontier Airlines flight Wednesday night, two days after she was turned away by security screeners. LaPera said she has lost weight and hair because of chemotherapy treatments since the photos were taken for her U.S. passport and Colorado driver's license. "I feel very degraded and angry," said LaPera, who was returning home from vacationing in St. Augustine and whose husband works for Frontier Airlines. AP | Posted 7:10 a.m.
-- WESH: Airports may relax gate visitation rules

Cheap Airline Tickets May Run Out
Your summer vacation may just have gotten a little more expensive. No, don't expect to see something as simple as a $10 across-the-board increase in fares. The first real fare hike in a year with the potential to stick has to be more complicated than that. What the airlines have done this time may require you to book your flights earlier, fly at less desirable times and hunt a lot harder for bargains -- if you want a cheaper seat. That's because major airlines have adopted a pricing strategy that targets certain markets -- those where competition from the low-fare, discount airlines is heaviest or where planes routinely fly at or near capacity. Houston Chronicle | Posted 7:25 a.m.

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• And finally ... stay tuned to this spot for some big news regarding the introduction of an all-new travel Web site. (And let's face it, you don't exactly see a lot of new travel Web sites launching these days!) Posted 7:30 a.m. | Send us your comments.

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