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

August 10, 2004

Delta on the Verge of Bankruptcy
Delta Air Lines said for the first time Monday that Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection is unavoidable if it can't reduce costs, including cutting $1 billion annually from its pilots' contracts. If it did declare bankruptcy, Delta would be the third major U.S. airline to do so since the 2001 terrorist attacks. In a regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Atlanta-based carrier said it is quickly using up its cash reserves. Delta ended its second quarter with just over $2 billion in cash and short-term assets, down from $2.7 billion at the end of 2003. The company said it expects to continue to burn cash at the same rate for the rest of 2004, which would leave it with $1.3 billion at the end of the year. Analysts have said that if Delta's available cash dips below $1.5 billion, the airline probably would declare bankruptcy. Enquirer | Posted 6:30 a.m.
• Delta's Shares at Historic Lows (CBS Marketwatch)
• Delta Gives Free Lifetime FC Tickets to Ex-CFO (AP)

We saw this one coming. But unlike the other bankruptcies (United's and the imminent US Airways filing) Delta has ample cash reserves to keep it flying indefinitely. That could make negotiating a pay cut from Delta's pilots more difficult.

Lower Your Hotel Bill (Almost) Legally
Frustrated by rising hotel rates, Ron Goltsch recently devised a creative - if unorthodox - solution. Instead of booking a room through a travel agency or a hotel Web site, and securing a modest discount, Mr. Goltsch, an engineer from Fairfield, N.J., would search the Internet for a hotel. Once he found one to his liking, he looked around the Web for a prominent business close by. Then he sprang his ruse. "I called the hotel, asking if they had a special rate for that company," he said. "Usually, the clerk would make the incorrect assumption and give me the rate since I knew enough to ask for it." By piggybacking on a bigger company's negotiated corporate rate, Mr. Goltsch was sometimes able to cut his hotel bills in half. Illegal? Not the way he sees it. The New York Times | Posted 6:35 a.m.

Hotel Bargains: Going, Going, Gone
The defining experience for many online consumers, the moment in which the Internet finally lived up to its hype, came when they saved a huge amount on a hotel room. Imagine five-star accommodations for a two-star price. It seemed too good to be true. Turns out, it was. Gone are the days of the post-Sept. 11 travel slump in which hotels, desperate to fill up vacant rooms, flooded online travel sites such as Expedia and Travelocity with discounted rates. "There are far fewer bargains on those sites," said Jerry Morrison, a San Diego hotel consultant. "Hotels try to give as little inventory as possible to sites like Expedia." It is not just supply and demand that has changed the pricing dynamics of online hotel bookings. Hotel companies also got wise to the fact that travel sites were cutting into their profits as well as challenging customers' loyalties. CNS | Posted 6:45 a.m.

More Travel Agents Work From Home - With her laptop computer and phone at her side, Marisa Cole puts together travel packages for clients from her Salem home. Sometimes she even makes house calls. David Thrower of Medford has adopted the same modus operandi. ''When most travel agencies are closing at 5 or 6, I'm usually just starting my business day, preparing to meet with clients in their homes,'' he said. Boston Globe | Posted 7 a.m.

BA Bags MIA For a Week - Thousands of passengers who took off from Heathrow without their luggage after last Tuesday's storms are still waiting for it to catch up. British Airways admitted yesterday that at least 7,000 bags are still piled up at the airport. Most of the luggage was 'lost' when storms forced BA to cancel 100 flights at Heathrow. Telegraph | Posted 7:05 a.m.

Yahoo Quietly Buys FareChase - Yahoo has quietly purchased FareChase, a small online travel company, to help broaden its Web search capabilities. Yahoo purchased New York-based FareChase on 2 July for an undisclosed sum, company spokeswoman Nicki Dugan said late on Friday. FareChase, founded in 1999, has 25 employees, the majority of which will relocate to Yahoo's headquarters in California. St. Petersburg Times | Posted 7 a.m.

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• Off the Record ... how do you become a legend in travel writing? By rewriting, says Tim Cahill. “All first drafts suck,” he said in a recent profile in the Portland Tribune. “And writing isn't so much writing as rewriting, and you can’t rewrite unless you have a first draft that sucks.” Cahill is one of those larger-than-life writers with a down-to-earth persona, as I discovered when I met him several months ago in Miami. Thanks for the advice, Tim. (And now I don't feel so bad about all the rewriting my editors have to do.) Posted 7:10 a.m. | Send us your comments.

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