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

June 7, 2004

Virgin USA Goes to San Francisco
Another entrant in the low-fare airline market, a carrier operating as part of the Virgin Group Ltd., will be based in San Francisco, with its corporate headquarters in New York City. The airline - which has not yet been named - will have more than 1,500 pilots, flight attendants, maintenance technicians and engineers based in San Francisco. About 300 employees are expected to work at the airline's New York headquarters. San Francisco and the state offered the airline more than $15 million in grants and incentives, which include employee training grants and cooperative marketing. The airline, which has yet to receive regulatory approval, expects to begin service next year, airline spokeswoman Stacy Geagan said after the announcement late Friday. AP | Posted 6:30 a.m.
-- Bloomberg: Branson to own a minority stake
-- Reuters: New carrier will provide 1,800 jobs

• This is bad news for United Airlines, which has a strong presence in the Bay Area and which has done a miserable job for so long, by many accounts. And one other observation: Why do I feel as if this airline is the reincarnation of Song? Both Frederick Reid, the new chief executive, and spokeswoman Stacy Geagan, come from Delta's Song low-fare spinoff. Send us your comments.

For Best Hotel Deals, Go to the Web
Where do you go for the best rates at the familiar chain hotels? To the big hotel search engines (Hotels.com, Quikbook.com) or large hotel departments of Expedia, Travelocity and Orbitz? Or to the Web sites of the major hotel chains (Marriott.com, Sheraton .com, Holiday-Inn.com, and the like) themselves? In this battle of titans, it now appears that the chains have gained a clear price advantage over the general hotel-searching Web sites. Almost as a universal rule, the smart consumer will pay less at a chain hotel -- sometimes considerably less -- by reserving a room at the hotel chain's own Web site. The Eagle| Posted 6:45 a.m.

British Pilots Warn of Summer Delays
Pilots' leaders are warning of a summer of cancel flights over controversial plans to extend maximum flying hours. Crashes could rise six-fold if duty hours increased, the British Airline Pilots Association (Balpa) and 14 other European pilots' groups say. Pilots may refuse the new hours if they feel passengers' lives are being put at risk, raising the prospect of delays. Under the plans, the EU is proposing to increase maximum flight duty hours from the current 12 to 14. Some airlines say the EU proposals will not affect their pilots' hours but Balpa believes "competitive pressures" will force them to change. BBC | Posted 7 a.m.

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• And finally ... in yesterday's newsletter I linked to an old column that asked whether we should ban kids or pets on planes. The answer from reader Harry Thibedeau: both. "Then we'll really have the friendly skies back again," he added. Posted 7:10 a.m. | Send us your comments.

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