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

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October 4, 2004

NCL's 'Pride of Aloha' Takes A Fall
Norwegian Cruise Line will cancel cruise reservations on the ship Pride of Aloha without penalty and refund passengers' money for anyone booked on the Hawaiian cruise through Oct. 17, NCL director of public relations Susan Robison said last week. The cruise line also is giving travel agents the opportunity to have clients cancel and get refunds if they are uncomfortable traveling on the ship. In addition, it has canceled a $10-a-day service charge on the ship indefinitely. Newspaper stories, including some in the Free Press, have reported the outcry among passengers over service and cleanliness on Aloha since it began service in June. Robison said that the situation is improving and that passenger feedback scores have been improving each week. Although the novice all-U.S. crew has had problems, she said, the long-term plan to employ 3,000 will help Hawaii's economy. Free Press | Posted 6:35 a.m.
• Cruise Critics Give Ship Negative Reviews (Biz Journal)
• Choppy Seas For 'Pride of Aloha' (Star-Bulletin)

I've gotta hand it to the folks at Norwegian for having a US-flagged vessel, even when it makes absolutely no economic sense. It was the right thing to do. I hope they can get the 'Pride' back on course.

'Paradise' Needs PR Help
Rachelle Stone has a bagful of tropical schtick to roll out for the corporate events she plans in South Florida -- Havana-style cigar rollers, Macarena dancers in a South Beach nightclub, a lush wooden fruit cart complete with a cardboard Carmen Miranda cut-out. So the meeting planner from North Miami Beach was not happy to be here for a trade show and talk so much about Texas. Until Jeanne made landfall last month, Texas held the extremely unenviable record of being the only state to have endured four hurricanes in a single season. Stone has been touting those once-in-a-century odds to counter the bad name she says this hurricane season has given the Sunshine State. Miami Herald | Posted 6:50 a.m.

Ebookers Next in Dot-Com Land Grab
Travel group Ebookers will this week open a data room for bidders as it moves closer to a sale that could value it at more than £150m. InterActiveCorp (IAC), the American on-line services group, is tipped by industry insiders to be the most likely bidder. IAC owns Expedia and Hotels.com, two of the world’s largest internet-travel firms. Ebookers disclosed it was in talks “with several interested parties” over a possible sale a month ago. It is thought that its main domestic rival, Lastminute.com, has ruled itself out of the race, as has Amadeus, the European airline database and travel sales company. Times | Posted 6:45 a.m.

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Who's Next? - Which airline is going out of business first? No network carrier is immune to a bankruptcy filing - or a liquidation - but some are less immune than others. (And if they don't go out of business, then they'll at least get an extreme makeover.) Conventional wisdom says US Airways will be toast soon. Some of the travel trade bulletin boards look like Vegas odds sheets predicting the day it stops flying. But I don't think that calendar is in print yet. US Airways is in a really bad situation which was brought on by a set of rose-colored glasses during its first emergence from bankruptcy. A lot has changed and I think that US Airways is not only on the right track, but it is on a strong track for survival. Featured story from Travelcomment | Posted 7 a.m.

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Budget Carriers In Asia Fuel Bargains - A dogfight is raging among budget airlines in Asia, producing eye-popping prices. Would you believe 58 cents to fly from Singapore to Thailand? That's what Tiger Airways, a new low-cost airline based in Singapore, was charging last month for seats to Bangkok, Phuket and Hat Yai, Thailand, to promote its start-up. Thai AirAsia, a budget competitor based in Bangkok, fired back with 17-cent one-way tickets between Singapore and Phuket. Los Angeles TImes | Posted 7 a.m.

Northwest CEO Resigns - Richard Anderson has resigned as chief executive officer of Eagan, Minn.-based Northwest Airlines Corp. to become executive vice president of UnitedHealth Group Inc., Minnetonka, Minn. Northwest announced the promotion of the airline's president Doug Steenland to the post of CEO, effective immediately. Steenland came to the airline from a Washington, D.C., law firm. Biz Journal | Posted 7:05 a.m.

Song CEO Resigns - Another week, another member of Delta Air Lines Inc.'s executive ranks departs. John Selvaggio, president of Song, Delta's leisure-market unit, announced his retirement Friday, effective immediately. Mr. Selvaggio led the creation of Delta's latest airline-within-an-airline experiment in April 2003, when it was a pet project of former chief executive Leo Mullin. WSJ | Posted 7:10 a.m.

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