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

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October 7, 2004

Don't Like Your Airport? Try Baghdad
Whichever way you look at it, it's probably the world's most dangerous airport. Mortars and rockets are fired into its grounds daily, armed insurgents lurk outside its walls, and surface-to-air missiles have been fired at aircraft taking off and landing. Earlier this year, an American contractor was shot dead when guerrillas strafed a departing transport plane. A bullet pierced the fuselage and killed him as he sat in his seat. It's no longer called Saddam International, but something of the ousted dictator's shadow still hangs over Baghdad International airport. Reuters | Posted 6:35 a.m.
• Iraqi Airways Hopes To Be Like Others (IHT)
• We're Not on the PCH Anymore, Toto (LAT)

Kinda puts our airport gripes into perspective, don't you think?

New Sites Comb Web For Bargains
Websites promising to find the best travel deals have online travel agents wondering if they have a new friend or enemy. For consumers, however, choices are rising, as the new search companies take a different approach to finding travel bargains on the Web. Sites like Sidestep (http://www.sidestep.com), Yahoo's new Farechase (http://www.farechase.com), Mobissimo (http://www.mobissimo.com) and online comparison shopping firm Nextag (http://www.nextag.com), work like referral services, combing the web for bargains and showing customers where to find them. In return, the sites that get the business generally pay finders fees to the search companies and process the transactions themselves. Reuters | Posted 6:45 a.m.

United Cuts Domestic Flights
United Airlines plans to slash the number of its domestic flights and increase its more profitable international schedule, while at the same reducing the size of its fleet. United's parent, UAL Corp., said today that by March 2005, it will increase the number of international flights by 14 percent and reduce its domestic flight schedule by 12 percent, shifting some of them to United Express. "Fundamental changes in our industry, including ongoing high fuel costs, intense pricing pressure and continuing overcapacity, demand that we take aggressive steps now in implementing this plan to ensure that United remains competitive," Glenn Tilton, UAL's chairman, president and chief executive officer said in a statement. AP | Posted 6:50 a.m.

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No Refund On The 'Seven Seas' - If your cruise is canceled, are you entitled to a full refund? Even though one cruise line says "yes," the travel agent who booked a floating vacation tells one reader that Radisson has him listed as a "no show" - meaning that he didn't show up for the sailing and forfeited the entire cruise. Now, the agent has a commission check and the reader is $1,527.65 poorer. Find out who is to blame for the cancellation confusion, and how you can prevent it from happening to you. Featured archived story from Triprights | Posted 7 a.m.

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'End Of Beginning' For Space Travel - While SpaceShipOne’s wispy contrail from sky to space quickly vanished into the thin desert air here, Monday’s flight at Mojave Spaceport left a solid line in the sand -- to create a "new space age" of personal space travel. "This is the end of the beginning," said Gregg Maryniak, X Prize Foundation Executive Director, shortly after Brian Binnie had piloted SpaceShipOne to a successful win of the $10 million Ansari X Prize. Space.com | Posted 7 a.m.

Man Guilty Of Fondling Passenger - A 29-year-old Oregon man was convicted Tuesday of fondling a female passenger on a United Airlines flight from Miami to Denver last year. After a one-day trial, Alexander Vladimirovich Kolotov, of Portland, was found guilty of abusive sexual contact and simple assault. Kolotov had told investigators that he covered up with a blanket during the flight and fell asleep. He said he was awaked by her screams and didn't know what had happened. Denver Channel | Posted 7:05 a.m.

Oui, We're Rude, Admit French - The French finally admitted yesterday what millions of tourists already know - that they are rude to foreign visitors. A report commissioned by their own government in an effort to boost tourism confessed that visitors often found locals 'surly and hostile'. Daily Mail | Posted 7:10 a.m.

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