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

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September 17, 2004

Hotels Try to Dispel Hurricane Myths
As Hurricane Ivan swirled away from the Caribbean and Jeanne hurtled through on a track toward Florida, the tourism industry in both areas is cleaning up storm damage and trying to clear up misconceptions. "The big one" is that all of Florida and the Caribbean are in shambles after the 1-2-3 punch of Charley, Frances and Ivan, says Miami-based lodging analyst Scott Berman of PricewaterhouseCoopers. "There are pockets of serious damage, but generally speaking, 95% of the hotel inventory is receiving guests." USA Today | Posted 6:30 a.m.
• Hotel Profits Boom After Hurricanes (Herald)
• Jeanne Almost a Hurricane, Kills Two (AP)

Storm season isn't over yet. The latest forecast calls for Jeanne to turn toward Florida. Talk about storm fatigue!

TSA Implements New Security Rules
Beginning Sunday, all airline passengers in the United States must take off their jackets before passing through metal detectors and more will be subjected to pat-down searches and checks for explosives. Transportation Security Administration spokeswoman Yolanda Clark says screeners will advise passengers of the new procedures when they put their carry-on bags on the conveyor belt, TSA spokeswoman Yolanda Clark said. The goal is "to fortify our screening procedures to detect the presence of explosives carried on a person or in carryon luggage," she said. AP | Posted 6:35 a.m.

Ticket Scalpers a Problem in Russia
People who privately sell and swap airline tickets - like the person who helped two suspected suicide bombers board the planes that crashed almost simultaneously last month - are still out in full force in airports, and a bribe of as little as 500 rubles ($17.10) can get anybody on board a domestic flight, according to airline officials and media reports. "Everybody knows them and everybody loves them, including the police, because they bring in extra profits," an airline official said. "These are mostly former airport employees - loaders or porters. They know everyone in the airport." St. Petersburg Times | Posted 6:45 a.m.

US Airways Loses Aircraft Financing - US Airways Group Inc. lost financing for new regional jets, cramping the bankrupt airline's ability to implement its new strategy. Part of the Arlington, Va., airline's plan for returning to the black involved using more regional jets to implement a hybrid hub-and-spoke and point-to-point network along the East Coast and in Latin America. But when the airline filed for bankruptcy on Sunday, the company financing those new regional jets, General Electric Capital Corp., suspended the financing. Dow Jones | Posted 7 a.m.

United Cuts More Costs - UAL Corp.'s United Airlines, the world's second-largest carrier, plans job cuts and other cost reductions totaling $655 million, a 4.8 percent increase from its earlier goal, Chief Executive Glenn Tilton said. "We've targeted three areas of dramatic improvement for the company where we do not benchmark well: maintenance, airport operations and distribution," Tilton told reporters in Brussels. "They're going to involve job cuts but we do not yet know how many." Post | Posted 7:05 a.m.

Hotel Employees in California Authorize Strike - The prospect of a strike by 6,000 housekeepers, waiters and other workers at some of the West Coast's landmark hotels loomed larger Thursday as negotiations for a new contract foundered. Members of the hotel workers union chapters in San Francisco and Los Angeles on Wednesday voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike at several properties, including some high-profile establishments. Washington Post | Posted 7:10 a.m.

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• Off the Record ... people have asked me about my personal feelings regarding the US Airways bankruptcy, particularly after a critical commentary I wrote, which also appears in today's Union-Leader. After all the public bickering with some of the airline's executives, shouldn't I be pleased to see the carrier struggling? The answer is: absolutely not. Truthfully, I wrote the op-ed with great reluctance, and only after I came to believe that the story would help taxpayers by exposing needless government wastefulness. I'm in daily - often hourly - contact with many friends who work at US Airways, and like them, I hope that their company can be salvaged. Posted 7:15 a.m. | Send us your comments.

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