• What's elliott?
• About elliott
• Contact us

t o p i c s

• Business
• Commentary
• Destinations
• Help
• Leisure
• Technology
• Vault

Copyright Elliott Publishing. All rights reserved. For more information, call (305) 453-4781 or send e-mail to us.

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

January 8, 2004

U.S. Wants Passengers Toilet-Trained
Qantas passengers have been ordered not to line up outside toilets while making the 14-hour flight to and from the United States. The directive was issued late this week by the Transportation Security Administration, which is demanding that pilots make a pre-flight announcement banning passengers from "congregating in groups around toilets or anywhere else in the aircraft." Flight attendants will be expected to police the toilets, including checking every two hours for "suspicious packages." The Age | Posted 5:50 a.m.
-- BBC: Directive causes "concern" among Australians

• The rule against congregating near the bathroom never made much sense to begin with. The bad guys don't exactly stand in a line before they take over the plane now, do they? TSA needs to scrap the silly rule. | Send us your comments.

High-Cost Carriers Crashed Last Year
The Big Six legacy carriers as a group continued to lose ground to smaller competitors, according to airline reports issued this week. For calendar-year 2003, each of the Big Six — American, Continental, Delta, Northwest, United and US Airways — experienced traffic declines ranging up to 6 percent and reduced capacity between 2 percent and 9 percent. In sharp contrast, America West, Alaska, ATA and Southwest Airlines in 2003 each grew traffic markedly and increased overall capacity levels. Business Travel News | Posted 5:55 a.m.
-- TW: Airlines come in with mixed December results
-- Monitor: Terror threats cloud air-travel recovery

• Many full-service airlines still don't get it. But the ones that do, like America West, are being rewarded by a changing market, as I noted in a recent commentary. | Send us your comments.

Off to Europe? Stay Out of the Pool
Millions of vacationers are risking their lives in swimming pools which contain stomach-churning cocktails of bacteria. Many pools abroad, especially those for children, are little better than lavatories, according to the British Consumers' Association. What's in there? Sweat, urine, mucus, saliva, hair, dead skin and fecal matter, for starters. Evening Standard | Posted 4:25 a.m.
-- CDC: If you go swimming, don't submit your head
<-- BBC: Look out for parasites — and don't drown

• I wonder what's in the hot tub? | Send us your comments.

-----------------------------------

• And finally ... more evidence that the plane is becoming like the bus. The online chatter says some planes have a graffiti problem (yep, I've seen it too). One traveler spotted lettering carved into the window of one plane. What's next — spray paint? Posted 6:05 a.m. | Send us your comments.

>> Yesterday's Notes | Tomorrow's Notes <<

E-mail Elliott | Other bloggers | About this blog

Latest Travel Notes | Complete Archives