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

January 20, 2004

Travelers Return, Airline Profits Lag
Air travel has recovered from the worst slump ever. Profits will take longer. December 2003 air traffic matched air traffic in December 2000. It was the first month that passenger demand has returned to pre-September 2001 levels. But the rebound is being fueled largely by lower fares. That's hardly a formula for profitability for the nation's big airlines; rather, it's an opportunity for fast-growing carriers such as Southwest, JetBlue and AirTran, which boast low operating costs USA Today | Posted 7:40 a.m.
-- Grossman: Here's why the Big Six are dying
<-- Delta reports more losses

• No one cares why the high-cost carriers are tanking, except maybe the airlines themselves. What the Big Six don't seem to understand is that they must change — or die. That's what the industry's pundits ought to be focusing on. Send us your comments.

Travel Industry Guidelines Departing
Jan. 31 will be a new day for the travel industry. That's when federal regulations that have governed the sale of airline tickets for 20 years — and essentially the relationships among airlines, travel agents and computer reservation systems such as Sabre — will end. Consumers probably won't see any change in the way they purchase airline tickets or make hotel reservations with travel agents or over the Internet, industry analysts say. But the businesses handling those transactions will face a more competitive marketplace as airlines and reservation systems are able to individually negotiate the fees associated with ticket sales. Fort Worth Star Telegram | Posted 7:30 a.m.

• If this is really a "win-win" then why didn't the feds lift the regulations much sooner? As reported earlier this year, virtually no one has opposed this deregulation. Doesn't that seem a little odd? Is this going to be airline deregulation: the sequel? Send us your comments.

Hotels Losing Millions on Web
Hotels could be losing millions of dollars worth of bookings if customers at their sites spend too much time wading through Web pages rather than completing a booking, according to Gomez, a firm that measures the performance of Internet sites. From Nov. 15 to Dec. 15, Gomez tested the top 10 hotel booking sites to evaluate their performances. Some sites, such as Choice Hotels, did well during that time period. Others, like Best Western, did not do so well. Travel Weekly | Posted 7:30 a.m.

We8there.com Serves New Database
We8there.com has launched a new restaurant/hotel/B&B reviews search functionality. Visitors to the site can not only search for establishments within the We8there.com review database by region, state, cuisine and name, they can now search by local based on Zip codes. We8there.com | Posted 10:20 a.m.

• I like these guys because they offer a free and reliable alternative to the subscription-only restaurant reviews. Let's just hope they stay free. Send us your comments.

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• And finally ... now that Gordon Bethune has announced his "retirement" from Continental Airlines, all eyes are on David Siegel. Coincidentally, an electronic poll on a forum frequented by US Airways employees and management has found that 76 percent of participants don't trust him. Some vote of confidence. Posted 7:50 a.m. | Send us your comments.

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