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

January 12, 2004

Conflicting Diamonds and Stars
An unsettling thing happens each year when AAA and Mobil Travel Guide issue their lists of top hotels and restaurants: They don't agree. And yet, on paper, they should. Both use one-to-five scales — diamonds for AAA and stars for Mobil — with similar definitions. One diamond in AAA's setting means "clean, safe and well-maintained"; one star in Mobil's firmament signifies "clean, comfortable and reliable." Five AAA diamonds mean "striking and luxurious, offering many extra amenities"; five Mobil stars signify "consistently superlative service and expanded amenities in a luxurious, distinctive environment." Los Angeles Times | Posted 5 p.m.
-- Times: Which of the rankings should you believe?

• When it comes to ranking travel companies, I don't trust anyone. Not after working on a year-long expose of the major awards that never got published. | Send us your comments.

Airline Complaints Drop Again
Consumer complaints to the Transportation Department about air travel fell to 382 in November, the DOT reported. That's the fourth straight monthly decline, and compares to 519 complaints in November 2002. The results were in contrast to a few years ago, when delays were rampant and everyone seemed to be upset about airline service. In August 2000, for example, with complaints near their peak, the DOT received nearly 3,000 complaints about air travel. Travel Weekly | Posted 5:30 p.m.
-- WBAL: On-time performance is down, too

• The monthly Air Travel Consumer Report also reveals Southwest had the best on-time performance among the major U.S. carriers in November, with 85.5 percent of its flights arriving within 15 minutes of schedule. Could there be a link between reliability and profitability? | Send us your comments.

Radar Glitches at Palm Beach Airport
A new $14 million airport surveillance radar system at Palm Beach International Airport has failed four times in the past five weeks, with two of those occurring last week, shortly after President Bush took off on Air Force One. During the failures, controllers were unable to identify flights or determine their airspeed and altitude. No planes were in jeopardy, however, because controllers had a backup system, aviation officials said Friday. Sun Sentinel | Posted 6: 05 p.m.
-- Post: PBIA radar fails after president leaves

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• And finally ... I'm on assignment this week. As a point of disclosure, today's blog was posted over the weekend. Posted 5;50 p.m. | Send us your comments.

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