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

ELLIOTT'S E-MAIL
http://www.elliott.org

May 13, 2002

> Inside

* Underwrite This!
* Kill the TSA
* Last-Minute Travel Strategies
* Column Deathwatch Ends
* Heilman Book Tops Bestseller List
* Worth Recommending
* Lost in the Translation
* Patience Pays for Flight Gripes
* A Technologist Retrospective
* Ticked at Seat Kickers
* Toxic Air Aboard
* Airline Troubles: What's it to You?
* Unpacking Package Deals

> Underwrite This!

How important is your financial support to this Web site? Without resorting to hyperbole, let's just say it's very important. Our Internet bills are hundreds of dollars a month. Many of the columns, including the Travel Troubleshooter and the popular Opinion feature, are written exclusively for you. There's no publisher with deep pockets. No rich uncle. Our operating expenses run in the thousands of dollars a month. Now we're asking you to back the only site you rely on for honest, straightforward travel journalism. Do it now. Check out our section with subscriber information.

> This Week in Travel

** Kill the TSA
House leaders recently announced plans to double the security fee airline passengers pay, effectively raising the surcharge from $10 to $20 on a roundtrip ticket. But the money is being used to fund a parasitic new federal agency that will do little to deter terrorism. Instead of charging airline passengers more for their flights, maybe it's time to diminish, or even defund, the Transportation Security Administration.

> By the Way

** Last-Minute Travel Strategies
How do you get the best deals on last-minute travel? Do you start with Hotwire and then surf over to Orbitz? Do you bid on Priceline after checking out your favorite airline site? Let us know how you save (and how much). Send us an e-mail and please don't forget to include your full name, what you do for a living, and contact information. Your response might appear in a future story.

** Column Deathwatch Ends
As promised, the column deathwatch has concluded with a happy ending. The Travel Technologist is migrating to USAToday.com and GO magazine and will be syndicated by the Canadian Press. The Travel Tightwad will also be carried by the Canadian Press and will continue to appear on SmarterLiving.com and in syndication throughout the United States. And what about the Travel Troubleshooter? Well, next week I'll have a very big announcement to make about that. Stay tuned.

** Heilman Book Tops Bestseller List
Joan Rattner Heilman's book "Unbelievably Good Deals and Great Adventures That You Absolutely Can't Get Unless You're Over 50" tops our bestseller list this week, while Peter Greenberg's "The Travel Detective: How to Get the Best Service - and the Best Deals - from Airlines, Hotels, Cruise Ships, and Car Rental Agencies" holds steady at number two. Who's up and who's down? Click on our Top 10 Travel Books list.

** Worth Recommending
Priceline today introduces a new "name your own price" packaged vacation service that lets you custom-build your own vacations. It's more flexible than previous Priceline products and definitely worth a look. Also, if you haven't already seen Ben Mutzabaugh's Web Log on the new USAToday.com travel site, it's something you should consider doing. Ben tracks travel like no one else.

> Our Sponsors

** The Great Alaskan TourSaver
Going to Alaska? You need this book! Recommended by Frommers! More than 30 totally free offers on train rides, cruises and tours throughout Alaska. More than 100 2-for-1 offers all around the state. Flightseeing, the finest lodges, fishing charters--all at 2-for-1 savings ONLY in the Great Alaskan TourSaver. Check out the list of deals on the Web.

> Elliott's Commentary

** Lost in the Translation
Transferring frequent flier miles between programs can be like traveling to a foreign country. Something always seems to get lost in the translation. At least that's how Catherine Mikkelsen sees it. She got docked the equivalent of two coach class airline tickets when she moved 80,000 American Express Membership Rewards points through Hilton to American Airlines recently. "And I only found out about it two days before I had to travel," she says. In The Travel Tightwad.

** Patience Pays for Flight Gripes
His flight from New York leaves the gate on time at 5:52 p.m. But after the cabin doors lock and the plane pushes back from the gate, the aircraft moves to a runway, stops, and then rolls back to the terminal. The reason? The captain was ordered back to the airport to pick up 30 passengers who had missed a connecting flight. Problem is, now everyone else on the plane is late for their connection flights. Find out more in The Travel Troubleshooter.

** A Technologist Retrospective
In three short weeks The Travel Technologist is scheduled to log off. But don't click away just yet. Although I'll continue to cover travel technology elsewhere (more on that in a future article, I promise), I'm taking a moment this week to look back on a feature that's lasted almost five years. A review of the most significant columns in the last few years - a Travel Technologist retrospective, if you will - reveals a few important truths about technology that you can use in your travels. Check out The Travel Technologist.

** Ticked at Seat Kickers
Who owns the space between airline seats - you or the passenger in front of you? It's not an academic question for a traveler like Dean Burri. At 6-foot-3 and 325 pounds, he can hardly debate the finer points of law with a passenger in front of him who leans back. "I make a quick yell when they recline and say something like, 'Hey, that won't work - those are my knees,'" he says. "They usually don't argue." In The Travel Critic Archives.

> Ticked.com Talk

** Toxic Air Aboard
Three Alaska Airlines managers conducted an extraordinary experiment on an MD-80 jet in 1996. Frustrated by complaints about noxious mists on MD-80 flights, the managers tried to recreate the problem on a jet parked inside a hangar. John Fowler, then chief of maintenance, ordered a mechanic to squirt 8 ounces of hydraulic fluid into a scooplike "air inlet" on the jet's underbelly, where it was sucked in by a small engine pumping fresh air into the passenger cabin. Read more in USA Today.

** Airline Troubles: What's it to You?
You can hardly pick up a business newspaper or magazine these days without seeing a horror story about the financial plight of the giant "network" airlines - American, Continental, Delta, Northwest, United, and US Airways - and some of their smaller counterparts. Although traffic is recovering from the September 11 disaster, revenues and profits are not. And while you, as a consumer, may not care much about the industry's financial performance, its ills may well influence how you travel in the future and how much you pay for it. Read more in Ed Perkins' column.

** Unpacking Package Deals
Magazines and travel sections are growing thicker with promises of stunning savings on package deals of all kinds - from weekender cruises and the old 3 days/2 nights dodge to golf and activity packages and hard-core eco-trips. These are all-inclusive, one price covers all deals, right? Well, not always. Even dilettante cruisers can tell you that the real costs of a cruise materialize on board the boat, and Ed Hewitt has experienced package deals where the cost of airport transport was more than a night's hotel stay. Read more in Ed Hewitt's story in The Independent Traveler.

> Other Sponsors

** M-Travel
The stock markets are down. The luster is off the dot-coms. But the application of mobile technology in the travel industry is alive and well. Although still in its infancy, mobile travel sales and services will be the biggest thing in wireless commerce. Visit the only Web site devoted exclusively to mobile communications and travel technology. Free weekly e-mail newsletter. Click here for details.

** Family Travel Forum
Summer's coming and you need the best resource for travel with kids? Join the FTF community for first-hand accounts, great vacation ideas and the editors' pick of real deals, free festivals, and regional events. Click here for your FREE sample now.

** Single Parent Travel
Are you a single parent? Like to travel? Then sign up for our free monthly newsletter that's designed specifically for the traveling single parent. It offers informative advice about proper travel documentation, tips on how to handle the kiddies on those long trips, and a place to meet other single parents and be heard. Click here.

> Charter Underwriters

* AirJet Airline News - Airline news updated hourly.

* Applied Psychology - Security tips and more online.

* Bonjour Paris - This site's French connection.

* Journeywoman - The premier travel resource for women on the Internet.

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