Travel Log: September 2003 Archives

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Air France Seeks to Buy KLM

Reuters reports: Air France and KLM unveiled plans on Tuesday to create Europe's biggest airline in a deal that would see the French carrier acquire its smaller Dutch rival for 784 million euros ($913.9 million) in stock.

Rick Bruner | September 30, 2003 | Permanent link | Comments (0)

SkyHigh Airlines Launches With a Smile

A knowing, smile, that is. This is a hilarious parody web site of an cheapo airline. You can book a flight (their two travel classes are "bench" and "carg") to and from convenient destinations like Brainerd, Minnesota, Red Oak, Iowa, Troy, Alabama and York, Maine (though large cities). The luggage tracking system is likely to find your luggage in locales such as Cochabamba, Bolivia or Moron, Mongolia. And the company's rotating slogans include "Your money sends us soaring," "A commitment to mediocrity" and Lowering fairs. Lowering expectations." Worth a few minutes diversion. Turns out Alaska Airlines is behind the site. NY Times reports.

Rick Bruner | September 30, 2003 | Permanent link | Comments (0)

New Service to Launch between New York-Boston

Beginning Oct. 3, there will be a new way to travel from New York to Boston, as LimoLiner introduces its motorcoach service for business travelers.

LimoLiner will operate a luxury bus with 28 reclining leather seats featuring free high-speed Internet access at each seat, televisions, meetings tables and a travel attendant to serve snacks and beverages.

Each trip will take about four hours, door-to-door from the Hilton New York and the Hilton Boston Back Bay, where the motorcoach will depart and arrive four times every weekday from each location.

The introductory fare will be $69 each way.

Andras Revesz | September 29, 2003 | Permanent link | Comments (0)

JetBlue Share Passenger Data With Defense Contractor

Discount airline JetBlue admitted this week that it had shared travel data on more than a million of its passengers to a Pentagon defense contractor as part of Pentagon program to assess risk of potential terrorists. The New York Times writes, "That data, which was turned over in violation of the airline's own privacy policies, was then used to identify the passengers' Social Security numbers, financial histories and occupations." The airlines' CEO, David Neeleman, has acknowledged that the decision was "a mistake on our part and I know you and many of our customers feel betrayed by it," in an email he wrote to some 150 passengers who had filed complaints. JetBlue has since asked the contractor, Torch Concepts, to erase all the customer data, which it says were never shared with the government. New York Times and Wired report.

Rick Bruner | September 20, 2003 | Permanent link | Comments (0)

Hotels Are Courting Conventions With Luxury Services

More and more hotels like the Four Seasons Maui at Wailea resort in Hawaii are angling to cater to business conventions with luxury services to capture a piece of what is a $102 billion market worldwide. New York Times reports.

Rick Bruner | September 10, 2003 | Permanent link | Comments (0)

Travelers Seek out High Speed Internet

Don't we know it. Intel released a survey that found that difficulty finding high-speed Internet access is a major inconvenience for frequent travelers, especially for checking email. Although only 10% have WiFi (wireless fidelity Internet access), 70% say that having ready access to it while they're on the road would be a competitive advantage. New York Times reports.

Rick Bruner | September 10, 2003 | Permanent link | Comments (0)

Southeast Airlines Introduces State-of-the-Art In-Flight Entertainment

Southeast Airlines has contracted SkyWay Communications to provide the carrier with an exciting in-flight entertainment package, including high-speed Internet, telephone services and on-demand video/audio. The press release reads in part:

Because of advertising revenue, Internet use will be free of charge to every passenger with their own Wi-Fi 802.11B or G equipped laptop. Passengers with their own laptop can expect T1 speeds, as well as have over 400 On-demand video selections ranging from Hollywood's newest releases to continued education instructional videos, audio selections range from books to current music artists, to choose from.

Southeast Airlines operates flights among St. Petersburg/Clearwater, Ft. Lauderdale, Orlando/ Sanford, Fl, Newark, NJ, Newburgh, NY, Allentown, PA Columbus, OH, Gulfport, MS and Las Vegas, NV. See the press release for details.

Rick Bruner | September 2, 2003 | Permanent link | Comments (0)