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January 2001
Happy New Year!
Welcome to the first Travelite Packing List e-magazine of the new millenium/century/year/etc. I took the month of December off to launch the new Pilotlite.org Web site. The information about handheld organizers that I shared with you in the Winter 2000 issue of the Travelite online magazine has wound its way to the new Web site, which is dedicated to helping (convince) ordinary folks to use a handheld for their travel planning.
To provide a more sane deadline schedule for myself, articles and tips are no longer rolled into one big online magazine, but will now come to you in smaller chunks spread out through the year via these monthly e-magazines. As soon as it's set up, you will also be able to read these on your handheld. [Even after all these years this is still a one-person operation and this is not my day job -- the good part about it all is that I never chose venture capital funding for Travelite, and now, I also don't have to worry about laying off my staff (because I don't have any!).]
Travel News
Courts rule in favor of bigger carry-ons! The big news this month comes from Continental Airlines, which says the airline is now free to allow its passengers to use its roomier overhead bins for larger carry-ons after it won an antitrust lawsuit against United Airlines. The lawsuit, which was filed with Federal District Court in DC on April 24, 2000, claimed that United Airlines placed new sizing templates at shared X-ray security checkpoints, and that these templates were too small for luggage that qualified as carry-ons on Continental. Continental charged that United and other airlines conspired to force Continental to conform to the "smaller carry-on" standard of the other airlines. A ruling by the courts on January 9 of this year found that United Airlines did indeed conspire with other carriers to violate federal antitrust laws.
"The big winner today is the traveling public," said Gordon Bethune, Continental chairman and CEO. "Travelers choosing Continental now can enjoy a level of superior customer service not offered by our competitors." The decision shows that customer service is a critical component of airline competition. A group of airlines acting in a conspiracy cannot impose their lower service standards on other airlines that want to compete for customers by offering higher service standards. As the Court said in its opinion, "Indeed, if there is any proof of failure in the market to be gleaned from the record, it is of United's failure to provide what its customers desire."
Kudos for Continental for giving us larger overhead bins, and extra kudos for enforcing its carry-on policy in the strictest sense of the word!
* * *
Travel Web site woes: Online travel site problems--Travel auction site Priceline.com continues along with the problems it's had these past months. Losing executives (including its CFO) as well as laying off staff and curbing announcements of any expansion (such as Priceline Japan), the single bright light came recently when Microsoft's Expedia offered to settle and pay an undisclosed royalty to Priceline for what Priceline considered patent infringements. Unfortunately, there is NO light for Savvio.com, the travel auction site that opened its doors only four months ago. What set Savvio.com apart from sites such as Priceline, was the ability for a visitor to request prices without leaving a credit card number, and for the visitor to choose airlines, flights and times without having to submit to a "blind auction" system used by Priceline. A visit to Savvio's Web site shows a simple message stating it has closed its doors as of earlier this month.
Product News
Norm Thompson's Save Your Back Bag: Many women have applauded the novel design of Ameribag's Healthy Back Bag, available from many retailers including online shops such as L.L. Bean. Its design hugs the tricep area in a curved shape that helps relieve stress on the back. If the Healthy Back Bag had one drawback, it was that it was a shoulder bag only. Portland's travel merchandiser Norm Thompson has recently come out with an innovative new bag that takes the Healthy Back Bag one evolutionary step forward. The Save Your Back Bag is similar to the Healthy Back Bag as a basic triangular bag. However while the Healthy Back Bag has its identifiable S-curve slope, Norm Thompson's is a symmetrical teardrop shape. The main difference however, is in the shoulder strap. The Norm Thompson bag's strap unzips into two straps, allowing you to wear it as a backpack! Kudos to Norm Thompson for such a clever idea... while the Healthy Back Bag does indeed balance the load well, I often like to have my hands completely free, and that includes not having to worry about the shoulder strap slipping off. Norm Thompson's bag is available in both microfiber as well as in leather from its Web site at NormThompson.com.
Book News
Lisa Weber's Ultimate Internet Travel Planning Guide: Lisa Weber is an experienced traveler and professional speaker. With over 15 years of professional travel experience, she has recently published a book called Lisa Weber's Ultimate Internet Travel Planning Guide, Travel Planning Made Fast, Easy & Affordable. Don't let the simple binding of this book fool you; if you are trying to plan your travels by going online, Lisa's book is a great place to get started. The book is organized into logical categories that cover just about everything you might want to look up online. You'll end up saving a lot of time from having to perform all the searches yourself. Lisa also has her own Web site, where she provides lots of handy tips. It will be interesting to see if Lisa continues to update the print version of her book, since so many of the smaller start-up travel reservation sites seem to come and go. [Lisa provided me with a copy of her book for review purposes.]
* * *
The Internet Kids & Family Yellow Pages: Fellow librarian Jean Armour Polly has done it again! She has gone through and published yet another update to her extremely popular Internet Kids & Family Yellow Pages. If you are considering a family-friendly directory of everything under the sun on the Internet, get this book! The amount of information Jean, the popular "Net-mom" has amassed, is astounding. Jean gets around the "but doesn't this stuff get outdated fast?" question by continuously updating her directory. Since the print updates can't keep up as fast, Jean even has her updates available for free at her Web site, which is at (where else?) http://www.netmom.com.
That's it for this month. See you next time!
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