A Golf Blog

Radio Shack HR Blunder

In my opinion, this has to be one of the most insensitive HR blunders ever - by now you've read that Radio Shack sacked 403 workers in an email.

Long Layover - What to do?

CNN.com went to the worlds 10 busiest airports to find out what's to do when faced with a long layover or, a long flight delay.

National Hurricane Center's RSS Feed

I have family in Ernesto's way (Stuart, FL). The last couple of years, they've gotten pounded four times.

So, if you're interested, this is one of the National Hurricane Center's RSS feeds. They have several. Here's the index to all their feeds.

Sabre the Newsmaker

Looks like my former employer is having a busy time in the news.

Travel Weekly's Dennis Schaal reports that Sabre has created an "incentive bonus promotion" for agencies. It's being put in place to help offset the $3.50 segment fees that American will start charging on September 1st. American does not have a content agreement with Sabre and they'd like to see agents use where content agreements exist for bookings. To date, American has agreements with Worldspan, Galileo, G2 Switchworks and Farelogix.

By the way, Dennis also reports that Amadeus will also launch a reimbursement program since they also do not have a content agreement with American.

StatCounter - An Update

Wrote about a problem I was having here and now I'm happy to report that, with a little help, it's fixed. Sadly though, I never did hear from anyone about the 2 days of down time.

Guess the little fish doesn't merit the attention that others get because of a wider readership.

Oh well.......

Expedia RSS

Several days ago I wrote about an application I'd like to see and lamented about the functionality of the RSS implementations at Expedia and Travelocity.

Not long after the post, I found myself filling up on a crow sandwich - Steve Miale, Expedia's Program Manager/Developer for RSS Feeds contacted me and set me straight.

With Expedia, you can subscribe to fares from a single origin without specifying a destination. Here's my feed for fares from DFW. And, Steve also sent along a hack for multiple destinations - this one's for Phoenix, Albuquerque, Tampa, and Las Vegas all from DFW.

Sadly, none of the fares I'm getting are low enough to get me to the airport, but it's working just as Steve said it would. I may not like the fares I'm getting but that's not Steve's problem. 

Sabre Debuts TripTailor

Dennis Schaal, the Technology Editor at Travel Weekly had a piece on TripTailor in yesterday's Tech E-letter.

TripTailor is a tool for travel agents to create one of a kind packages for travelers. Some of the content possibilities are very interesting. I did an air/hotel package for 7 nights in Tampa. After selecting flights and a hotel, a series of suggestions for things to do while there appeared.

There were fishing day trips, golf tee times, and even a tandem parachute jump.

When it came time to 'purchase' the package, TripTailor looked for my agency name, our IATA number, etc. So, you will need to find a travel agent for fulfillment but you can certainly use the tool to examine possibilities.

Travelport Launches

The Blackstone Group completed the acquisition Cendant's Travel Distribution Services today. A new competitor for Worldspan, Sabre, and Amadeus.

I look for competition to heat up in the GDS space and I expect that Travelport will have their hands full with the new entrants (G2 Switchworks and all) as well as working or reworking agreements with the airlines.

Damage Control at NWA

I wonder if Northwest Airlines has any idea of the reach of the story about how they bungled assistinig laid off employees with their 101 ways to cope pamphlet.

Technorati has indexed 481 entries.

 

Link to NWA Scores Awesome Dumpster Dive Find: Shame - Consumerist

Carry it On or Check it

Planning on air travel anytime soon? The folks at the TSA have a nifty little (ok, so it's not little) table that tells you what you can and can not bring with you.

I know I'll sleep better knowing that they've OK'd eyelash curlers.