BRIEFS
Amadeus and American reach temporary content pact
By Dennis Schaal
Hilton taps Vegas
for Waldorf condos
Hilton disclosed plans to develop
its first Waldorf-Astoria Collection
property with a residential component. The residences, priced from
$2.8 million to $10 million, will occupy the top 10 floors of Hilton’s
new, 216-room, luxury Conrad Las
Vegas Hotel, which will have 696
Conrad-branded condominium
units. The hotel is part of an $825
million, mixed-use development
opening on the Strip in 2009.
For now, Amadeus users don’t have to worry about surcharge invoices from American because the airline and the GDS have
reached an interim content agreement that
erases charges that began piling up Sept. 1.
The pact gives subscribers American’s
content without segment surcharges
through November. American also temporarily designated Amadeus as a competitive
booking source, meaning agents who book
American will not incur a $3.50-per-seg-
ment charge.
American also concluded a marketing
agreement with Farecast, a Seattle company
that predicts air fares and advises consumers when to book. Farecast will refer users
to AA.com for direct bookings.
In other GDS-airline news, Worldspan
signed a five-year pact with JetBlue under
which all of its published fares, including
those available through third-party distributors and JetBlue’s telephone and Web
channels, were to be available as of Oct. 20
to Worldspan subscribers. JetBlue inventory
also is available through Sabre.
Caribbean Airlines
unveils new livery
Trinidad and Tobago-based Caribbean Airlines unveiled its new
colors and logo as it readies to replace 66-year-old BWIA on Jan. 1.
Double your
fun in the
The carrier’s logo features a
green-and-blue hummingbird in
flight. “Early references to Trinidad refer to it as the land of the
hummingbird, making the symbol
highly appropriate as an emblem
for Caribbean Airlines,” said Peter
Davies, CEO of BWIA.
Florida sun.
Oceania drops
Libya port call
Oceania Cruises dropped two port
calls in Libya from its April 17 Bar-celona-Athens itinerary aboard the
Regatta, substituting calls in Italy,
Spain and Greece. The original
itinerary included stops in Tripoli
and Benghazi, Libya, as well as La
Goulette, Tunisia (also canceled).
Libya recently denied entry to
Americans on a Silversea vessel,
causing lines to reconsider the
popular destination.
Pa. bonding bill
dies in legislature
A bill to impose bonding on all
travel agents in Pennsylvania is
dead for the legislative session
that ends Nov. 30, said Allen
Taylor, executive director for the
House tourism and recreational
development committee, which
has been mulling the bill for two
years in the face of agent protests.
The committee chairman and
sponsor of the bill, State Rep. Robert Godshall, may reintroduce it
in the next session, possibly in a
“less onerous” form, Taylor said.
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