Travel Weekly Digital Edition - 50th Anniversary Edition

TW: 50 YEARS OF

TRAVEL JOURNALISM

9/11: A day of infamy

By any measure the most far-reaching

event to affect the travel industry in the

last 50 years was the terrorists’ attack of

Sept. 11, 2001.

The attack had devastating personal con-

sequences for countless Americans but in

terms of the economic effects, no sector

of the economy felt the effects more than

commercial aviation and the travel industry

that depends on it.

Never before or since had the government

felt it necessary to bring air travel to a com-

plete stop.

And even when the airlines resumed service three days later, it

was clear that the world had changed. The demand for business

and leisure travel began to plummet, and new security hassles at

airports made matters even worse.

A travel recession set in. Travel companies cut back. Some went

out of business. Cruise lines hastily rearranged their schedules,

bringing their ships closer to home.

The government set up a financial aid program for the airlines

and, for the first time, made disaster relief loans available to busi-

nesses on the basis of economic impact rather than physical prox-

imity to Ground Zero.

As the industry wai t ed out 2002, travel agen ts’ base commission rat es hastened their descent to zero, and United and U S

Airways filed to reorga - nize in bankruptcy.

Despite the dampen - ing effects of the Gulf War and the SARS

scare in 2003, the in-

dustry has largely

recovered, but ev-

erywhere there is a

sense that the expe-

rience of travel has changed forever.

REBATING
Airline rebating was against the law,
but it seemed that everyone was doing it

Rebating was a very hot topic in the 1970s and 1980s. The Federal Aviation Act prohibited airlines (and their agents) from offering passengers any form of kickback or discount from the government-approved published fare. Even after deregulation, the prohibition lived on until 1983 for domestic travel and survived even longer in international markets.

Business is business, however, and over the years airlines and agents alike found various reasons, and methods, to bend the rules. In the winter and early spring of 1982, the issue seemed to take on a life of its own, as the above headlines indicate.

At one point, a Washington travel agent staged a “sting” operation by buying a discounted ticket from another retailer who was working with a coupon broker. She got a $17 rebate on a $666 purchase and blew the whistle.