EXECUTIVE TRAVEL SKYGUIDE E-ALERT 02/21/06 Welcome to EXECUTIVE TRAVEL SKYGUIDE E-ALERT for the week of February 21, the weekly e-mail of essential business travel news! To sign up for the e-Alert, click here. Northwest, unions get another week to reach a deal United plans service expansion at Denver in June New details emerge about government's terrorism watch list Number of lost bags jumps in 2005 El Al planes get anti-missile systems Hotels: Hyatt gets a new London property THIS WEEK'S QUESTION FOR READERS: THIS WEEK'S QUESTION FOR READERS: The federal terror watch list reportedly has 325,000 names on it (see below). Have you ever (mistakenly, we assume) been held back at the airport because your name was too close to that of someone on the list? If so, what happened to you? Send your reply to skyguide@aexp.com. Last week, we asked if the country could use another low-cost carrier like Virgin America, the San Francisco-based affiliate of Sir Richard Branson that hopes to start flying this year. "We don't need another low-cost airline," replied reader Lynn Camp. Reader Bill Blum agreed: "Fares are now lower than they were in the 80s to fly coast to coast," he said, "so it won't help the consumer - but it will hurt all the (existing) air carriers. There is enough capacity in the sky already." A dissent came from reader Patrick Brangan: "Yes," he wrote - "if it's Virgin." AIRLINES Northwest, unions get another week to reach a deal A federal bankruptcy judge was expected to decide last Friday (February 17) whether Northwest Airlines could unilaterally cancel its union contracts and impose new wages and work rules on its employees - but he didn't. Instead, Judge Allan Gropper gave the airline and its pilots and flight attendants unions another week to try to agree on new contract terms. Both of the labor groups have threatened to go out on strike if the court voids their contracts. Now the judge says he will wait until the close of business on February 24 to decide on that possibility, assuming the two sides haven't made a deal on new contracts by then. Northwest's pilots recently began voting on whether to authorize a strike; votes will be counted February 28. Meanwhile, Delta and its pilots are continuing to negotiate for a new contract that will include some level of wage reductions and probably a diminished pension plan for the workers. The two sides have agreed that if they fail to come to terms by March 1, they will submit to binding arbitration. United plans service expansion at Denver in June United Airlines said last week that its summer schedule at Denver International Airport, which starts in June, will show a seven percent increase in daily departures over current levels. The airline plans to increase daily flights at Denver from the current 423 to 455. Besides the new Toronto service it recently announced, United said it will also begin extra daily frequencies to cities it already serves, including Boston, Baltimore, New York LaGuardia, Los Angeles, San Francisco and St. Louis, among others. The airline's low-cost affiliate, Ted, will add one daily departure from Denver to Las Vegas, Reno, and Ontario (Calif.), a spokesman said. United recently agreed to provide more connecting opportunities in Denver as part of a deal with the airport to waive the airline's outstanding debt for the automated baggage delivery system that is no longer in use at DEN. FAA/SECURITY New details emerge about government's terrorism watch list How long does it take a computer to scan through 325,000 names to see if any of them are the same as yours? You'd better hope it doesn't take long, because that's the number of names estimated to be on the federal government's terrorism watch list, according to a story in The Washington Post last week. Citing counter-terrorism sources in the government, the paper estimated that the number of names on the list has increased four-fold in little more than two years as the feds step up their efforts to identify bad guys. Officials reportedly told the paper that U.S. citizens account for only a very small percentage of the list, which was compiled from the lists assembled by various agencies that track and report on such things. Number of lost bags jumps in 2005 According to year-end statistics from the Transportation Department, the U.S. airline industry is losing a lot of checked luggage. During 2005, DOT said, the number of lost baggage claims filed against major U.S. carriers totaled more than 3.5 million, which works out to some 10,000 a day. That's a 23 percent increase over the previous year, and the industry's worst performance in 15 years. Turning in the worst record was US Airways, which misplaced or misdirected 9.62 checked bags per 1,000 passengers - a jump of 81 percent over its 2004 numbers. By contrast, America West - now merged with US Airways - had a 2005 lost bag tally of just 4.33 per 1,000, up just 9 percent. Among the eight major airlines, Delta had the second-worst record at 7.09 lost bags per 1,000 checked, a 37 percent increase; while Continental had the best performance, losing 4.12 bags per 1,000, up 15 percent from 2004. El Al planes get anti-missile systems Concerned about the risk of terrorists with shoulder-fired missiles, El Al Israel Airlines has installed anti-missile technology on its aircraft, according to wire reports from Jerusalem last week. The Israeli-built system has on-board sensors that can detect the approach of a heat-seeking missile; it responds by releasing flares that can divert the missile from its intended target. The U.S. government has backed feasibility studies for equipping U.S. airliners with similar systems, but the high cost of the technology - about $1 million per plane - has thus far made it unrealistic for the struggling airline industry in this country. HOTELS Hotel Roundup: Hyatt gets a new London property London's Great Eastern Hotel, a Victorian-era property near Liverpool Street Station that reopened in 2000 after a major renovation, will become a Hyatt Regency in January 2007 ... Rocco Forte Hotels, the European luxury group, set a March 1 opening date for its newest property, Villa Kennedy in Frankfurt, Germany, on the south bank of the Main River ... The Doubletree Hotel Los Angeles in Westwood, near UCLA, will close in mid-2006; after a renovation, it will reopen as the Hotel Palomar, a member of The Kimpton Group ... The former Bloomington Park Inn Suites in Bloomington, Minn., near Minneapolis/St. Paul Airport, has been overhauled and re-branded; it's now Le Bourget Aero Suites. AIR ROUTES ATLANTA (ATL). Delta on February 26 will begin twice-weekly non-stop service between Atlanta and Merida, Mexico, operating Saturdays and Sundays. LOS ANGELES (LAX). February 23 is the starting date for Spirit Airlines daily non-stop A319 service from LAX to its hub in Ft. Lauderdale, with connections to several Caribbean destinations. NEW ORLEANS (MSY). United Express/Trans States Airlines on February 23 will launch twice-daily non-stops between San Antonio and New Orleans, and one a day between Oklahoma City and New Orleans. NEW YORK KENNEDY (JFK). Effective February 27, Qantas will increase frequencies on its JFK-Sydney route from three a week to five, adding Monday and Saturday departures to its existing Wednesday, Friday and Sunday schedule. The flights operate via Los Angeles. DEALS AND SPECIALS FOR BUSINESS TRAVELERS Going to Atlanta? A newly opened hotel called Twelve (www.twelvehotels.com), located in the city's Atlantic Station shopping and entertainment district, has special introductory rates through April, starting at $145 for a one-bedroom suite. El Al (www.elal.com; 800-223-6700) set a March 9 purchase deadline for spring sale fares from the U.S. to Israel, good for travel from April 1 to June 15. Sample roundtrip fares are $755 from New York, $835 from Chicago or Atlanta, $875 from Miami and $935 from Los Angeles. February 28 is the online purchase deadline for sale fares from Singapore Airlines (www.singaporeair.com; search for flexible dates), good for travel through May 28. Sample roundtrip fares include $610 roundtrip from San Francisco to Seoul; $670 from SFO to Hong Kong; $680 from Los Angeles to Tokyo; $709 from LAX to Singapore; $530 from New York JFK to Frankfurt; $809 from JFK to Bangkok. Fuel surcharges and government fees and taxes are extra. For links to other websites where you can search for bargains, click here: www.executivetravelonline.com/reference/deals.html For in-depth analysis, news, features and opinions about the current business travel scene, check out Joe Sent Me (www.joesentme.com), produced by veteran traveler advocate/journalist Joe Brancatelli and a team of contributors. NEVER TOO OLD TO LEARN. You don't want to take golf or tennis lessons at home, where your friends might see you? Then do it when you're away on business; see details in the March issue of Executive Travel. By Jim Glab Have a question or comment? Send it to skyguide@aexp.com. To sign up for the e-Alert, click here.