EXECUTIVE TRAVEL SKYGUIDE E-ALERT 08/07/06 Welcome to EXECUTIVE TRAVEL SKYGUIDE E-ALERT for the week of August 7, the weekly e-mail of essential business travel news! To sign up for the e-Alert, click here. Northwest flight attendants could start job action next week Empty seats are few and far between this summer Comair's labor troubles continue with three unions Court absolves airline in blood clot case Cincinnati plans to speed up checked baggage processing DFW to allow natural gas drilling on airport property Hotels: Hyatt debuts new brand; St. Regis Washington closes THIS WEEK'S QUESTION FOR READERS: With Northwest Airlines' flight attendants threatening job actions as soon as next week (see below), are any of you regular Northwest flyers taking precautionary measures in your travel plans? Or will you book Northwest as usual and hope everything works out? Send your replies to skyguide@aexp.com. Last week, we asked readers what they thought of current speculation that more major airlines might be weighing mergers, like United-Delta and Northwest-Delta. If United and Delta did merge, said reader Don Kaiser, "It might bring Coke products back to United." "I would like to see a Northwest-Delta merger, since that combination would give me a million miles on the (merged) airline," said reader Jerry Pond. "I would then have something to take into retirement. I would hate to see a United-Delta merger because United has such poor service and lousy routes." However, reader Lynn Camp voted against a Delta-United merger because "United service might be brought down to Delta's level." AIRLINES Northwest flight attendants could start job action next week August 15 is the date when flight attendants at Northwest Airlines could begin job actions aimed at disrupting the airline's operations. The flight attendants last week voted down - for the second time - a proposed labor agreement worked out between management and union representatives that would have reduced their wages and led to more onerous work rules. As a result, Northwest took advantage of a bankruptcy court ruling that allowed the company to impose its own wage levels and work rules on the flight attendants unilaterally. The union claims this action gives them the right to strike under the terms of the Railway Labor Act, and they let Northwest know that job actions could begin any time on or after 10 p.m. Eastern time August 15. Northwest has asked the court to prohibit any job action, and a hearing on that motion is scheduled for Wednesday of this week (August 9). The flight attendants plan to use a tactic known as CHAOS, short for Create Havoc Around Our System. That could range from sporadic walkouts on specific flights, preventing them from departing; to an airport-wide strike in targeted markets. Northwest argued in court that any such action could cause "massive disruption to the public" and could prove fatal to the bankrupt airline if passengers have no confidence in Northwest's ability to stick to its schedules. Empty seats are few and far between this summer Even though domestic air fares are up more than 10 percent this year, passenger demand is as strong as ever - and that, combined with shrinking domestic capacity at the major airlines, has resulted in a serious shortage of empty seats this summer. For the month of July, American and United both reported load factors - i.e., the percentage of seats filled - of 87 percent or more. The figure was 85.4 percent at both Delta and Continental. And August is typically the busiest vacation month, so the seat squeeze is likely to continue through Labor Day. Not only are upgrades harder than ever to obtain, but according to government statistics released last week, "involuntary denied boardings" are rising as well. The bumping rate during the second quarter of 2006 was 1.12 per 10,000 passengers boarded, up more than 30 percent over the same period a year earlier. The highest bumping rates were at regional airlines: 3.60 per 10,000 passengers at Atlantic Southeast, 2.45 at Mesa and 2.38 at Comair. Comair's labor troubles continue with three unions Comair, which operates Delta Connection service in many U.S. markets, is facing new challenges from labor unions as it struggles to cut its costs enough to emerge from bankruptcy. Although it recently won court approval to dump its contract with flight attendants and impose new wage levels and work rules on them unilaterally, Comair has not yet done so - perhaps because the flight attendants, represented by the Teamsters, have threatened a job action if management does so. The two sides are continuing to talk about a consensual agreement. Meanwhile, however, the flight attendants have filed an appeal of the bankruptcy court's decision; and two other Comair unions that had previously reached new cost-saving agreements with management - the pilots and mechanics - said last week that those deals are now off, because they were contingent upon the flight attendants reaching a similar agreement. Now both of those unions want to renegotiate their new contracts. Court absolves airline in blood clot case The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld a lower court ruling that absolved Continental Airlines from liability in a case involving deep-vein thrombosis, or blood clot formation. A passenger flying Continental from Los Angeles to Paris in 2002 filed the suit after developing the condition, but the court said the airline could only be held liable if his injury resulted from an accident as defined by the Warsaw Convention, and in the plaintiff's case, there was no "accident," but only the normal operation of an aircraft. The appellate court ruling matches a similar decision by the highest court in the U.K. in a case filed by a British citizen. ADVERTISEMENT New! Change Flights or Travel Dates Online Midwest Airlines has introduced an online account feature that allows you to easily change flights and dates, or cancel your refundable tickets, from any computer 24 hours a day. Just log in to your account at midwestairlines.com. All electronic tickets are eligible for this online change process. AIRPORTS Cincinnati plans to speed up checked baggage processing At Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, officials said they hope to automate some checked baggage processing by this fall in order to cut down on the number of bags that don't get to the plane on time. According to the Cincinnati Enquirer, the bottleneck in the current system is the manual loading of checked bags into bomb-screening devices by Transportation Security Administration employees; if that process is automated, officials said, it would not only speed up baggage processing but would reduce the number of TSA staffers required at peak hours for the bag checks from 35 to 19. Currently, airport officials estimate that one bag in five, or 750 a day, run the risk of not being loaded onto their owner's flight in time, according to the news report. DFW to allow natural gas drilling on airport property Considering it's in Texas, it should come as no big surprise that the Dallas/Ft. Worth Airport board of directors has opened up the airport property to energy exploration. The board signed a lease with Chesapeake Energy Corp. of Oklahoma City, giving the latter the right to drill for natural gas deposits underneath the airport. The company agreed to pay DFW $118 million plus 25 percent of the money it makes from natural gas found there. "Almost all of DFW's 18,000 acres are available for exploration, and more than 9,000 acres are available for surface drilling," airport officials said. They promised that drilling will have no impact on airport operations, noting that the Federal Aviation Administration must approve all drilling activities. DFW said the revenue produced by the drilling "may be as important as our parking and concessions programs" in funding airport operations. HOTELS Hyatt debuts new brand; St. Regis Washington closes Global Hyatt Corp., the parent of Hyatt Hotels, has opened the first property in its new Hyatt Place brand, outside Chicago in suburban Lombard, Ill. The brand, aimed at the so-called Generation X traveler, is a remake of the AmeriSuites chain that Hyatt acquired a couple of years ago. The company will spend $200 million on the project, and expects to convert another 140 former AmeriSuites into Hyatt Place hotels in the next 18 months ... The 80-year-old St. Regis Hotel, Washington in the nation's capital will close on September 1 for a 10-month renovation project ... The former Doubletree Guest Suites on East Delaware Place in downtown Chicago has been converted into the Hilton Suites Chicago Magnificent Mile ... In Florida, the Doubletree Guest Suites Melbourne Beach has reopened after a 22-month restoration ... Overseas, London has a new Hilton: The Hilton London Canary Wharf has opened beside the Thames in the Canary Wharf district. AIR ROUTES KANSAS CITY (MCI). US Airways Express/Air Midwest has started operating three daily non-stops between Kansas City and Joplin, Mo. DEALS AND SPECIAL OFFERS FOR BUSINESS TRAVELERS British carrier bmi (www.flybmi.com; 800-788-0555) is having an August sale on transatlantic business class fares. Roundtrip fares from Chicago are $2,530 to Manchester, England, or $2,568 beyond Manchester to London, Aberdeen, Glasgow and Edinburgh. From Las Vegas, the sale fare is $2,580 to Manchester or $2,618 to the other cities. The nonrefundable fares require a minimum three-night stay or a Saturday night stay, and tickets must be bought within 72 hours of booking. American Airlines has introduced a new benefits program for AAdvantage members called TrAAvel Perks (www.aa.com/TrAAvelPerks). The cost to join for one year is $129 through August 31, then $159. Benefits include two companion ticket certificates for each year of membership; 2,500 bonus miles for joining; savings of up to 40 percent on condo and vacation rental properties; dining discounts of up to 50 percent at participating restaurants; and members-only specials from hotel and rental car companies. US Airways (www.USAirways.com; 800-428-4322) has cut advance purchase fares on its New York LaGuardia-Boston Shuttle by 54 percent. "This is an everyday fare and not just a sale or promotion," a spokesman said. The 14-day advance purchase fare is now as low as $100 roundtrip; it is nonrefundable and requires a one-night minimum stay. The Delta Shuttle will reportedly match the fare cut. 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. If you tend toward oenophilia, you might want to spend your next vacation touring the vineyards of the Golden State. For an update on what's new, what's hot and what's cool in California Wine Country, watch for the September issue of Executive Travel magazine, coming soon. By Jim Glab Have a question or comment? Send it to skyguide@aexp.com. To sign up for the e-Alert, click here.