<B> InsideTrack</B>
<B>ARC Reaches South</B>
Beginning Aug. 23, about 600 travel agencies in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands will begin reporting air sales through the Airlines Reporting Corp. instead of the International Air Transport Association. "From an agent perspective, they are going from representing 40 carriers to being able to represent 100-plus carriers," said ARC spokesman Allan Mutén. "Also, because of cooperation with CRS systems, agents will transition from older ticket stock to ATB ticket stock, and then be able to do electronic ticketing. This should bring an immediate effect to the travel agent distribution system down there." The change also will allow corporations in the region that want to be accredited as their own travel departments to do so. Additionally, three local carriers--Liat of Antigua, Air Guadeloupe and Dominair of Santo Domingo--have been invited to join ARC.
<A NAME="2"><B>NBTA Hosts Town Hall Meeting On Hotel RFP</B>
In an effort to more proactively engage travel managers in a discussion of its Standard Hotel RFP, the National Business Travel Association this week will offer a Town Hall-style discussion at its annual conference in Minneapolis. Hotel committee chairman Rick Wakida, who is travel analyst and technology manager at Air Touch Communications, said the "idea is to facilitate discussion by breaking into small groups designed to answer questions and to give travel managers more confidence" in trying an electronic hotel bid.
<A NAME="3"><B>Choice Chooses To Leave The Laptop At Home</B>
Choice Hotels is working on a technology initiative aimed at the 60 percent of its customers whose main reason for carrying laptops is to check their e-mail, an inside source told BTN. While declining to provide details at this point, the source said the system, which "goes beyond Internet access," will debut nationwide in the next couple of months.
<A NAME="4"><B>Mexicana To take Star's Newest Point</B>
Mexicana Airlines next year will become the tenth carrier in the Star Alliance, following All Nippon Airways, which is slated to become Star's ninth member in October. Mexicana flies to cities throughout the Americas, including 29 Mexican and 11 U.S. destinations. Meanwhile, Aeromexico has been mentioned as a possible addition to the Delta-Air France partnership (<I>BTN</I>, July 5).
<A NAME="5"><B>Northwest Expands Int'l E-Ticketing</B>
More international travelers on Northwest Airlines now can make use of electronic ticketing, as the carrier expanded the option to Canada and several destinations in Asia. Northwest said e-tickets now account for more than half of all tickets sold worldwide.
<A NAME="6"><B>Carriers To Spend New Year's On The Ground</B>
While most of the world's major airlines intend to operate during the rollover to the millennium, Lot Polish Airlines will suspend all flights on Jan. 1 to avoid potential Y2K-related complications and Virgin Atlantic also will usher in the new year on the ground. In a statement, Virgin said that since it expects "little or no demand" on the evening of Dec. 31 and on Jan. 1, it will "reduce the number of staff on duty over the millennium to a minimum" and allow its employees to stay home with friends and family.