Inside Track - 1996-09-09

<H1> Inside Track</H1><H3>AA Goes Ticketless</H3><B>American Airlines </B>will tap the trend toward ticketless travel as it rolls out the American Airlines <B>Interactive Travel Network</B> at its top 21 domestic airports this Tuesday. The electronic system will allow customers to make or change reservations and obtain seat assignments without a paper ticket; receipts and confirmation itineraries will be mailed or faxed to the traveler's home or office. At the airport, travelers will be able to board planes by simply inserting an AAdvantage card or a major credit card into an AAccess boarding unit-with no stopping at either the ticket counter or the gate.

<H3>Skirting Online Caps</H3>Travel manager Bob Grant at <B>Charles Schwab</B> has found a way around <B>Northwest</B>'s 5 percent cap on online commissions, which took effect Aug. 1: He is blocking the use of Northwest altogether on the company's "SchWeb" intranet site. "Even though our travelers are doing some of the work on these bookings, the travel office is still doing the quality control and the ticketing and the database management-and I'm not going to do that for a 5 percent commission," he said. Schwab travelers who must fly Northwest have been instructed to call the travel office, where the reservation will be made manually in the CRS, rather than online-thereby qualifying for the full 10 percent commission.

Meanwhile, Northwest is standing firm in its decision to institute the commission cap, but it also is standing alone-and starting to sound conciliatory. "If the cap limits the rebate a corporation gets, the travel manager should come talk to us; we'll be doing a lot of tailoring to those who are willing to talk about our whole relationship," said managing director of distribution planning Al Lenza.

<H3>Laptops For Airport Checkin</H3><B>United</B> is using laptops to speed up checkin procedures for passengers waiting in line at London's <B>Heathrow</B> and Tokyo's <B>Narita</B> Airports, and will spread the practice to other international airports over the next year.

In addition, the carrier is considering the use of portable computers for on-site checkin at hotels and on-board resolution of seat assignment problems.

<H3>Amex Getting Smarter?</H3>Ed Gilligan, president of <B>American Express Corporate Services</B>, has more than the online environment in mind when he thinks of new partner<B> Microsoft</B>. "They are working on smart cards and we are working on smart cards, and there's no reason why we shouldn't work on them together," he said. Corporate Services vice president Jud Linville said Amex would have more to say about smart cards this fall.

<H3>Missiles Won't Deter Fuel Price Hikes</H3>Last week's U.S. attack on Iraq won't help jet fuel prices, which increased 13 cents per gallon since Aug. 1. On Sept. 4 alone, <B>Delta</B> reported that its fuel costs increased by 2.5 cents per gallon, the equivalent of $62.5 million annually. Analysts say there is a slim chance that Iraqi oil will return to the market by year-end, which should keep fuel prices rising through the fourth quarter.

<H3>ANZ Targets Corps.</H3><B>Air New Zealand </B>is "taking on <B>United</B>," according to spokesman James Boyd, who said the leisure-oriented carrier plans to spice up competition for business travelers in the South Pacific. The carrier is spending $50 million to upgrade its business class, installing new seats on its nine 747s serving Los Angeles and bringing the total number of business-class seats to 56, up from 36.

The new seats have a pitch of 50 inches (up from 40), and the airline will remove 60 economy seats to make room. Boyd said the move represents a "new focus on selling to the corporate market. We're no longer exclusively a leisure airline.