<B>Inside Track</B>
<B>Delta Hires Small Biz E-commerce Exec</B>
Delta Air Lines last week appointed David Berney general manager of small business in its recently formed e-business unit. Berney will lead Delta's MYOBTravel (BTN, April 24), which it called "a full-scale online travel manager for small businesses with access to all air, car and hotel services." Delta will launch MYOB (Mind Your Own Business) in early 2001. Berney reports to Patrice Miles, vice president of e-business B2C. Berney's "Internet startup background will allow for a great infusion of ideas and knowledge into all of Delta's e-business activities that are designed to deliver benefits to customers and new value opportunities to Delta," said Miles. Berney spent the past four years at Atlanta Internet startups, most recently as director of marketing for Ehatchery, an "incubator of new ideas and technology."<A NAME="2">
<B>Indigo Blends BizJet and Scheduled Air Themes</B>
Business travelers now can go online to book weekday corporate jet service between Chicago-Midway and Teterboro, N.J., at "full coach" prices with Chicago-based Indigo at flyindigo.com. The company, which is part owned by American Express and has a ground transportation partnership with Boston Coach, soon plans to offer scheduled corporate jet service to White Plains, N.Y., and Minneapolis from Midway, with Atlanta, Boston, Pittsburgh and Washington also in the queue. Indigo in August received federal air carrier certification. The service is marketed to Amex cardholders and Indigo has a "select" number of corporate clients. <A NAME="3">
<B>Worldspan Picked For Euro Corp. Res Site</B>
Worldspan last week said it will be the exclusive supplier of GDS information, technology and consulting services to travelstore.com, a European online agency targeting corporate travel (BTN, May 1). Worldspan said the deal "marks Worldspan's first entry into the business-to-business corporate travel marketplace in Europe." The deal comes just after Worldspan suffered a blow when customer Priceline.com announced it had selected Amadeus for international GDS services. "We're still working with Worldspan," said a Priceline spokesman. "Adding Amadeus just gives us more flexibility internationally." Priceline was one of the main reasons Worldspan took an early lead among GDSs on the Web.<A NAME="4">
<B>Case Of The Disappearing Brands</B>
Prime Hospitality Corp. last week announced it had converted 27 Sumner Suites to its AmeriSuites brand. The move represents a 30 percent expansion for the midprice chain. Not that Sumner is the only brand that has vanished recently. This summer, Marriott announced that 20 former Chalet Susse properties were being converted to Fairfield Inns. The moves are indicative of a wave of consolidation underway in the midprice lodging sector. More consolidation is expected. With the profusion of brands that exists in the midprice market, critical mass has become more important than ever. <A NAME="5">
<B>Bear Stearns Blasts Bass</B>
Noting Bass PLC's solid fundamentals, but distressed valuation, Bear Stearns criticized the company for sitting on the cash proceeds from its brewery sale. Investors viewed Bass as "dead money" all summer, Bear Stearns said. The investment house then suggested its own best case scenario: an acquisition that would lead to long-term U.S. growth, possibly another midprice or upscale brand that hasn't yet reached saturation. The criticism notwithstanding, Bear Stearns gave Bass an attractive rating.<A NAME="6">
<B>ACTE To Offer 2001 Forums</B>
The Association of Corporate Travel Executives has slated a dozen North American forums for its 2001 calendar. ACTE for 2001 renamed the Travel Management Forums, Executive Forums, to reflect its new strategy to bring in speakers from outside of travel in such areas as finance, technology and politics. "Issues outside the industry eventually become an internal issue," said Kate Farrell, ACTE manager of marketing and membership. Meanwhile, ACTE confirmed keynote speakers Continental Airlines chairman and CEO Gordon Bethune and vice president of electronic business for the Aberdeen Group David Alschuler for the 13th annual ACTE conference in Tampa, Fla., April 22-24.<A NAME="7">
<B>TravelManagement.com Customizes Benchmarking</B>
San Francisco-based TravelManagement.com is offering a customized version of its Web-based benchmarking application, TravelStat, to benchmarking groups with a minimum of 10 companies. For the regular subscription fee, benchmarking groups will be able to create a customized set of questions, in addition to the standard form, for the private user group to share collective data.