WEASEL WHISPERER
Fare Sales
A lower demand for air travel, especially in the vacation/leisure travel segment, has prompted the airlines to offer a raft of special fare sales that began after the holidays. In the first eight days of the New Year alone, US based airlines have offered a half dozen fare sales of some kind.
As you would expect, each promotion includes special rules, requirements and capacity controls. If your trip qualifies, however, it can result in some huge savings since fares for non-peak time flights on some routes can be as low as $59 one way.
The biggest exception would be travel to most Florida markets from the midwest and northeast during the traditional peak season of March 1 through Easter. Seat inventory reductions the major carriers implemented in these markets has resulted in markedly higher fares on many travel dates during this time period.
Rental Car Satisfaction Rates
Enteripse was again the big winner in a rental car industry satisfaction survey of 13,000 travelers. The survey was done by J.D. Powers and Associates and ask respondents to score performance for each rental car company utilized within the last year on: cost and fees, pick-up process, reservation process and shuttle service.
Here are the rankings from the best to the worst: 1) Enterprise 2) Hertz 3)Alamo 4)National 5) Avis 6)Budget 7)Thrifty 8)Dollar 9) Payless 10)Advantage. Enterprise had the top rating for the fifth year in a row. The Dollar and Thrifty brands showed declining scores to the below average range. The survey is scored on a 1000 point scale. Overall satisfaction for the rental car industry declined to 734 points, from a 750 point score the previous year.
New STL Luggage Carousels
Travelers in St Louis will notice that construction began this week in the main terminal of Lambert St Louis International Airport preparing for the installation of new luggage carousels. All six carousels will be replaced with new equipment in an effort to add additional speed and reliability to the transport of checked luggage from plane to terminal.
The project is expected to be complete by the end of June, with each carousel taking 20-30 days to replace. Only one carousel is planned to be out of service at a time. Disruption is expected to be minimal since all six carousels are seldom in use simultaneously.
Replacement of the carousels and other improvements planned for the baggage claim area of the main terminal are budgeted to cost $5.5 million. They are part of a larger project planned to improve the airport experience for travelers in S. Louis
Howard
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