Posted on
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Greyhound Rolls Out New Bus Look
From Staff, Wire Reports
DALLAS - The old dog is getting a new look.
Greyhound Lines Inc. says it has spent $60 million over the past three years to freshen up its fleet of 1,250 buses and its largest terminals.
Next, the company plans an advertising campaign designed to bring back former customers and attract new riders between 18 and 24, and Hispanics.
Greyhound officials say the makeover is part of an upgrade that began in 2004, when the company eliminated many small-town stops and routes to speed up service between larger cities.
Tyler's terminal has not been affected by the most recent upgrade because, company officials said, the local facility received a complete upgrade several years ago.
"The entire facility was remodeled five years ago,'' said Greyhound spokesman Dustin Clark. "Then we moved the ticket counter to its present location to make it more convenient, we made it ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) compliant and other things to better serve our customers.''
Clark added that the company-wide upgrade will be visible in Tyler nonetheless with new employee uniforms, the refurbished fleet of buses and new signage in the terminals.
Patty Herbeck, Greyhound's director of marketing, said the company has refurbished more than 900 buses with new seats and paint jobs and spruced up 125 of its roughly 940 terminals by repainting, renovating restrooms and adding plasma-screen televisions in waiting areas.
Dallas-based Greyhound traces its roots to 1914, when a Swedish immigrant named Carl Eric Wickman charged Minnesota miners 15 cents to ride between Hibbing and Alice. By 1987, it grew into the largest intercity bus line in the country.
In the early 1990s, however, the company went through a three-year labor strike, growing losses and a spin through bankruptcy court. More recently, it has gone through several changes in leaders and ownership. Since Oct. 1, it's been a division of FirstGroup PLC, a British bus and rail operator.
Ridership declined after Greyhound eliminated about 1,000 destinations in 2004, although a spokeswoman said sales are up 15 to 20 percent on the remaining routes. The company said it carried 19 million passengers last year and had sales of $1.2 billion.
Greyhound hasn't launched a major national advertising campaign in years.
"Greyhound has earned its status as an American icon," Herbeck said. "But when you're 93 years old, you have to remind people who you are and what you stand for. We're trying to tell them the look and experience of Greyhound has changed."
Greyhound hired Butler, Shine, Stern and Partners of Sausalito, Calif., to develop a multi-million-dollar broadcast, print and billboard advertising campaign that begins this week.
The first television spot shows an old bus pulling into a terminal and the driver disembarking to take a break. An auto-racing pit crew hauls in new seats, paints the bus, and changes the driver into his new uniform.
The ad agency said the spot will air on cable channels such as MTV and on NBC's "Late Night with Conan O'Brien." Print ads are planned for Rolling Stone, SPIN and other magazines, with versions also for online search engines.
Greg Stern, the ad agency's chief executive, said the campaign's slogan - "We're On Our Way" - was a nod to Greyhound's service that gets passengers from one place to another.
"There is also a certain humility in it," Stern added. "We've listened to you, we're improving our service and our facilities, and it's time to have a new look."
Competition For The 'Deuce'
LAS VEGAS - Move over, Deuce. There's a new bus in town.
After two years of driving tourists up and down the Las Vegas Strip for $2 each way, the regional transportation authority's double-decker Deuce bus is getting some new competition.
Vegas.com, the travel and booking Web site owned by the Greenspun Family of Companies, launched its "Arrow," a high-tech alternative that goes door-to-door to hotel-casinos on the Strip and downtown and costs $2.50 per ride.
The buses feature touch-screen monitors that allow passengers to buy show tickets and make restaurant reservations along the way. For $10, passengers can ride the bus and Las Vegas Monorail all day.
Vegas.com chief executive Howard Lefkowitz said the service, which runs morning to midnight, is expected to carry 2,000 to 5,000 tourists a day.
In comparison, the Deuce carried about 30,500 a day last year, while the monorail took about 24,500 a day in the third quarter.
"I don't think our expectations are unrealistic," Lefkowitz said. "There's plenty of room for all of us to peacefully coexist. You know, lions and zebras living together."
The company hopes to sell ad revenue, as well as plaster the Vegas.com logo across its bus fleet. Vegas.com claims to have 2.7 million visitors to its site every month and has about 500 employees.
Carnival Adds Fuel Surcharge
MIAMI - Carnival Corp., the world's largest cruise operator, said it will apply a fuel surcharge of $5 per person per day for its North American brands due to continuing rising fuel prices.
Carnival Chairman and Chief Executive Micky Arison said in a statement that the supplement is necessary because rising fuel prices are affecting the company's operating costs.
Carnival saw a 140 percent increase in the price it pays for fuel over the last three years, with the cost climbing 50 percent over the past seven months.
The surcharge only applies to the first and second guests in a stateroom and will not exceed $70 per person per trip, the company said. It will be effective on all bookings for voyages departing on or after Feb. 1, 2008 on brands including Carnival Cruise Lines, Costa Cruises, Cunard Line, Holland America Line, Princess Cruises and The Yachts of Seabourn.
For existing reservations, travel agents will receive $10 per booking in administrative compensation for telling their clients about the surcharge and collecting the additional funds.
The fuel supplement will result in customers paying about one-third of Carnival's year-over-year fuel cost increases over the first six months of the fiscal year, according to Arison.
Carnival said it implemented a fuel supplement for its European brands earlier in the year.
Caribbean Cruise Outlook Good
NEW YORK - The tide is turning for cruise operators, as the once-soft Caribbean market begins to show signs of improvement, financial analysts say.
Caribbean cruises - considered the industry's entry-level product due to their reasonable cost - are vital to the sector. The market makes up 40 percent of Carnival Corp.'s capacity and nearly 50 percent of Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.'s, according to Citi Investment Research analyst Joshua Attie.
Both Miami-based companies have been boosted by the recent uptick in the Caribbean, a region where demand had been sluggish over the past two years. The market was hurt in 2005 by a record-breaking hurricane season that included Katrina, Rita and Wilma, as well as oversupply.
Some analysts point toward lower capacity contributing to the recent recovery. Cruise operators began shifting some of their supply out of the Caribbean and into the more profitable European market back when the Caribbean started to slow.
Bob Simonson, a leisure analyst at William Blair & Co. LLC, said in a telephone interview that the Caribbean has also made progress due to discounted pricing.
"The cruise companies had to cut prices so their ships would sell full," he explained.
The sector's discounting provides a way to fill rooms that would otherwise be empty, with cruise operators able to make up some of the cost through onboard spending and higher European ticket prices.
However, Simonson warned the Caribbean may soon become vulnerable as gas prices surge and heating costs escalate. These rising costs may lead some customers to postpone their winter Caribbean vacations, he said.
More Visitors For Indiana Dunes?
PORTER, Ind. (AP) - The new superintendent of the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore hopes more people in the region will consider visiting the 15,000-acre park along Lake Michigan's southern shore.
"When people think of national parks they're probably going to say the Grand Canyon or Yellowstone," Constantine Dillon told the Post-Tribune. "They probably won't say the Indiana Dunes, and yet you've got something that's an easy drive or a train ride away. We want people to realize they don't have to spend hundreds of dollars and a week off of work to go visit a national park."
The national park, established in 1966, stretches from near downtown Gary to the edge of Michigan City, surrounding the Indiana Dunes State Park, several industrial plants along the shore and two towns.
The park's visitor center is about 50 miles from Chicago.
Lynn McClure, midwest regional director for the National Parks Conservation Association, said the park's dunes reach 180 feet high. Visitors can enjoy sunsets from the top of Mount Baldy or ride the Calumet Bike Trail. Families will want to visit the nature center. And with the arrival of lake-effect snow this winter, there will be cross-country skiing and snowshoeing in the park.
"Although it is only a few miles from Chicago, the dunes make you feel like you're in a completely different landscape," McClure said. "Every visit is different because the winds and the water keep changing the dunes."
Details at http://www.nps.gov/indu/.
Survey: More Family Travel
NEW YORK (AP) - More family travel and more complicated itineraries are two trends for holiday travel reported in a survey of 680 American Express Travel Agents and Platinum Travel Specialists across the country.
Eighty-three percent of agents said their clients are looking for new experiences and destinations and 59 percent said customers are booking more complex and customized itineraries than in years past. Fifty-six percent are booking more upscale vacations than in the past.
The agents reported that travel with children is up too, but these folks aren't going to grandma's house for hot chocolate. The relative affluence of clients who book with American Express is evident in two trends: 56 percent of agents say that traveling families are increasingly bringing nannies along and all Platinum Travel Villa Specialists said that requests for private villas are up this holiday season.
Hawaii and the Caribbean are the top domestic and international destinations reported in the survey, but other locales being booked include Arizona, Central America and Dubai.
---
Jay Peak, Solitude, Schweitzer on 'overlooked' ski destination list
NEEDHAM, Mass. (AP) - Jay Peak in Westfield, Vt., Solitude Mountain in Utah's Big Cottonwood Canyon, and Schweitzer Mountain in Sandpoint, Idaho, are among 10 "overlooked" ski destinations recommended by the travel Web site TripAdvisor.com
The Massachusetts-based Web site says these mountains offer less expensive lift tickets, and more affordable lodging and nightlife than more famous resorts.
Also on the list are Cannon Mountain, Franconia, N.H.; Durango Mountain, Durango, Colo.; Taos Ski Valley, Taos, N.M.; Diamond Peak, Incline Village, Nev.; Big Mountain, Whitefish, Mont.; Saddleback Mountain, in Rangeley, Maine, and Gore Mountain near Lake Placid, N.Y.
---
Expedia says midweek holidays mean long travel season
NEW YORK (AP) - With both Christmas and New Year's Day falling on Tuesdays this year, the Expedia.com Travel Trendwatch predicts that the peak season for holiday travel will be longer than usual.
The report from the Web site also says the 17-day period for most travel will begin Thursday, Dec. 20, and run through Saturday, Jan. 5.
While not everyone can stay away from the office that long, Expedia says it's good news for travelers because crowding may be spread out over more days than in other years, with folks choosing among various dates before and after the actual holidays for their arrivals and departures.
Those looking for travel bargains will want to hunt for deals before and after the holiday periods - in the two weeks before Thanksgiving, the first two weeks of December and the first two weeks of January, when the majority of travelers stay put.
---
American Airlines changes flight-information service
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) - American Airlines is tweaking its telephone reservation and flight-information service by tracking customers using their phone number.
Customers who register for the "Remember Me" program and call the airline from the phone that they used to sign up will get a speedier path to information about their upcoming flight, the company said.
American executives said the new system would be faster than going through the current menu on the airline's flight-information number.
The service is based on a system called Tellme, owned by Microsoft Corp. Other companies use the system for voice-directed bill-paying and other functions, according to a Microsoft spokeswoman.
The service works by recognizing the caller's phone number and retrieving information about that account, the spokeswoman said.
---
Chef Michel Richard helps Amtrak improve its menu for first class
WASHINGTON (AP) - A new menu for first-class passengers on Amtrak's high-speed Boston-Washington service was developed with help from one of Washington's best-known chefs, Michel Richard.
Richard, owner of Washington's Michel Richard Citronelle and Central Michel Richard, was part of an eight-member team that came up with the new choices for the Acela Express, Amtrak spokeswoman Tracy Connell said.
Among the recipes Richard contributed was braised short ribs with cheesy grits, Connell said.
Other options in the new fall-winter menu include seared salmon, chicken Pa Nang, and polenta cakes with mushroom ragout.
At-seat meal service is included in the price of a first-class ticket, which ranges from $250 to $340 for the entire Boston-Washington trip. The new menu went into effect Nov. 7.
The previous menu came from a list of standard choices offered by a contractor, while the new menu was developed specially by Amtrak's team and given to the contractor to implement, Connell said.
Richard will continue with the project as the team develops a spring/summer menu, Connell said.
---
NY Public Library branch to share space with hotel
NEW YORK (AP) - Patrons of a new hotel won't have far to go for their bedtime reading.
The New York Public Library is selling its branch in midtown Manhattan, across the street from the Museum of Modern Art, to Orient-Express Hotels Ltd. and plans to share space in a new building with the luxury hotel.
Under the agreement, the five-story Donnell Library on West 53rd Street will be razed and replaced with an 11-story building, the hotelier and the library announced. Construction is set to begin in 2009 and be completed in 2011.
The library will receive $59 million in cash and will own and occupy the first floor and two floors below ground of the new building. The library and the 150-room hotel will have separate entrances.
This will not be the first mixed-use arrangement for a New York Public Library facility. A branch in the downtown neighborhood of Soho is housed in a residential building and another in Morningside Heights shares space with a Columbia University dorm.
Five floors of the hotel, where rooms will go for $750 to $2,000 a night, will connect to the celebrated 21 Club on 52nd Street, a former speakeasy in a four-story townhouse.
Orient-Express, which owns the club, plans to market the new hotel under the 21 brand name.
---
Vermont: Mount Snow opens on earliest date since 1998
WEST DOVER, Vt. (AP) - With temperatures cool enough for snowmaking, Mount Snow opened Nov. 10, its earliest start to the season in nearly a decade.
Killington and Okemo Mountain Resort plan to open next week, with many ski areas following before the end of November.
"Call it a renaissance," said Mount Snow General Manager Kelly Pawlak. "Guests who have been watching us make snow all week are calling and e-mailing with their praise, and we are so excited to tell them that it's finally show time."
After a $3.5 million investment in snowmaking, the resort reported nine trails open, two top to bottom and a six-to-10-inch base.
---
Disabled guests sue Disney World for its ban on Segways
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) - Three disabled people have sued Walt Disney World for not allowing them to use their Segways to move around its theme parks.
The plaintiffs are each able to stand but cannot walk far, and they have been denied permission to use their two-wheel vehicles at Disney World, according to the federal court lawsuit.
The suit filed Nov. 9 says they're among an estimated 4,000 to 7,000 similarly disabled people who have turned to Segways as mobility tools.
A group called Disability Rights Advocates for Technology, which raises money to donate Segways to disabled U.S. military veterans and pushes for their acceptance, previously asked theme parks to lift bans on the devices. Group co-founder Jerry Karr said Segways offer more mobility and dignity than wheelchairs.
Disney says it fears Segways could endanger other guests because they can go faster than 12 mph.
"We've made our position very clear on these Segways in our parks," Disney spokeswoman Jacquee Polak told the Orlando Sentinel. "Our primary concern is the safety of all our guests and our cast members. We have a long history of being a leader in creating accessible experiences for our guests with disabilities."
Plaintiff Mahala Ault, 33, has multiple sclerosis; Dan Wallace, lost one foot in an accident and Stacie Rhea has Lou Gehrig's disease. The suit did not give their hometowns, saying only that Ault and Wallace are from Illinois and Rhea is from Iowa.
DALLAS - The old dog is getting a new look.
Greyhound Lines Inc. says it has spent $60 million over the past three years to freshen up its fleet of 1,250 buses and its largest terminals.
Next, the company plans an advertising campaign designed to bring back former customers and attract new riders between 18 and 24, and Hispanics.
Greyhound officials say the makeover is part of an upgrade that began in 2004, when the company eliminated many small-town stops and routes to speed up service between larger cities.
Tyler's terminal has not been affected by the most recent upgrade because, company officials said, the local facility received a complete upgrade several years ago.
"The entire facility was remodeled five years ago,'' said Greyhound spokesman Dustin Clark. "Then we moved the ticket counter to its present location to make it more convenient, we made it ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) compliant and other things to better serve our customers.''
Clark added that the company-wide upgrade will be visible in Tyler nonetheless with new employee uniforms, the refurbished fleet of buses and new signage in the terminals.
Patty Herbeck, Greyhound's director of marketing, said the company has refurbished more than 900 buses with new seats and paint jobs and spruced up 125 of its roughly 940 terminals by repainting, renovating restrooms and adding plasma-screen televisions in waiting areas.
Dallas-based Greyhound traces its roots to 1914, when a Swedish immigrant named Carl Eric Wickman charged Minnesota miners 15 cents to ride between Hibbing and Alice. By 1987, it grew into the largest intercity bus line in the country.
In the early 1990s, however, the company went through a three-year labor strike, growing losses and a spin through bankruptcy court. More recently, it has gone through several changes in leaders and ownership. Since Oct. 1, it's been a division of FirstGroup PLC, a British bus and rail operator.
Ridership declined after Greyhound eliminated about 1,000 destinations in 2004, although a spokeswoman said sales are up 15 to 20 percent on the remaining routes. The company said it carried 19 million passengers last year and had sales of $1.2 billion.
Greyhound hasn't launched a major national advertising campaign in years.
"Greyhound has earned its status as an American icon," Herbeck said. "But when you're 93 years old, you have to remind people who you are and what you stand for. We're trying to tell them the look and experience of Greyhound has changed."
Greyhound hired Butler, Shine, Stern and Partners of Sausalito, Calif., to develop a multi-million-dollar broadcast, print and billboard advertising campaign that begins this week.
The first television spot shows an old bus pulling into a terminal and the driver disembarking to take a break. An auto-racing pit crew hauls in new seats, paints the bus, and changes the driver into his new uniform.
The ad agency said the spot will air on cable channels such as MTV and on NBC's "Late Night with Conan O'Brien." Print ads are planned for Rolling Stone, SPIN and other magazines, with versions also for online search engines.
Greg Stern, the ad agency's chief executive, said the campaign's slogan - "We're On Our Way" - was a nod to Greyhound's service that gets passengers from one place to another.
"There is also a certain humility in it," Stern added. "We've listened to you, we're improving our service and our facilities, and it's time to have a new look."
Competition For The 'Deuce'
LAS VEGAS - Move over, Deuce. There's a new bus in town.
After two years of driving tourists up and down the Las Vegas Strip for $2 each way, the regional transportation authority's double-decker Deuce bus is getting some new competition.
Vegas.com, the travel and booking Web site owned by the Greenspun Family of Companies, launched its "Arrow," a high-tech alternative that goes door-to-door to hotel-casinos on the Strip and downtown and costs $2.50 per ride.
The buses feature touch-screen monitors that allow passengers to buy show tickets and make restaurant reservations along the way. For $10, passengers can ride the bus and Las Vegas Monorail all day.
Vegas.com chief executive Howard Lefkowitz said the service, which runs morning to midnight, is expected to carry 2,000 to 5,000 tourists a day.
In comparison, the Deuce carried about 30,500 a day last year, while the monorail took about 24,500 a day in the third quarter.
"I don't think our expectations are unrealistic," Lefkowitz said. "There's plenty of room for all of us to peacefully coexist. You know, lions and zebras living together."
The company hopes to sell ad revenue, as well as plaster the Vegas.com logo across its bus fleet. Vegas.com claims to have 2.7 million visitors to its site every month and has about 500 employees.
Carnival Adds Fuel Surcharge
MIAMI - Carnival Corp., the world's largest cruise operator, said it will apply a fuel surcharge of $5 per person per day for its North American brands due to continuing rising fuel prices.
Carnival Chairman and Chief Executive Micky Arison said in a statement that the supplement is necessary because rising fuel prices are affecting the company's operating costs.
Carnival saw a 140 percent increase in the price it pays for fuel over the last three years, with the cost climbing 50 percent over the past seven months.
The surcharge only applies to the first and second guests in a stateroom and will not exceed $70 per person per trip, the company said. It will be effective on all bookings for voyages departing on or after Feb. 1, 2008 on brands including Carnival Cruise Lines, Costa Cruises, Cunard Line, Holland America Line, Princess Cruises and The Yachts of Seabourn.
For existing reservations, travel agents will receive $10 per booking in administrative compensation for telling their clients about the surcharge and collecting the additional funds.
The fuel supplement will result in customers paying about one-third of Carnival's year-over-year fuel cost increases over the first six months of the fiscal year, according to Arison.
Carnival said it implemented a fuel supplement for its European brands earlier in the year.
Caribbean Cruise Outlook Good
NEW YORK - The tide is turning for cruise operators, as the once-soft Caribbean market begins to show signs of improvement, financial analysts say.
Caribbean cruises - considered the industry's entry-level product due to their reasonable cost - are vital to the sector. The market makes up 40 percent of Carnival Corp.'s capacity and nearly 50 percent of Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.'s, according to Citi Investment Research analyst Joshua Attie.
Both Miami-based companies have been boosted by the recent uptick in the Caribbean, a region where demand had been sluggish over the past two years. The market was hurt in 2005 by a record-breaking hurricane season that included Katrina, Rita and Wilma, as well as oversupply.
Some analysts point toward lower capacity contributing to the recent recovery. Cruise operators began shifting some of their supply out of the Caribbean and into the more profitable European market back when the Caribbean started to slow.
Bob Simonson, a leisure analyst at William Blair & Co. LLC, said in a telephone interview that the Caribbean has also made progress due to discounted pricing.
"The cruise companies had to cut prices so their ships would sell full," he explained.
The sector's discounting provides a way to fill rooms that would otherwise be empty, with cruise operators able to make up some of the cost through onboard spending and higher European ticket prices.
However, Simonson warned the Caribbean may soon become vulnerable as gas prices surge and heating costs escalate. These rising costs may lead some customers to postpone their winter Caribbean vacations, he said.
More Visitors For Indiana Dunes?
PORTER, Ind. (AP) - The new superintendent of the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore hopes more people in the region will consider visiting the 15,000-acre park along Lake Michigan's southern shore.
"When people think of national parks they're probably going to say the Grand Canyon or Yellowstone," Constantine Dillon told the Post-Tribune. "They probably won't say the Indiana Dunes, and yet you've got something that's an easy drive or a train ride away. We want people to realize they don't have to spend hundreds of dollars and a week off of work to go visit a national park."
The national park, established in 1966, stretches from near downtown Gary to the edge of Michigan City, surrounding the Indiana Dunes State Park, several industrial plants along the shore and two towns.
The park's visitor center is about 50 miles from Chicago.
Lynn McClure, midwest regional director for the National Parks Conservation Association, said the park's dunes reach 180 feet high. Visitors can enjoy sunsets from the top of Mount Baldy or ride the Calumet Bike Trail. Families will want to visit the nature center. And with the arrival of lake-effect snow this winter, there will be cross-country skiing and snowshoeing in the park.
"Although it is only a few miles from Chicago, the dunes make you feel like you're in a completely different landscape," McClure said. "Every visit is different because the winds and the water keep changing the dunes."
Details at http://www.nps.gov/indu/.
Survey: More Family Travel
NEW YORK (AP) - More family travel and more complicated itineraries are two trends for holiday travel reported in a survey of 680 American Express Travel Agents and Platinum Travel Specialists across the country.
Eighty-three percent of agents said their clients are looking for new experiences and destinations and 59 percent said customers are booking more complex and customized itineraries than in years past. Fifty-six percent are booking more upscale vacations than in the past.
The agents reported that travel with children is up too, but these folks aren't going to grandma's house for hot chocolate. The relative affluence of clients who book with American Express is evident in two trends: 56 percent of agents say that traveling families are increasingly bringing nannies along and all Platinum Travel Villa Specialists said that requests for private villas are up this holiday season.
Hawaii and the Caribbean are the top domestic and international destinations reported in the survey, but other locales being booked include Arizona, Central America and Dubai.
---
Jay Peak, Solitude, Schweitzer on 'overlooked' ski destination list
NEEDHAM, Mass. (AP) - Jay Peak in Westfield, Vt., Solitude Mountain in Utah's Big Cottonwood Canyon, and Schweitzer Mountain in Sandpoint, Idaho, are among 10 "overlooked" ski destinations recommended by the travel Web site TripAdvisor.com
The Massachusetts-based Web site says these mountains offer less expensive lift tickets, and more affordable lodging and nightlife than more famous resorts.
Also on the list are Cannon Mountain, Franconia, N.H.; Durango Mountain, Durango, Colo.; Taos Ski Valley, Taos, N.M.; Diamond Peak, Incline Village, Nev.; Big Mountain, Whitefish, Mont.; Saddleback Mountain, in Rangeley, Maine, and Gore Mountain near Lake Placid, N.Y.
---
Expedia says midweek holidays mean long travel season
NEW YORK (AP) - With both Christmas and New Year's Day falling on Tuesdays this year, the Expedia.com Travel Trendwatch predicts that the peak season for holiday travel will be longer than usual.
The report from the Web site also says the 17-day period for most travel will begin Thursday, Dec. 20, and run through Saturday, Jan. 5.
While not everyone can stay away from the office that long, Expedia says it's good news for travelers because crowding may be spread out over more days than in other years, with folks choosing among various dates before and after the actual holidays for their arrivals and departures.
Those looking for travel bargains will want to hunt for deals before and after the holiday periods - in the two weeks before Thanksgiving, the first two weeks of December and the first two weeks of January, when the majority of travelers stay put.
---
American Airlines changes flight-information service
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) - American Airlines is tweaking its telephone reservation and flight-information service by tracking customers using their phone number.
Customers who register for the "Remember Me" program and call the airline from the phone that they used to sign up will get a speedier path to information about their upcoming flight, the company said.
American executives said the new system would be faster than going through the current menu on the airline's flight-information number.
The service is based on a system called Tellme, owned by Microsoft Corp. Other companies use the system for voice-directed bill-paying and other functions, according to a Microsoft spokeswoman.
The service works by recognizing the caller's phone number and retrieving information about that account, the spokeswoman said.
---
Chef Michel Richard helps Amtrak improve its menu for first class
WASHINGTON (AP) - A new menu for first-class passengers on Amtrak's high-speed Boston-Washington service was developed with help from one of Washington's best-known chefs, Michel Richard.
Richard, owner of Washington's Michel Richard Citronelle and Central Michel Richard, was part of an eight-member team that came up with the new choices for the Acela Express, Amtrak spokeswoman Tracy Connell said.
Among the recipes Richard contributed was braised short ribs with cheesy grits, Connell said.
Other options in the new fall-winter menu include seared salmon, chicken Pa Nang, and polenta cakes with mushroom ragout.
At-seat meal service is included in the price of a first-class ticket, which ranges from $250 to $340 for the entire Boston-Washington trip. The new menu went into effect Nov. 7.
The previous menu came from a list of standard choices offered by a contractor, while the new menu was developed specially by Amtrak's team and given to the contractor to implement, Connell said.
Richard will continue with the project as the team develops a spring/summer menu, Connell said.
---
NY Public Library branch to share space with hotel
NEW YORK (AP) - Patrons of a new hotel won't have far to go for their bedtime reading.
The New York Public Library is selling its branch in midtown Manhattan, across the street from the Museum of Modern Art, to Orient-Express Hotels Ltd. and plans to share space in a new building with the luxury hotel.
Under the agreement, the five-story Donnell Library on West 53rd Street will be razed and replaced with an 11-story building, the hotelier and the library announced. Construction is set to begin in 2009 and be completed in 2011.
The library will receive $59 million in cash and will own and occupy the first floor and two floors below ground of the new building. The library and the 150-room hotel will have separate entrances.
This will not be the first mixed-use arrangement for a New York Public Library facility. A branch in the downtown neighborhood of Soho is housed in a residential building and another in Morningside Heights shares space with a Columbia University dorm.
Five floors of the hotel, where rooms will go for $750 to $2,000 a night, will connect to the celebrated 21 Club on 52nd Street, a former speakeasy in a four-story townhouse.
Orient-Express, which owns the club, plans to market the new hotel under the 21 brand name.
---
Vermont: Mount Snow opens on earliest date since 1998
WEST DOVER, Vt. (AP) - With temperatures cool enough for snowmaking, Mount Snow opened Nov. 10, its earliest start to the season in nearly a decade.
Killington and Okemo Mountain Resort plan to open next week, with many ski areas following before the end of November.
"Call it a renaissance," said Mount Snow General Manager Kelly Pawlak. "Guests who have been watching us make snow all week are calling and e-mailing with their praise, and we are so excited to tell them that it's finally show time."
After a $3.5 million investment in snowmaking, the resort reported nine trails open, two top to bottom and a six-to-10-inch base.
---
Disabled guests sue Disney World for its ban on Segways
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) - Three disabled people have sued Walt Disney World for not allowing them to use their Segways to move around its theme parks.
The plaintiffs are each able to stand but cannot walk far, and they have been denied permission to use their two-wheel vehicles at Disney World, according to the federal court lawsuit.
The suit filed Nov. 9 says they're among an estimated 4,000 to 7,000 similarly disabled people who have turned to Segways as mobility tools.
A group called Disability Rights Advocates for Technology, which raises money to donate Segways to disabled U.S. military veterans and pushes for their acceptance, previously asked theme parks to lift bans on the devices. Group co-founder Jerry Karr said Segways offer more mobility and dignity than wheelchairs.
Disney says it fears Segways could endanger other guests because they can go faster than 12 mph.
"We've made our position very clear on these Segways in our parks," Disney spokeswoman Jacquee Polak told the Orlando Sentinel. "Our primary concern is the safety of all our guests and our cast members. We have a long history of being a leader in creating accessible experiences for our guests with disabilities."
Plaintiff Mahala Ault, 33, has multiple sclerosis; Dan Wallace, lost one foot in an accident and Stacie Rhea has Lou Gehrig's disease. The suit did not give their hometowns, saying only that Ault and Wallace are from Illinois and Rhea is from Iowa.
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Re: (No heading)