Friday's Travel InsideOut

It's probably not that effective for its marketing reputation that Orbitz lost two top marketing executives in the past two weeks.

AdAge: Orbitz Loses Its Two Top Marketing Execs: CHICAGO (AdAge.com) -- The top two marketing executives at Orbitz have left the company only weeks after it named a new creative agency of record, an Orbitz spokeswoman confirmed. Read more

-----

The guff that TripAdvisor has received about fake reviews hasn’t dissuaded a tourism promotional body in the U.K. from talking to TripAdvisor about a new review initiative.

Travolution: TripAdvisor and VisitEngland in talks over user review strategy: VisitEngland has held discussions with TripAdvisor as part of its strategy to review the current accommodation grading scheme. Read more

-----

In an earlier proceeding, a judge found that $184.5 million was "warranted" in an Expedia breach of contract case. If a proposed settlement is half of that amount, then we’re still talking substantial dollars in Washington State.

Dennis Schaal Blog: Expedia Reaches Proposed Settlement in Washington State Consumer Class-Action: Expedia Inc. reached a proposed settlement with a certified class of consumers in Washington State related to hotel taxes and service fees.

The amount of the proposed settlement was not disclosed, but in late May, Superior Court Judge Monica Benton found that $184.5 million in damages, allegedly covering "services fees" collected from Feb. 18, 2003, to Dec. 11, 2006, "based on Expedia's breach of contract is warranted." Read more

-----

Are leisure destinations like Las Vegas and Orlando on some sort of governmental-meetings blacklist? What happens in Washington stays in …. Well, this sort of policy would be ridiculous.

UpTake Travel Industry Blog: Congress calls for Investigation of Federal Travel Blacklist: US House Representatives from Florida and Nevada have asked for an investigation to find out whether a travel blacklist bans government agencies from holding meetings in certain leisure-oriented and holiday resort cities. Read more

-----

With traffic down amidst a capacity cut, JetBlue notched a second quarter profit and expects to remain flying in the black for the rest of the year.

ATW Daily News: JetBlue finds profitable formula, expects full-year surplus: JetBlue Airways yesterday reported a $20 million second-quarter profit, reversed from a $9 million loss in the year-ago period, and said it expects to remain in the black in both the third and fourth quarters. Read more

-----

The FAA proposed mandatory repairs to some Boeing 777 aircraft, many of which are operated by American Airlines.

Wall Street Journal: FAA Seeks Mandatory Engine Fixes on Certain Boeing 777 Jets: U.S. aviation regulators, prompted by the 2008 crash landing of a British Airways Plc jetliner near London, proposed mandatory safety fixes Thursday intended to prevent ice accumulation inside the fuel systems of certain Boeing 777 aircraft. Such problems can lead to dangerous reductions in engine thrust. Read more

-----

Travel InsideOut is a Dennis Schaal Blog daily feature. Get a thorough-going look at the day's travel industry top and tangentially interesting stories. Feel free to comment on them below.

Travel InsideOut is Copyright (c) 2009 by Dennis Schaal. All rights reserved.

Tuesday's Travel InsideOut

Hotel-security and privacy issues came to the fore with the revelations that ESPN sportscaster Erin Andrews was filmed naked in a hotel room. Details about how the incident occurred are sketchy -- the identity of the hotel is unknown, as is the filming method. Get ready for the hotel chain to take a brand hit, however temporary, if it is identified. And, the incident calls into question whether road warriors -- women and men -- need to fret about privacy in hotels or whether this was a one-time incident involving a celebrity journalist.

USA Today: How private are we in hotel rooms?: Female sportscaster filmed naked through hotel door peephole Breaking news: Word's spreading that computer hackers are using the promise of footage of a naked ESPN sportscaster in her hotel room - Erin Andrews - to spread a computer virus, according to USA TODAY's Game On. I hadn't heard about the footage until this morning, so I checked the Web and it turns out that the footage is real and made its way around the Internet last week. (No one to my knowledge has yet identified the hotel in which Andrews was filmed.) Read more

-----

Yahoo was slated to launch a new home page today, and the story below contains a screen shot. It will be interesting to see how Travelocity, the power behind Yahoo Travel, fares in the redesign in terms of home-page presence, and also the prominence given to various travel apps.

Wall Street Journal: Yahoo to Launch New Homepage Months Ahead Of Prior Schedule: Yahoo Inc. is expected to launch its new homepage Tuesday, months earlier than previously planned, according to people briefed on the company's plans. Read more

-----

ARC doesn't find anything not kosher about United's new credit card policy in terms of the ARC sales pact, but the jury is still out on other legal or antitrust issues if other carriers follow.

Travel Weekly: ARC says United's new policy doesn’t violate sales pact: ARC does not see United’s move to push some ARC agencies to be the merchant for air ticket sales as a violation of the ARC sales agreement, according to Allan Muten, ARC’s director for strategic communications. Read more

-----

With foreign carriers implementing pricey new surcharges, some analysts speculate that U.S. airlines will do likewise. FareCompare CEO Rick Seaney isn't buying into the trend.

USA Today: Foreign airlines raise fuel surcharges; U.S. carriers next?: Several foreign airlines are increasing fuel surcharges on passengers, raising the prospect that U.S. carriers could follow suit. Read more

-----

VisitEngland, which brings together the public and private sector for tourism promotion, will gauge industry and consumer sentiment on hotel rating systems and user-generated content. Will a booster organization like VisitEngland enable consumers to write their own destination or hotel reviews? Can anyone pronounce VisitEngland Advisor?

Travolution: VisitEngland considers user reviews in hotel rating shake-up: VisitEngland is to survey the industry on its Common Standards star rating system as part of a wider review which could see user generated reviews taken into account. Read more

-----

In the Google-Bing wars, the San Francisco Chronicle picked the "away" team, the Redmond, Wash.-based Bing, as the better search engine. Is there no hometown loyalty anymore?:)

San Francisco Chronicle: Is it better to Bing that Google?: Forget movie blockbusters. This summer's best death-cage match is shaping up to be between two technology Goliaths: Google and Microsoft. Read more

-----

Travel InsideOut is a Dennis Schaal Blog daily feature. Get a thorough-going look at the day's travel industry top and tangentially interesting stories. Feel free to comment on them below.

Travel InsideOut is Copyright (c) 2009 by Dennis Schaal. All rights reserved.