A New Jersey-based company called e-travel University says it is
offering a half-day course designed to teach travel agents how to
use the Internet and to work it into their business strategies. Our
trusty brick-and-mortar correspondent, C.R. Mudgeon of Petrified
Fossil Travel, said he has no plans to take the course, adding,
"I'll tell you how the Internet's going to work in my business
strategy: It's going to put me out of business, and then I'll need
a strategy to keep from starving to death. Now, if you'll excuse
me, I seem to have misplaced my abacus..."
A U.S. Appeals Court in Richmond, Va., dismissed an antitrust
case brought by Omega World Travel of Fairfax, Va., against the
Airlines Reporting Corp. Omega had claimed, among other things,
that travel agencies must sign the ARC contract if they intend to
issue air tickets. ARC's lawyers countered that retailers, in fact,
choose to deal with airline-owned ARC rather than remit sales
through the airlines individually. Isn't it worth noting that
seemingly all agents, free to choose though they may be, make the
same choice?