ot-travel was a good idea, and we are
pleased to hear that IATA is not going to give up on it, even
though it might be some time before the Internet Corp. for Assigned
Names and Numbers gets around to approving more top-level domains
for the Internet.
This should give IATA time to do what it didn't do before --
build a solid consensus in the global travel community about how
this thing should be done, from the ground up.
We said before that IATA deserves a great deal of credit for
taking the initiative, but airlines, bless their hearts, sometimes
forget that there's a difference between taking the initiative and
presenting the rest of the industry with a fait accompli.
To its credit, ICANN sensed the problem and put dot-travel on
hold, saying it was not yet convinced that IATA would be
representative of the entire industry.
As a global group of airlines that commands the respect of
government and industry bodies around the world, IATA can
contribute a great deal to the development of an Internet domain
where consumers can find legitimate travel-related entities. We
believe the rest of the industry can contribute a great deal,
too.
• • •
One for the road?
Anybody accustomed to paying walk-up normal economy airline
fares (and we hope that's a small group) got a jolt last week when
many of these rates were raised by $50 or $100, one way. We would
try to take this in stride were it not for two disturbing
things.
First, this is big bite. Nobody seems to remember the last time
the public was hit with such a big increase all at once. Second, it
came from United, which promised not to raise fares if the
government approves its acquisition of US Airways.
So what's this? One last binge?