To the surprise and/or despair of the Luddites and the
apocalyptically inclined among us, the calendar has turned on the
millennium with nary a hint of Y2Calamities or Y2Chaos, and it's
already a week or so into the year of the double doughnuts.
Yes, all's right with the world, or at least the place is no
worse off than it was when the clock was verging on midnight back
in the waning hours of the 20th century.
Of course, travel and tourism monitors reported a smattering of
electronic dimples during the millennial transition -- brief
airport blackouts, precautionary shutdowns, dumbstruck one-armed
bandits that kept their hands to themselves -- but nothing so
untoward as to impel someone to flip the switch on a reserve power
generator, pump up a propane tank, or crack open a can of Spam.
We can only conclude that the billions of dollars burned chasing
Y2K preparedness in this country were remarkably well spent or not
necessary in the first place, most likely the former, or at least
we would prefer to think so.
So despite the worst fears of the technophobes, travel agents
never lost the use of their CRSs, airplanes did not fall from the
sky, cruise ships did not founder and we did not have to write this
piece by candlelight. For all of that we are grateful.
Law and order
Retailers should be pleased with the news that travel agent
arbiter William McGee broke precedent by ordering ARC to pay
damages to Worldwide Travel Services, a New York agency.
The ruling, which also requires ARC to pay $25,000 to the
company, plus interest, stems from McGee's finding that ARC broke
the standard agency contract when it withheld funds it legitimately
owed.
Chalk one up for our side.