MINNEAPOLIS -- Northwest's tour subsidiary, MLT, changed the name
of its charter product line to Worry-Free Vacations, dropping the
initials MLT and triggering questions from agents about the
branding strategy.
"I don't understand why they did that," said Debbie Stevenson,
president of Ridgmar Travel of Fort Worth, Texas. "Why would you
give up your name recognition?"
Wanda Pierce, owner of Adventures in Travel in Oklahoma City,
Okla., said, "The public relates to MLT. Since we deal with the
public, I think we'll have to continue to say MLT, so they'll know
to whom I'm referring."
The corporate name of the tour subsidiary remains MLT Inc., but
for marketing purposes it is adopting the name MLT Vacations
Inc.
It operates both the scheduled air package product Northwest
WorldVacations and the charter package product, formerly known as
MLT Vacations, but now renamed Worry-Free Vacations.
MLT began as a retail travel agency in 1969 called Mainline
Travel. Filling planes with groups to Las Vegas, it started
marketing itself as MLT Vacations in the early 1970s and became a
wholesaler in 1974. It was purchased by Northwest Airlines in 1985.
In the late 1980s, the company introduced "Worry-free" as a
slogan.