Welcome to the February 2007 issue of Travology™ Today

• Our Regional Account Managers (RAMs) have received requests recently from clients who are looking for our help with developing their Pandemic Preparedness Plans. To assist with the travel section of these documents, Directravel has created a client version of our own plan. You may request a copy of it from your RAM. Please see the update below for further information on the Avian flu.

• It has come to our attention, from more than one source, that our clients have been negatively impacted by recent car thefts at a local Avistar location. Based on this knowledge, Avistar can no longer be considered a Directravel vendor of choice for your long term parking needs. Our Travologists will be happy to work with you to find alternate locations or to make other arrangements.

• We value our partnerships with our preferred suppliers and they in turn work with us to provide value-added services to our clients. For example, National Car Rental is offering fee-waived Emerald Club membership to Directravel clients. This is a $50 savings! To enroll, visit www.nationalcar.com/offer/directravel.

Experts meeting in mid-February at the World Health Organization (WHO) on advances in pandemic influenza vaccine development reported encouraging progress.

Sixteen manufacturers from 10 countries are developing prototype pandemic influenza vaccines against H5N1 avian influenza virus. Five of them are also involved in the development of vaccines against other avian viruses (H9N2, H5N2, and H5N3).

At present, more then 40 clinical trials have been completed or are ongoing. Most of them have focused on healthy adults. Some companies, after completing safety analyses in adults, have initiated clinical trials in the elderly and in children. All vaccines were safe and well tolerated in all age groups tested.

For the first time, results presented at the meeting have convincingly demonstrated that vaccination with newly developed avian influenza vaccines can bring about a potentially protective immune response against strains of H5N1 virus found in a variety of geographical locations. Some of the vaccines work with low doses of antigen, which means that significantly more vaccine doses can be available in case of a pandemic.

In spite of the encouraging progress noted at the WHO meeting, WHO stresses that the world still lacks the manufacturing capacity to meet potential global pandemic influenza vaccine demand as current capacity is estimated at less than 400 million doses per year of trivalent seasonal influenza vaccine.

For more information, click here.

Delta Air Lines, United Airlines and US Airways in recent weeks shortened the amount of time frequent flyer accounts can remain inactive, so frequent flyers who are not truly frequent could see their accounts expire. However, account holders need not fly to keep accounts active and accrue miles, as the three carriers said credit card point accrual—which represents more than 60 percent of total miles accrued, according to marketing consultancy IdeaWorks—will keep accounts active.

Delta shortened the inactivity threshold of SkyMiles accounts to two years from three years, citing hopes to reduce administrative costs. United’s Mileage Plus accounts now will expire after 18 months, compared with the three-year period customers previously were allowed. US Airways, meanwhile, said effective Jan. 31, Dividend Miles programs cannot be dormant for more than 18 months, down from its three-year threshold.

In addition to earning miles on the carrier or its partners, Delta said members can use credit cards, transfer points from other accounts or purchase miles, in addition to various limited-time promotional offers.

United said the new policy is a boon to frequent and loyal customers because they will "compete with fewer people for award seats, making it easier for them to redeem their miles," adding that about 48 million members are enrolled in the program.

For more information, click here.

The Bush administration is proposing to eliminate the ticket tax on commercial airline fares in October 2008 in favor of a system in which the airlines pay fees to the government, based on their use of the air traffic control system.

The proposal is in the administration's federal budget proposal for fiscal year 2008, which it released Feb. 5.

Under the current system, the FAA gets most of its money from the Airport and Airway Trust Fund, commonly referred to as the Aviation Trust Fund. About half of its revenue comes from a ticket tax that is 7.5% of the fare; most of the rest comes from taxes on domestic flight segments, international arrivals and departures and fuel.

The FAA has been arguing it is illogical and financially unstable to base so much of its funding on a ticket tax that is dependent on the number of passengers and the level of fares they are paying, rather than the number of aircraft using the air traffic control system.

For more information, click here.

Free Internet access, already a standard across many major U.S. midprice brands, slowly is beginning to creep into upscale properties. So far, only Omni, Radisson and Kimpton have embraced that standard brandwide, but several individual upscale properties also have done so.

The most recent convert was the Hilton San Francisco Financial District, which recently completed a $45 million renovation project. At the beginning of the year, the property announced that both its wired and wireless Internet access would no longer carry a charge, a decision based on conversations with hotel guests.

Free or with a charge, wireless or wired, Internet access no longer is optional for chains wishing to do business with corporate travelers. "It's the number-one business amenity, and people are expecting it," said John Flack, Hilton's vice president of hotel broadband technologies.

For more information, click here.

Continental Airlines announced that it has selected a new regional airline partner and a new type of turboprop aircraft to operate as Continental Connection from its New York hub at Newark Liberty International Airport. Colgan Air Inc., a subsidiary of Pinnacle Airlines Corp., will operate efficient, quiet and comfortable 74-seat Bombardier Q400 twin-turboprop aircraft on short and medium-distance routes from Liberty starting in early 2008…Delta Air Lines has expanded its Buy and Transfer Miles programs, enabling customers from around the world to purchase, gift and transfer miles online at delta.com. Through a partnership with Points International, the Buy Miles program provides customers worldwide with opportunities to purchase miles for themselves or family and friends for as little as $30...Northwest Airlines announced that it will enhance and expand service to Denver, Las Vegas, Orlando and Seattle from its Memphis hub as well as add new daily service between Indianapolis and Denver…United Airlines will introduce the first-ever nonstop, capital-to-capital service between Washington, D.C., and Beijing beginning March 28, 2007…US Airways has selected a site at Pittsburgh International Airport for its new $25 million, 60,000 square foot flight operations control center. Approximately 600 aviation professionals will eventually be housed at the new facility, which will be the nerve center of US Airways' 1,400 daily mainline flights.

in December '06 decreased to 70.8%, down 4.6 points vs. the running 12 month average of 75.4%, and down 5.7 points from November’s 76.5%. To view the USDOT's Bureau of Transportation Statistics' (BTS) Air Travel Consumer Report, click here.

The United States Government has posted recent travel advisories and warnings for Burundi, Guinea, Haiti, Indonesia, Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, Kenya, Liberia and Nigeria.