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Odds 'n Ends
Kirby's Korner · May 26, 2000

It's time once again to dip into the electronic mailbag to see what's on the minds of those who find their way to Ticked.com. Along the way there might even be a mea culpa or two.

In response to a comment about wanting to print out boarding passes before leaving home or office for the airport, Michael Weiss of Seattle told me Alaska Airlines passengers already can do that, at least if they're not checking baggage.

That reminded me that I have used a kiosk when flying Continental Airlines to achieve the same goal: a complete bypass of the front desk at the airport. Michael, who had lived in Houston before moving to Seattle, said, "I began using them on [Continental] as soon as they came out."

Kevin M. Eggers, new media director for Teetimes.com, told me of an initiative being developed to fight a criticism I had last fall about golf courses not being connected to one another -- or to the Web -- to let golfers reserve tee times online. His company is spearheading the Open Tee Times Online Alliance, which is consolidating tee times from several reservations systems, letting people reserve both at local courses and at courses they are traveling to.

I'm still hearing from people about "upside-down" Web site sales, even though some of these comments were mentioned the last time I took a look at mail. I called the sites -- where buyers tell sellers what they would like to see in the way of travel, and sellers reply with offers -- "a win-win situation for everyone involved."

I've yet to hear from anyone not associated with the upside-down sites who agrees. "It seems to be a no-win situation for me," one travel agent said, after numerous messages to potential buyers led to only one response and no sale.

"It just ain't worth it," agreed agent Eric G. Flaxman, noting the work involved in responding to offers only to "then find that the buyers are not really serious."

Buyers "pay nothing for an agent's time, so there's no reason to be concerned about wasting it!" said agent Fred Levinson. "'Gee, what would it cost me to take my girlfriend to Hawaii?' a 14-year-old surfer might wonder. Of course, he would first need to find a girlfriend and then maybe get dad's permission to go."

Levinson told of responding to "wants" placed by more than 200 people at the request of iWant.com officials, with suggested travel "far below the normal published fares. Results: not one sale."

Christine O'Malley, of Reno, Nev., said she has asked the iWant and Respond.com help desks for assistance in closing sales. "With all their help, still nothing," she said. "I find it very upsetting that these sites are taking so much of our manpower and yet nothing."

Stephen Linaweaver, travel category manager at Respond.com, sent me a note apparently replying to the negative feedback I received about the upside-down sales sites rather than my decidedly more upbeat original column. "Online travel is indeed a brave new world," he said. "It gets even braver when you begin to charge for it! While I do not think Respond.com is the perfect application for every agent, I do think it can be a very effective marketing and sales tool for those agents who can reply quickly and personally by e-mail."

It is precisely the lack of a personal touch at the upside-down sites that agents see as a problem. "Even with a serious buyer and a fairly expensive ticket, there is still a good deal of back and forth that must occur between buyer and seller . . . that is not permitted using the anonymous approach of these sites," said Flaxman.

Levinson said the sites' failure to require potential buyers to provide specific information -- precise departure and arrival locations, dates, the price they are willing to pay -- dooms the process.

And Peggy Rosen, a travel agent from Minneapolis, said "spoken communication" is the only way to go when making detailed travel plans -- something that isn't available at these upside-down sites currently.

Clearly, I need to rethink my conclusion.

I don't need to rethink what I said about carry-on luggage, however. That column obviously hit several nerves. Responses ranged from complete agreement with my position to arguments about how airlines continue to lose checked luggage.

We'll look at these next week. And it's not to late to e-mail me with your comments.

David Kirby is the editor of Interactive Travel Report. His column appears on Friday. You can reach him at david@ticked.com.