Travel Calendar

Travelers are generally pleased with the customer service they’re getting from online travel agencies, according to a customer satisfaction survey released Tuesday.

Online travel agencies’ customer satisfaction score totaled 78, unchanged from a year ago, says the American Customer Satisfaction Index’s annual e-Commerce report. Any score around 80 is considered solid, says Larry Freed, author of the report and CEO of consulting firm ForeSee.

The index, founded at the University of Michigan but now run as a privately held company, measures customer evaluations of products and services for 225 companies in 47 industries in the U.S., based on a 100-point scale. Customer satisfaction with e-commerce websites overall inched up 1% to 80.1.

Online travel agencies’ score was slightly lower than other e-commerce retailers, like Amazon and Newegg. But stiff competition and sluggish demand have pushed travel agencies to introduce more innovations and aggregate better deals for customers whose appetite for bargains grow unabated every year, says Douglas Quinby of PhoCusWright, a travel technology research firm.

Travelocity, which scored 79, tops the category. Last year’s leader, Expedia, fell 2.5% to 77. Both Orbitz (+1.3%) and Priceline (+4.1%) are close behind at 76.

In April 2011, Travelocity shook up management by hiring Carl Sparks – who previously worked at Hotels.com and Expedia and has experience in flash sale sites – as its new CEO.

Priceline, which has moved beyond its auction model to traditional travel agency businesses, registered the biggest increase in customer satisfaction among travel companies.

The company, whose market share has been growing in recent years, also has introduced other features that enhance its auctions, such as pricing e-mail alerts and lists of winning bids. Booking.com, its subsidiary better known for its travel products in Europe, also has been gaining customers in the U.S. Priceline’s stock is up 24% from a year ago.

Expedia, which has been the largest online travel agency for years, also is undergoing changes at the top. Scott Durchslag, who ran the travel agency as CEO of Expedia Worldwide, left the company abruptly last month.

“All folks had tough time retaining consumer loyalty,” Freed says. “They seem (interchangeable), which is a challenge.”

Quinby says online travel agencies’ reputation that they’re slow to innovate is misleading. Their introduction page, with the obligatory transactions fields, may look unchanged to novice travelers. But “there’s an enormous amount of innovations they have introduced carefully,” he says.

They are aggregating more hotel rooms worldwide and collecting traveler reviews, he says. Embedding social media tools and expanding into flash sales also are top priorities.

Audio Travel Tips, Travel and Health, Travel Tips — <!–By PeterGreenberg.com–> on February 21, 2012 10:35 am

You may have heard recent reports of people getting sick on cruise ships. What are the risks and how can you stay healthy at sea?

The notable cases recently have involve outbreaks of norovirus. It may sound dramatic, but norovirus is nothing more than the common stomach flu. That said, the symptoms of headache, nausea and gastrointestinal problems over the course of 24 to 48 hours can really derail a vacation.

The fact is, this kind of situation is likely in any closed environment. If high-touch areas like buffets, elevator buttons and door handles are contaminated, the illness is easily transmitted. So how can you protect yourself?

It’s simple…avoid contamination. That means washing your hands frequently, using hand sanitizer, using the bathroom in your cabin instead of public spaces, and avoiding unnecessary contact with other passengers. And I mean don’t even shake hands to greet someone.

Of course, the cruise line isn’t obligated to provide any compensation, but if history is any guide, most will. Keep track of all receipts and and out-of-pocket expenses if your trip is interrupted or canceled due to an outbreak.

For more on how to stay healthy while traveling, check out our Travel and Health section.

To read more of Peter’s Travel Tips, go to the Travel Tips Section.

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Two weeks ago, Roll Call unearthed a number of occasions where Rep. Ron Paul took full reimbursements for travel from both taxpayers and from political groups, apparently pocketing the cash.  His campaign responded that a few errors might have occurred but no intentional fraud had ever occurred.  Today, Roll Call reports that they have found more cases of double-dipping, and get libertarian activist and former Paul ally David James to go on the record as saying he warned Paul of this very practice — and that it lead to a falling out between the two:

Roll Call reported Feb. 6 that Paul was repeatedly paid twice for flights between Washington, D.C., and his Congressional district, receiving reimbursement from taxpayers and also from a network of political and nonprofit organizations he controlled, according to public records and credit card statements for an American Express card in Paul’s name.

Spokesman Jesse Benton said then it was “possible that wholly inadvertent errors were made in a handful of instances” in which flights were reimbursed twice, but he maintained that “absolutely zero taxpayer funds were ever misused.”

But James’ recollection and new documents obtained by Roll Call suggest Paul was aware that he was often being reimbursed twice for individual flights. In all, Roll Call found 26 flights in which several layers of documentation show double payments: credit card statements that detail the ticket purchases, a payment to Paul from his taxpayer-funded House account for reimbursement of a flight and Federal Election Commission records or copies of checks that verify a second payment from a separate group for the same flight.

Roll Call obtained copies of checks from the Liberty Committee to American Express that paid for Paul’s expenses. The records obtained by Roll Call cover about 17 nonconsecutive months. Beyond the 26 flights, documents show an additional 31 flights where it appears Paul was double-reimbursed but the records lack sufficient detail to prove duplicate payments.

The issue between James and Paul goes back to 2005, when James first discovered the double-dipping and assumed it was an error.  As chair of the Liberty Committee, he pressed Paul’s office to get documentation for the flights that the Liberty Committee had already reimburses, but kept getting stalled by Paul and his Congressional staff.  James raised the issue directly with Paul and got a surprising response:

The office manager said Paul’s Congressional office no longer had documentation for that flight; Paul had sent it in to the House Finance Office for reimbursement. But Liberty Committee had already sent a check to American Express to cover the charge on Paul’s credit card.

“I don’t care what flights the Liberty Committee pays for,” James said, “because Ron never took enough in expenses to come anywhere near his value to us. And this was piddly. But it’s just what it was.”

James first thought it was accidental and faxed a letter to Paul’s office, requesting that its money be returned for the flight. Paul did repay the $403.70, but the episode strained their relationship and led to a falling out a year later.

In a subsequent conversation, James raised the issue, and Paul “was very curt, and he simply said, ‘Yep, well, happens all the time,’” James, 64, told Roll Call.

In the end, this contributed to a battle between James and Paul over control of Liberty Committee.  After a series of conflicts over this and other issues, Paul tried to get the LC’s board to toss James out of the group and align themselves with Paul.  The effort failed, and James remains in control of the Liberty Committee.  The group still backs libertarian-based legislation in Congress, including from Paul, but no longer have ties to Paul’s Congressional office.  Roll Call reports that James sent a demand last week for an explanation of $10,000 in reimbursements for almost twenty flights that may have been double-billed to taxpayers and the LC, and have yet to get a response.

Despite the response from the campaign earlier this month, Paul and his Congressional staff knew about this issue for years before Roll Call reported the story, and apparently did little to resolve it.  Two weeks ago, I wrote that this would likely end in some checks being cut and disclosure forms amended, but Paul’s team had better start working on that ASAP before this turns into an Ethics Committee hearing.

Dominic Monaghan is getting lost again.

David W. Keeley and Ron White Join BBC America’s ‘Copper’ DramaBBC America to Air ‘Graham Norton Show’ the Day After U.K. Broadcasts (Exclusive)BBC America Original ‘Copper’ Lines Up Franka Potente, Tom Weston-Jones as Leads

BBC America, OLN and Channel 5 announced Tuesday that the Lost and Lord of the Rings actor will star in a new travel-adventure series, already in production.

Wild Things with Dominic Monaghan will find the British actor globetrotting in search of “the biggest, scariest and weirdest insects on the planet.”

PHOTOS: Midseason TV Preview: 17 New Shows Premiering in 2012

In a statement from BBC America, Monaghan explained that this isn’t a new interest for him. “I have been obsessed and interested in nature all my life,” he said. “This show brings together years of excited preparation by finally creating a series that demonstrates my love for travel, animals, adventure and people.”

The latest original in a new slate from the anglophile cable net, Wild Things was co-commissioned by Canada’s OLN and the UK’s Channel 5. It’s being produced by Cream Productions and Wildfire Television and distributed internationally by ITV Studios Global Entertainment.

“Wild Things with Dominic Monaghan introduces our audience to creatures typically only seen in fantasy or science fiction,” said Perry Simon, BBC Worldwide America GM, channels. “We are among the many fans of Dominic’s work, and it is his genuine love and knowledge of these creatures and the production team’s global ambition that inspired us to make this series an important part of our slate of new originals.”

The series will premiere on BBC America later in 2012. Monaghan is repped by APA.

View full sizeGMAmericans traveled about 36 billion miles last year than they had in 2010, according to federal data.

Americans motorists last year drove about 36 billion miles less than they had in 2010, according to federal data.

The U. S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration reports travel on all roads and streets was nearly 3 trillion miles, a 1.2 percent decrease from the previous year.

Travel on U.S. roads last year was the lowest level since 2003, when the roadways were used for 2.89 trillion miles.

In 2011, travel declined every month from the previous year besides January, February and December.

In December, travel on U.S. roadways was up 1.3 percent – 3.2 billion vehicle miles – from December 2010.

Urban driving, which accounts for about two-thirds of all driving, was only down about 1 percent. Rural driving decreased 1.6 percent from 2010 to 2011.

One cause for the decline in travel could be higher fuel prices nationwide. According to the U.S. Energy Information Agency, U.S. gasoline prices increased from an average of $3.10 a gallon at the end of December 2010 to $3.37 in December 2011.

Since 1988, U.S. roads have been annually traveled on more than 2 trillion miles. In 2006 and 2007, travelers racked up more than 3 trillion miles each year.

The highest since 2007′s record-high of 3.03 trillion miles traveled was in 2010. Drivers traveled 2.998 trillion that year, according to the data.

In Michigan, driving was up 2.1 percent in December to 8.04 billion miles traveled.

Las Vegas, as a city, has long been a reliable creative irritant to the sensibilities of travel writers who work in a genre called “literary”, “narrative”, “nonfiction-creative”.

The city’s shiny surfaces candy-shell over a variety of social cankers, plus real people live their lives there, and any of these conditions alone, or all of them together, make for a good subject. See, for instance,
Stilettos in Paris,
In the Neon Boneyard,
The Las Vegas Imposter,
Road Trip.

Two years ago, I read John D’Agata’s 
“What Happens There”, an essay  about Las Vegas in The Believer,  and
About a Mountain, the same essay at book length.

I found them both satisfying, which is a high compliment. D’Agata articulated much of what I’d perceived in my visits to Vegas.  His writing allowed my experience to make larger sense.*

A couple of weeks ago, I picked up
The Lifespan of a Fact, by D’Agata, and Jim Fingal, who fact checked the essay at magazine length. The book is the back-and-forth between the two, as Fingal reckons with the “liberties” D’Agata took with facts.

The liberties are myriad — massaged quotes, multiple elisions,  and many changes for poetic reasons: the rhythm of thirty-four works better than thirty-one; a description of a van as pink instead of purple, because purple has two beats and pink has one; four deaths from cancer on a particular day instead of the factual eight, because it worked better in a list for the numbers to descend.

At first, reading this made me feel a little uncomfortable. As everyone who has written about
Lifespan is
apparentlyobligated to point out, I have had some experience with the fact-checking process — I’ve been fact-checked many times and have fact-checked a bit myself. I would not like to be in D’Agata’s defensive position.  In my own writing, I do try to get things right: not just because I have spent most of my career in journalism, but because even when I write essay, narrative, nonfiction-creative, or whatever you want to call it, I think the facts are an interesting and appealing creative constraint. You have to make the art work inside the narrow band of fact, and I like that.

As I read Lifespan, I was reminded me of how I felt when watching the movie
Shattered Glass, which would be how I’d feel watching anyone caught in an dishonest act.

But D’Agata repeatedly insists that he is not being dishonest, because he was never trying to be accurate. He was not a journalist, trying to commit journalism. “The facts that are being employed here aren’t meant to function baldly as “facts”.  The work that they’re doing is more image-based than informational.”

I wanted to object to the possibility of a fact having something other than its “bald function”, but I realized that I couldn’t, and that I thought D’Agata was right.  As I said, after I read D’Agata’s work, I understood something about Las Vegas that I hadn’t been previously able to articulate. Even though they were rife with factual errors.

Still, the journalist in me was still irritated by his manipulations. She said, oh
come on, John, please. Couldn’t you have created the same image-based effect without taking quite so many factual liberties?

I’ve since decided to withdraw the question.

The reason lies in Fingal’s black-inked sections, the relatively few passages of D’Agata’s essay that he was able to confirm. Fingal would apply the black ink in a few instances: when he was able to find a fact repeated in another news source, an article in a newspaper, magazine or website, or in a book; when there was some mention of an event in D’Agata’s notes, or, in a sort of fact-checker superhero maneuver, by going to Las Vegas and checking things out for himself.

This is standard fact-checking procedure: if you can find a “fact” replicated in another source, or possibly more than one other source, if you can get a source to agree that they said something like what is written between quotation marks (because everyone who has ever written nonfiction knows you can’t possibly quote someone both accurately and intelligbly, just try reading a transcript), if you can get some consensus, in other words, and it doesn’t have to be much, you’ve got a fact. Bring on the black ink.

But fact validated by consensus doesn’t always equal truth.
In fact, if you’ll forgive the expression, it’s often the opposite. And this is a very big problem for anyone who believes that that they’re writing factually, and a problem of immense philosophical complexity for me.

It’s hard to get through the day, much less the writing of a piece of nonfiction, if you don’t believe that facts, beyond the very simplest, actually exist.  But when you seriously try to determine the accuracy of a fact, when you are not satisfied by mere consensus, things get slippery fast.  ( “Considered historically, any fact is just a hoax that is believed until it is debunked”.**)  And if you’re relying on memory, yours or someone else’s, for a factual account, good luck: as I’ve previously reported,
the chances are very high that you are heavily into fiction.

This is the point of
Lifespan, of course: it’s not about fact-checking, or the meaning of nonfiction, or of art, it’s about the basic instability of fact.

This is a terribly unpleasant notion for all writers of nonfiction, including travel writers, to contemplate.

So I suggest that we never speak of it again.

 

<sub>*For more on this, see
The Art in Time in Memoir, by Sven Birkerts.

** John Tresch, “Extra! Extra! Poe Invents Science Fiction”, in
The Cambridge Companion to Edgar Allan Poe.</sub>

©
Perceptive Travel Blog, part of the
PerceptiveTravel.com webzine: the best travel stories from authors on the move.

On the 50th anniversary of becoming the first American to orbit earth, former astronaut John Glenn said NASA is in a difficult position because the space agency must rely on the Russians to transport Americans to the International Space Station.

On Feb. 20, 1962, Glenn piloted the Friendship 7 into orbit around Earth. He circled the globe three times before returning to a hero’s welcome. He later served in the U.S. Senate for 24 years and made a bid for president. He was the third American in space, but the first to orbit the planet.

The Soviet Union put the first human into space and into orbit, in 1961. But in the years of the Cold War, it was a matter of national pride for the United States to catch up, and Glenn was among the first group of astronauts, the Mercury Seven, celebrated in fact and fiction for having The Right Stuff, reported the Los Angeles Times.

Glenn, 90, took part in a forum at Ohio State University to mark the anniversary and discuss NASA. He was critical of the decision to end the U.S. shuttle program that carried astronauts to the International Space Station.

“NASA is in a difficult position today, quite frankly.  It’s sort of a hold-your-breath period for NASA as to what’s going to happen, because the only way we go into space now, as it’s already been mentioned here today, was to go over to Russia and we pay them.  We buy seats for them to put our people into space on the Soyuz.  And this comes at a real price because what we cannot do then is send our people up with all the equipment and everything they need to our own space station, which was developed just to do this kind of continuing research, the research in this new environment of space,” Glenn said according to Voice of America.

At 77, Glenn became the oldest person to fly in space, in 1998.

President Obama and his administration, according to a report on CNN is behind the space program despite the grounding of the shuttle program currently.

“I am 100 percent committed to the mission of NASA and its future.” Obama said in 2010.

The obama administration has outlined a program including a multibillion-dollar modernization of Kennedy Space Center, expansion of private-sector and commercial space industries and eventually human travel to Mars.

“By the mid-2030s I believe we can send people to orbit Mars and bring them safely back to Earth,” Obama said. Landing on Mars will follow, and “I expect to be around to see it.” reported CNN.

At the Christa McAuliffe Regional Public Charter School, which has students from Ashland, Holliston, Hopkinton, Natick and Framingham among other communities, eighth graders recently presented their space projects, including projects on exploration of Mars. The school, which is named after Framingham native and the first teacher in space who died tragically when Challenger exploded, focuses its 8th grade science curriculum on space exploration.

By Sagarika Jaisinghani

Tue Feb 21, 2012 1:16pm EST

(Reuters) – Car rental company Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group (DTG.N) posted a strong quarterly profit on improving U.S. travel market and forecast first-quarter earnings above analysts’ expectations.

Dollar Thrifty, which was the object of a prolonged takeover battle between larger rivals Hertz Global Holdings Inc (HTZ.N) and Avis Budget Group Inc (CAR.O) until last October, expects rental rates to improve in the first quarter.

Top U.S. carriers say travel demand has held up well in recent months despite concerns that economic weakness could be a drag.

Dollar Thrifty competes primarily in the U.S. car rental industry, which has two principal markets: airport and local.

For the current quarter, the company expects to earn $1.15 to $1.40 per share. Analysts were expecting earnings of 79 cents a share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Last week, rival Avis reported a surprise fourth-quarter loss due to pricing pressure in its North American market.

However, Dollar Thrifty finance chief Cliff Buster said in a post-earnings conference call that higher fleet utilization helped the company mitigate pricing pressures.

The Tulsa, Oklahoma-based company, which expects the used-vehicle market to stay robust in 2012, sold about 8,600 vehicles in the fourth quarter at an average gain of $436 per vehicle.

It had sold 7,900 vehicles in the year-ago quarter at an average loss of $17 per vehicle.

The fourth quarter saw costs fall 9 percent as fleet costs decreased by nearly a third to $218 per vehicle per month.

The company, which rents cars under the Dollar Rent A Car and Thrifty Car Rental brands, sees fleet costs at $150 to $170 per vehicle per month in the first quarter.

MKM Partners analyst Christopher Agnew said a series of structural initiatives over the last several years, including ending its fixed supply agreement with Chrysler, helped Dollar Thrifty cut costs.

The company, formed in 1990 by Chrysler and spun off in 1997, was till 2009 contractually bound to buy 75 percent of its fleet cars from Chrysler.

Dollar Thrifty, with a market value of about $2 billion, posted a fourth-quarter profit of $33.9 million, or $1.08 per share, compared with $12.5 million, or 41 cents a share, last year.

Excluding items, the company earned $1.09 per share, above analysts’ estimate of 76 cents a share.

Revenue rose marginally to $353.7 million, but came in below the $355.6 million analysts had expected.

Dollar Thrifty shares, which have gained 20 percent in value since October 27 when Hertz abandoned its bid, were up 2 percent at $74.63 on Tuesday afternoon on the New York Stock Exchange.

(Reporting by Sagarika Jaisinghani in Bangalore; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty, Unnikrishnan Nair)

Global performance marketing leader serves the needs of worldwide travel marketers.

Victoria, BC (PRWEB) February 21, 2012

Neverblue, a premier global lead generation network, is pleased to announce the launch of the Neverblue Travel Affiliate Network, an affiliate network that caters to the performance marketing needs of travel product and service vendors worldwide.

Backed by Neverblue’s proprietary affiliate platform, the Neverblue Travel Affiliate Network empowers travel brands to run global affiliate programs more efficiently. It does so by providing access to complete affiliate program management, state of the art tracking and analytics and a global mobile platform.

“Online travel is a $200 billion business,” said Eric J. Gerritsen, Vice President, Sales and Marketing at Neverblue. “Neverblue has a long history of driving client acquisition globally and travel markets are well-aligned to leverage Neverblue’s international footprint.”

Through Neverblue’s travel affiliate program, travel services vendors can outsource their entire travel affiliate management program. This includes tracking and reporting, affiliate payouts, dispute resolution, quality control, contract management and international traffic development.

“We recognize that while most online travel services vendors want to tap the power of affiliate marketing, very few have the in-house skill-sets to execute at scale. For this reason, the Neverblue Travel Affiliate Network offers outsourced affiliate program management, which makes running a global travel affiliate program a snap,” said Gerritsen.

To enable travel services vendors to reach the ever- increasing mobile audience, Neverblue has created a unique mobile platform with an industry-leading Cost-Per-Install (CPI) app model. The model allows for the efficient distribution of travel apps to global travelers. When mobile is combined with a traditional performance marketing campaign, travel services vendors have the ability to significantly expand global reach and realize the financial rewards of a well-run affiliate program.

About Neverblue

Headquartered in Victoria, British Columbia, with offices in Los Angeles, Europe and Asia, Neverblue is a premier global lead generation company delivering millions of profitable customers to global clients, including members of the Fortune 1000™. For more information about the Neverblue Travel Affiliate network please visit www.travelaffiliatenetwork.com.

###

For the original version on PRWeb visit: www.prweb.com/releases/prweb201202Neverbllue/TravelAffiliateNetwork/prweb9209333.htm

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 21, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ –
Hotwire.com®, a leading discount travel site, today announced further results from their American Travel Behavior Survey, conducted on their behalf online by Harris Interactive in July 2011 among over 2,000 adults. The survey revealed that 41 percent of U.S. adults who travel spend the majority of their vacation budget on obligation trips such as reunions, weddings, holiday gatherings, etc. However, most (89%) would love to take more leisure trips, if they had the time and money, but struggle to figure out how to fit them in. In response, Hotwire® offers some affordable trip ideas on how travelers can add a mini-getaway to their have-to-do trips without breaking the bank or taking too much extra time off.

Even in a recovering economic climate, cost has remained one of the biggest obstacles that people are facing when deciding how and where to travel. With folks dedicating so much of their travel budget to necessity trips, their leisure getaways – ones they can truly enjoy – must be suffering. And the data appears to confirm this trend. According to the survey, 94 percent of U.S. adults said that they would take one more trip than they already had planned if they could afford it, but only 37 percent of those who take 1-3 night trips ‘just for fun’ take them once per year.

“It’s no surprise that obligation trips monopolize travel budgets and time, but with a little flexibility and creativity you can use these must-go trips to your advantage,” said Clem Bason, president of the Hotwire Group. “There’s no better way to keep in budget than by making the most of the travel investment that you’ve already made. By adding extra days at the end of must-go trips, travelers can create more leisure time for themselves, which can be used to explore a new side of the city they are already in or venture to a nearby destination.”

To encourage Americans to travel more, Hotwire has mapped out these add-on trip ideas for each of the top five most booked destinations on Hotwire. By either renting a car or hopping on a quick train ride, consumers can get the most out of their vacation budget by transforming their obligation trip into a relaxing getaway:

Family reunion in Chicago? Tack on a getaway to:

Lake Geneva, Wisconsin (One hour 45 minutes away)

Average hotel price on Hotwire: $125**

Economy car rental rate from Chicago on Hotwire: $19.99/day**

Best friend’s wedding in Washington DC? Tack on a getaway to:

Annapolis, Maryland (50 minutes away)

Average hotel price on Hotwire: $68**

Economy car rental rate from Washington DC on Hotwire: $18.95/day**

Nephew’s high school graduation in Toronto? Tack on a getaway to:

Niagara Falls, New York (One hour, 45 minutes away)

Average hotel price on Hotwire: $61**

Economy car rental rate from Toronto on Hotwire: $21.67/day**

Home for the holidays in Los Angeles? Tack on a getaway to:

Palm Springs, California (Two hours away)

Average hotel price on Hotwire: $90**

Economy car rental rate from Los Angeles on Hotwire: $19.99/day**

Business meeting in New York City? Tack on a getaway to:

Hudson River Valley, New York (45 minutes away)

Average hotel price on Hotwire: $63**

Economy car rental rate from New York City on Hotwire: $34.95/day**

*Survey MethodologyThis survey was conducted online within the United States by Harris Interactive via its QuickQuery omnibus product on behalf of Hotwire from July 27-29, 2011 among 2,127 adults ages 18 and older. This online survey is not based on a probability sample and therefore no estimate of theoretical sampling error can be calculated. For complete survey methodology, including weighting variables, please contact Andrew Reynolds at andrew@atomicpr.com or (323) 648-5425.

**Average hotel prices based on Hot Rate bookings made between 1/15/12-2/10/12 for stays in February. Car rental deals were found on Hotwire 2/10/12 for travel 3/2-3/6/12, no guarantee sample deal will be available past said date.

About Hotwire

Hotwire.com is a leading discount travel site with low rates on airline tickets, hotel rooms, rental cars, cruises and vacation packages. Launched in 2000, Hotwire negotiates deep discounts from its travel suppliers to help travelers book unsold airline seats, hotel rooms and rental cars. Hotwire is an award-winning website and operating company of Expedia, Inc. CST# 2053390-50. NST: 20003-0209. For more information, visit
http://www.hotwire.com . Hotwire sites operates in 8 countries worldwide:
www.hotwire.com ,
www.hotwire.com/uk ,
www.hotwire.com/ie ,
www.hotwire.com/au ,
www.hotwire.com/nz ,
www.hotwire.com/se ,
www.hotwire.com/no and
www.hotwire.com/dk . In addition to Hotwire, The Hotwire Group of websites includes:
www.hotwire.com ,
www.travel-ticker.com ,
www.carrentals.com .

Hotwire, Hotwire.com and the Hotwire logo are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Hotwire, Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. © 2012 Hotwire, Inc. All rights reserved. CST# 2053390-40.

Contact:Andrew ReynoldsAtomic PR(323) 648-5425andrew@atomicpr.com

SOURCE Hotwire.com

Copyright (C) 2012 PR Newswire. All rights reserved