Airlines, passengers face schedule confusion By Barbara De Lollis, USA TODAY The war has trapped airlines and passengers in a cycle of cancellations,=20 rebookings and confusion. Air travel fell 10% last week from a year ago as= =20 passengers postponed or canceled trips during the first days of the war,=20 the Air Transport Association said Wednesday. Bookings for the next two to= =20 three months also have fallen sharply =97 40% on trans-Atlantic routes =97= =20 forcing several large airlines to trim domestic and international flight=20 schedules for at least April. The result? Some travelers with trips in the= =20 coming weeks might already be rebooked on other flights, but they don't=20 know it yet. Understaffed airlines are coping with a wave of rebookings=20 from now-canceled flights, and they're not always notifying consumers and=20 travel agents right away about who's affected, some travel agents say.=20 "It's been a little chaotic with the reductions in flight schedules," says= =20 Christine Sykes, a Navigant executive vice president. One airline employee= =20 told a Navigant agent that a rebooked traveler would have been notified=20 once he arrived at the airport. But the new flight was a day later than the= =20 old one. Boston-based Garber Travel says one of its clients was rebooked on= =20 a return flight to Boston at 5:45 a.m. instead of 9 a.m., and the new=20 flight made a connection instead of being a direct flight. Travel agents are urging customers to reconfirm upcoming flights =97 even if= =20 there has been no word that anything is amiss =97 on both sides of the=20 journey. Travelers are normally advised to call 48 hours before domestic=20 flights and 72 hours before international flights. "With all the changes=20 now, maybe do it again at 24 hours just to make sure nothing else has=20 changed," says Mona Strick, a Garber executive. Airlines say the sharp=20 drop-off in travel supports their pleas for federal help. ATA Chief=20 Executive James May says the industry is pushing for $4 billion in aid in=20 the proposed $75 billion supplemental budget for war expenses. That's the=20 amount it expects to lose while the nation is at war, but the industry is=20 withdrawing a plea for up to $9 billion a year in tax relief. Still, there= =20 is no consensus in Washington about an aid package for airlines. Some=20 regard aviation as an economically critical industry meriting special help;= =20 others say airlines need to restructure their business first. Insiders say= =20 that it's still an open question whether the airline aid package will=20 successfully be attached to the supplemental bill, which is on a fast track= =20 for passage by mid-April. On Wednesday, some key Senate lawmakers=20 considered aid of up to $3 billion, but no clear plan has been put forth. Contributing: Contributing: Kathy Kiely and Marilyn Adams *************************************************** The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site/TnTisland.com Roj (Roger James) escape email mailto:ejames@xxxxxxxxx Trinbago site: www.tntisland.com Carib Brass Ctn site www.tntisland.com/caribbeanbrassconnection/ Steel Expressions www.mts.net/~ejames/se/ Site of the Week: http://www.thehummingbirdonline.com TnT Webdirectory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************