Please see Part I of this series of articles at: Finding Discounted Fares for Seniors-Part I

(8/20/10)- According to the latest data released by the U.S. Department of Transportation, airlines held 3 planes on the tarmac for more than 3 hours in June, down from 268 such incidents a year earlier. At the same time, there was not any appreciable increase in the amount of flights cancelled over the same comparative period of time

Under the new rules that took effect on April 29, airlines must provide passengers snacks and water, and give them a chance to get off the plane, if they have sat in the plane for more than 3 hours.

Data for May and June indicate that airlines are adapting to the new rules by returning more planes to the gate, when faced with long delays.

In April, before the new rules took effect, 24 flights returned to the gate, before leaving again, after sitting on the tarmac for between two and three hours. In May, after the new rules took effect, that number jumped to 86 and in June it was 67.

Airlines that violate the rules face penalties of up to $27,500 per passenger, but so far the DOT has not issued any fines.

(8/7/10)- Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group Inc. announced that it had rejected the $1.3 billion takeover offer from Avis Budget Group Inc.

Dollar which has accepted a lower bid from Hertz Global Holding's Inc. sent a letter to Avis that " a higher price cannot compensate for a deficiency in deal certainty." Dollar also cited the fact that Avis was unwilling to offer a reverse breakup fee.

(8/1/10)- Avis Budget Group Inc. announced that it was making an offer of $46.50 a share for Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group Inc. Hertz Global Holding's Inc. had previously made an offer of $39-a-share, which offer is to be voted on by Dollar shareholders in September.

The Avis offer is valued at over $1.3 billion, and consists of $39.25 a share in cash, and 0.6543 Avis stock for every share of Dollar stock

The bid includes a special dividend to be paid to the Dollar shareholders, and will be financed with cash on hand and financing from Avis' advisers, Citigroup and Morgan Stanley. Please see several of our items below this one, for more details on this battle.

(7/14/10)- An article that appeared in the July 13^th edition of the Wall St. Journal, entitled " Avis Aims to Outbid Rival Hertz for Dollar", that was written by Gina Chon and Anupreeta Das, stated that Avis Budget Group Inc., would submit a higher bid for Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group to its shareholders before their August 18^th scheduled voting date to approve the offer from Hertz Group Holdings Inc.

For more details on this matter, please see our item dated 6/18/10 and 5/28/10 below. The Hertz $41 a share bid is worth about $1.2 billion. Financial experts expect that Avis will take on some debt financing to back its offer.

(6/18/10)- Don't look for quick ending to the attempted merger of Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group to be finalized in the immediate future. Financial and legal experts are predicting that it will be months before Avis Budget Group presents its offer to combat the offer already on the table from Hertz Global Holdings Inc.

Avis is aware of the fact that it is going to take many months before the regulatory review process for the Hertz offer is acted upon, so there is no particular advantage to be gained by making its offer now. Avis is in the process right now of finalizing its due diligence review of the Dollar books, and has already stated that it is willing to top the $1.2 billion that Dollar has already received from Hertz.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has asked Avis for more information related to the Hertz offer

(5/28/10)- Wall Street analysts are expecting a heated battle between Hertz Global Holdings Inc. and Avis Budget Group for Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group as we discussed in out item dated 5/5/10 below.

Dollar Thrifty is the nation's fourth largest car-rental company, with Hertz being in the number 3 slot and Avis in the number 2 slot. Dollar Thrifty, which is based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, has had prior merger discussions with the 2 other suitors, according to documents that had been filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Whichever suitor wins out in this case, it will mean that there will be one less competitor in the car-rental business. Dollar has accepted the $41 bid from Hertz, but said that it would reconsider the acceptance if any other party made a higher bid.

Both Avis and Hertz have filed for approvals with the FTC, although Avis has yet to make a bid public. Antitrust lawyers expect regulators will take several months to study the proposed mergers.

(5/20/10)- In his third try at naming a nominee for the top job at the Transportation Security Administration, President Barack Obama named John S Pistole, the current deputy director of the FBI for the position.

Mr. Obama's first two choices had to withdraw their names after revelations of past conduct, thus leaving the agency without a head for the last 16 months. Errol Southers, who was the president's first choice, withdrew his nomination in February after a fight over extending union rules to TSA workers. Retired General Robert Harding withdrew his nomination amid questions over his security company's contracts in post-war Iran.

Mr. Pistole has been the No.2 official at the FBI since 2004. He is a graduate of Anderson University and the Indiana University School of Law at Indianapolis. He is 53 years of age and joined the bureau in 1983.

(5/17/10)- Starting June 1, American Express Delta Sky Miles credit card holders will have the $25 checked bag fee waived, each way for themselves and for as many as 8 travelers on their reservations.

The waivers will be given to card members with an American Express Gold, Platinum or Reserve Delta SkyMiles credit card. Over-sized and overweight-baggage charges will still apply.

Starting August 1, air-travelers on Spirit Airlines carrying bags that do not fit under the seat in front of them will have to pay as much as $45 per carry-on bag at the gate. The fee is reduced to $30 for those who pay online, on the phone or at check-in and it is further reduced to $20 online for members of Spirit's $9 Fare Club, which has an annual membership fee of $39.95.

(5/14/10)- A new website, DailyGetaways.com is offering as much as a 50% discount on airfares and travel packages to about 50 different American locations. The offer is called Discover America Daily Getaway, and is a promotion of the U. S. Travel Association in conjunction with American Express.

The offers will run through June 4^th. American Express card holders can participate in a daily members only auction from now through June 4 in which they can bid on travel packages arranged by two dozen cities. The auctions begin each day at 10 a.m., and end at 10 p.m., Eastern Standard Time.

The packages involve hotels, airlines, car rentals, attractions, theme parks and other businesses.

(5/12/10)- A1Clear has acquired the assets of Verified Identity Pass, the company that went bankrupt a year ago, for $6 million after winning the competitive bid in the bankruptcy court. Verifed is the company that operated the speeded up boarding system at 18 U.S. airports.

The winning bidder, A1Clear, is led by two former investment bankers and backed in part by Robert V. LaPenta, chief executive of L-1 Identity Solutions, the Stamford, CT. based company that supplied kiosks and other technology to the original Verified. For more information on Verified Identity Pass please see our item dated 10/5/09 in Part I of this series of articles.

The new company will be based in New York City and named Clear. As part of the wining bid, A1 acquired the more than 160,000 subscribers to the old V.I.P., but it did not acquire any of the 18 contracts that existed with different airports throughout the country. The bankruptcy proceeding voided those contracts.

A1 said that it was in advanced talk with many of those airports that it hoped to operate its fast-lane service as soon as possible. The company is offering the service at a fee of $179 down from the $200 fee that V.I.P charged, and subscribers could purchase a family plan for an additional $50.

Cogent Systems, a competitor to L-1 Identity Solutions in the market for bio-metric systems, also has plans to introduce its own airport fast-lane service.

Kurtis Fechtmeyer, an investment banker who had also submitted a bid for V.I>P. in the bankruptcy proceeding, also hopes to open a similar service through Henry Inc., his fast-lane service company.

(5/5/10)- The board of directors of both Hertz Global Holdings and Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group agreed to a proposal to have Hertz acquire Dollar in a combined cash and stock transaction. The companies said they began merger talks last November.

Hertz said that it planned to keep the Dollar and Thrifty brands. Mark P.Frissure, the chairman and president of Hertz said that Hertz currently uses about 95% of its fleet during the week and only 30% to 40% during the weekend since it is mainly a business renters operation. On the other hand, Dollar Thrifty uses most of its fleet on the weekend, since it is geared more towards the leisure traveler.

The companies plan to combine their fleets immediately. Enterprise Holdings, which operates the Enterprise, Alamo and National Brands, is the largest U.S. car-rental company.

News articles have appeared indicating that Avis Budget Group may enter a bid to Dollar Thrifty, saying it was considering a higher offer than the $1.2 billion offer from Hertz.

(4/27/10)- Federal officials denied a request by 5 of the major airlines to grant a temporary exemption for New York-area flights from a new rule scheduled to go into effect on April 29 regarding tarmac delays.

The provision in question was part of the new airline passenger protection regulations in December that prohibits airlines operating domestic flights from permitting a plane to remain on the tarmac at large and medium hub airports for more than 3 hours without letting passengers get off the plane.

Exceptions to this rule are allowed for safety or security reasons. The rule also requires that passengers be provided with working toilets and, after two hours, food and drinking water.

The reason cited by the airlines for requesting the exemption at Kennedy International Airport was because of the fact that the main runway at the airport will be under renovation until December 1.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood stated that tarmac delays could be avoided or minimized by rerouting or rescheduling flights to the airport's other 3 runways.

(4/19/10)- According to the results of an analysis of government flight statistics there were fewer people flying U.S. airlines in 2009 then there were in 2007. There were 704 million U.S. airline passengers last year, compared with 770 million in 2007, the busiest year since 2001.

For every 10,000 passengers, an average of 1.19 passengers were denied boarding in 2009, mostly bumping due to overbooking. This compares with 1.1 passenger denials per 10,000 passengers in 2008.

Dean Headley, a Wichita State University professor and co-author of the report stated: ""Every airline that we looked at in '08 and '09 got better" in the other categories that the report looked into.

Fewer than 4 bags per every 1,000 travelers were lost or damaged in 2009. In 2008, that figure was over 5 bags lost or damaged per 1,000 travelers.

(3/13/10)- President Barack Obama plans to nominate retired Army intelligence officer, Major General Robert A. Harding to head the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), according to a spokesperson for the White House.

President Obama's first choice for the position was Erroll G. Southers, a former FBI agent and counter terrorism supervisor for the Los Angeles airport police, who withdrew his name in January after it became clear that he faced a long, protracted and contentious battle to win confirmation from the Senate to the post.

As a former head of operations at the Defense Intelligence Agency, General Harding was responsible for security at more than 200 embassies and government offices abroad.

He had also commanded the 902^nd Military Intelligence Group, the Army's largest strategic counter intelligence organization, which is headquartered at Fort Meade, Maryland.

After retiring from the military he became a consultant to the government on intelligence issues, and two years later he founded a consulting firm, Harding Security Associates. He sold that firm in July of 2009, and then served as an intelligence adviser to the Obama presidential team.

(3/11/10)- Some new rules from the Department of Transportation will impose new limits on what airlines can and can not do in their dealings with airline passengers. The new rules go into effect April 29^th.

Included in these new rules are the requirement that the airlines will have to let passengers off planes that sit for more than 3 hours on the runway, unless the pilot and air-traffic controllers determine it is unsafe to get the passengers off the plane or let the plane return to the gate.

Airlines will be required to provide food and water if a plane sits on the tarmac for more than two hours. The DOT will be able to penalize airlines for chronically late flights. A chronically late flight is one that is more than 30 minutes late on at least half its trips each month for four consecutive months.

Airlines will be required to acknowledge customer complaints within 30 days and address the issues raised by the complaint within 60 days.

If your flight gets cancelled because of an airline problem (not weather), the airline has to provide accommodations if you are away from home. The airline does not have to rebook you on a competing airline-just on their next flight with available seats.

(2/2/10)- Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group Inc., Avis Budget Group Inc and Hertz Global Holding all have stated that they would remove thousands of Toyotas from their available fleet after the Japanese auto company announced the safety problem issue with several models of their cars.

Hertz would be the most affected U.S. car rental company since about 20% of its fleet consist of different models of Toyotas.

Avis' figures weren't immediately available but it is estimated that about 7% of its fleet consist of different model Toyotas. Dollars Thrifty said about 1.5% of its fleet consist of Toyotas. The Pontiac Vibe is also affected by the gas problem that is causing Toyota to have such a large recall.

(1/13/10)- The average weekly published airport rental car rate for a compact car was $335.05 in 2009. This represented a 51% increase from the average rate in 2008, according to Abrams Consulting Group, a Purchase, N.Y. rental-car consulting firm.

The main reason for this increase was the fact that rental car companies sharply reduced the number of cars they own. Neil Abrams, president of Abrams Consulting said that fleet sizes fell 25% on average in 2009 from 2008, and have fallen over 50% from several years ago.

Mr. Abrams went on to say that demand for car rentals fell only about 20% across the industry last year.

The average weekly rate last year for a car rental at an off-airport location was $189.16, up about[12% from 2008.

FOR AN INFORMATIVE AND PERSONAL ARTICLE ON PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS WHEN SELECTING A NURSING HOME SEE OUR ARTICLE "How To Select a Nursing Home"

By Allan Rubin
updated August 20, 2010

http://www.therubins.com

To e-mail: hrubin12@nyc.rr.com or rubin@brainlink.com

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