Flight information
American Airlines changes service
American Airlines is tweaking its telephone reservation and flight-information service by tracking customers using their phone number.
Customers who register for the ''Remember Me'' program and call the airline from the phone that they used to sign up will get a speedier path to information about their upcoming flight, the company said.
American executives said the new system would be faster than going through the current menu on the airline's flight-information number.
The service works by recognizing the caller's phone number and retrieving information about that account, the spokeswoman said.
INDIANA :
DUNES PARK CHIEF WANTS MORE VISITORS
PORTER, Ind. -- The new superintendent of the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore hopes more people in the region will consider visiting the 15,000-acre park along Lake Michigan's southern shore.
''When people think of national parks they're probably going to say the Grand Canyon or Yellowstone,'' Constantine Dillon told the Post-Tribune. ''They probably won't say the Indiana Dunes, and yet you've got something that's an easy drive or a train ride away. We want people to realize they don't have to spend hundreds of dollars and a week off of work to go visit a national park.''
The national park, established in 1966, stretches from near downtown Gary to the edge of Michigan City, surrounding the Indiana Dunes State Park, several industrial plants along the shore and two towns.
The park's visitor center is about 50 miles from Chicago.
Lynn McClure, Midwest regional director for the National Parks Conservation Association, said the park's dunes reach 180 feet high. Visitors can enjoy sunsets from the top of Mount Baldy or ride the Calumet Bike Trail. Families will want to visit the nature center. And with the arrival of lake-effect snow this winter, there will be cross-country skiing and snowshoeing in the park.
''Although it is only a few miles from Chicago, the dunes make you feel like you're in a completely different landscape,'' McClure said. ''Every visit is different because the winds and the water keep changing the dunes.''
SURVEY :
TRAVELERS SEEK NEW EXPERIENCES
NEW YORK -- More family travel and more complicated itineraries are two trends for holiday travel reported in a survey of 680 American Express Travel Agents and Platinum Travel Specialists across the country.
Eighty-three percent of agents said their clients are looking for new experiences and destinations and 59 percent said customers are booking more complex and customized itineraries than in years past. Fifty-six percent are booking more upscale vacations than in the past.
The agents reported that travel with children is up too, but these folks aren't going to grandma's house for hot chocolate. The relative affluence of clients who book with American Express is evident in two trends: 56 percent of agents say that traveling families are increasingly bringing nannies along and all Platinum Travel Villa Specialists said that requests for private villas are up this holiday season.
AP