September 19, 2000

Travel Watch
Getting a Grip

Major airlines' luggage handling improved slightly in July. Complaints of mishandled baggage, which includes lost or damaged items or those sent to the wrong destination, dropped to 5.64 per 1,000, lower than 5.72 in June or last July's figure of 5.75. America West had the highest complaint rate; its passengers reported mishandled bags more than twice as often as customers of Alaska Airlines, which reported the fewest complaints.

Shop Around

Qixo.com (www.qixo.com), a comparison-shopper Web site targeting small business travelers, launched Monday. Visitors to the site enter departure and destination cities and dates, and Qixo's search engine scours 13 travel sites, including Travelocity (www.travelocity.com) Expedia (www.expedia.com) and Cheap Tickets (www.cheaptickets.com) and reports the best real-time fares and schedules. In the coming weeks, Qixo hopes to include over 40 sites in its searches, and to add searches for hotel and rental car prices. Eventually, users will also be able to book their tickets without leaving the site.

-- Andrew Nieland

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