Up Front With Martin B. Deutsch for 1987

December 1: LOOKING AHEAD
In my role as a frequent flyer this year, I read a good many good books, and I’d like to share two with you. Pat Conroy, who wrote The Great Santini, among other novels, had me captivated with The Prince of Tides. Former White House hard-nose John Ehrlichman is both entertaining and informative with The China Card.

November 1: A WEEKEND AT THE OPERA
Once on a Thursday evening last April, I flew on Alitalia 747, New York-Milan, to catch an evening of opera at Teatro alla Scala—a pilgrimage I’ve always wanted to make. Like all good weekends, it was all too short; I was back on the ground—literally and figuratively—at JFK by mid-afternoon Monday.

October 1: MAGNIFICENCE IN MEXICO
The Bays of Huatulco development covers 51.9 acres, along twenty-two miles of fantasy-etched shoreline and nine bays, only seven of which will carry hotels along their flanks. Some 12-14 percent of the land has been designated for tourism; the rest is allocated for urban and agricultural uses, as well as for ecological breathing room. The master planners have learned many lessons since Cancun.

September 1: 'IF IT'S BROKE, FIX IT'
To no one’s surprise, flight delays emerge as the biggest issue facing frequent flyers this year. We invited readers to tell us what they would do to solve the flight-delay crisis. Most respondents accepted the challenge, with answers that varied from long paragraphs to single-word solutions.

August 1: DEREGULATION AND CIVILIZATION
When the airlines were deregulated back in 1978, the United States "had the best air transport system in the world…it was the envy of everyone else." But Sir Adam Thomson leaves little doubt that he feels things are no longer what they once were. As chairman of British Caledonian Airways, Sir Adam says the jury is still out on deregulation’s overall impact--for at least another year or two.

July 1: FAR EASTERN ELEGANCE
Allegis has acquired a class operation in the Far East to complement United Airline’s Pacific routes and the highly regarded Westin International hotels in the region. That’s my assessment after spending several nights at Hilton International hotels in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore, Bangkok, and Kuala Lumpur. Other staff members who have traveled in the Pacific recently have returned with similar reports.

June 1: ABOUT THOSE YELLOW PAGES…
As deregulation has worked its wonders (or its wickedness) on air travel over the past nine years, travel patterns have changed. Super hubs have emerged. Some frequent flyers who may have never visited Denver or St. Louis now find themselves on intimate terms with those cities’ airports and airline schedules.

May 1: LOOT, LOS ANGELES AND LANDING IN TOKYO
The battle of hotel amenities has become so heated that if you’re inclined to bring the available plethora of miniaturized goodies back home, you might want to tote an extra bag just for the loot. (That’s, if they don’t give you one.)

April 1: A LETTER TO NANCY
Nancy Espinoza, a student at Notre Dame Academy in Los Angeles, wrote to Los Angeles Times travel editor Jerry Hulse: "Being a 15-year-old and hearing all the talk about terrorist acts really scares me. Like any other fifteen-year-old I really get excited because of traveling. But with all this terrorism going on, I would really like to know where it would be safe to go?" Hulse's response is important to read.

March 1: THE ISSUE AT HAND
Fares are likely to go up on new monopoly routes that have been created by mergers, but most major carriers have reduced their operating costs substantially in the past few years, enabling them to continue price competition without seriously eroding profitability.

February 1: CALLING THE BEAST BY ITS NAME
Fire & Rain by Jerome Greer Chandler is about the fatal crash of Delta Flight 191 at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, a 1985 disaster that Chandler was on his way to cover within minutes after it happened. "During the next few hellish hours I was plunged into a drama so compelling that it demanded to be chronicled in the form of a full-length book," he writes.

January 1: RUMINATIONS AND RECOLLECTIONS
It’s got nothing to do with the full moon, or anything quirky like that, but once in a while I turn contemplative. Such a mood may be induced by the lack of a good book, a dull football game on the tube or the decompression that sometimes follows accumulated jet lag.

Copyright © 1980-2007 by Martin B. Deutsch. All rights reserved.