Reported by Star-Bulletin staff & wire
Wednesday, August 5, 1998
Delta to drop advance boarding passes in Sept.
ATLANTA -- Delta Air Lines will phase out advance boarding passes, part of an industry trend aimed at streamlining boarding procedures.Federally mandated airport security checks, in which passengers must present photo identification and answer questions about their baggage, have made advance boarding passes less practical.
Most other major airlines discontinued advance boarding passes earlier this summer.
Delta earlier this year ended advance boarding passes on international flights, and will end them for domestic flights as of Sept. 1.
Delta said yesterday that boarding passes now will be given to customers when they show their photo identification, and that to keep reserved seats, boarding passes must be claimed for domestic flights at least 20 minutes before flight time.
Two top cigarette firms raise prices 5 cents
NEW YORK -- The leading U.S. cigarette makers this week tagged another five cents to the price of a pack of cigarettes and more hikes are likely. Both Philip Morris Cos Inc., the nation's largest cigarette producer, and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., the second biggest, said yesterday that they raised the price for their products. Philip Morris, maker of Marlboro and Virginia Slims, has about a 48 percent of the U.S. market share. RJR sells the Camel, Winston and Salem brands.
S&P gives nod to Japan in credit rating report
NEW YORK -- Japan's "AAA" credit rating was affirmed by Standard & Poor's Corp., which said the country has enough overseas assets and foreign exchange reserves to ensure it can meet its obligations.The move comes less than one month after Moody's Investors Service Inc., another U.S. credit rating company, put Japan's "Aaa" rating on review, saying it could be cut if the nation's leaders fail to lift the country out of its worst recession in five decades.
S&P acknowledged the obstacles Japan faces in restoring its banking industry to health and boosting economic growth. Yet it concluded that the long-term outlook for the "AAA" rating was "stable." The top-notch rating was justified, because Japan's net foreign assets -- the world's largest at about $1 trillion -- are expected to grow, S&P said.
In other news . . .
ROUND ROCK, Texas -- Dell Computer Corp. has reduced prices on selected configurations of its Latitude notebook and OptiPlex desktop PCs. The price cuts range up to 10 percent for Latitude and up to 17 percent on OptiPlex.
See expanded coverage in today's Honolulu Star-Bulletin.
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