Published in Travel Weekly

March 8, 2001

SCREENINGS - PositiveSpace

Address:
Travel Technology & Magic Ltd
25 Salem Lane
Evanston, Ill 60203

Contacts:
(847) 676-0269
www.positivespace.com

Overview:
Owned by Travel Technology & Magic Ltd., PositiveSpace is an on-line directory of agent resources.

Features:

• Agent resource: Listings and links to airlines, CRS companies, technology firms, marketing organizations, etc.
• Q&A: Experts answer submitted questions.
• E-mail publications: PS Inform delivers news four to six times daily; PS Connect contains a daily educational message.
• Destination info: Destination guides, PositiveSpace "picks" and message boards

Stated mission: To be an indispensable resource for agents and others.

How it measures up: I feel a lot of positive vibrations about PositiveSpace, a handy agency resource site that was founded by Greg Merkley, a former exec at United Airlines and Galileo International.

The site claims to have some 14,000 people registered -- of which about 85% are agents -- so the heart of the enterprise is its Agent Resources section. Want to book something from a consolidator? There are contact information and links to about 30 companies. And, from airlines to CRS companies and commission-tracking firms, links are conveniently aggregated.

One of the site's most interesting features is its Q&A archive. There, in response to submitted questions, you can find the ARC handbook reference to the use of agents' credit cards for third-party transactions (don't do it without carrier permission). Or, if you're an outside agent, you can learn from Worldspan how to book reservations from your laptop at a client's office.

Although the answers seem very authoritative, the replies don't come with lightning speed. I submitted a question one Thursday at noon regarding American Airlines' policies on bereavement fares. The answer was helpful, but it didn't arrive until Tuesday.

Still, PositiveSpace is a very effective tool. Its e-mailed newsletters pepper your in-box with spicy updates about everything from airline restructurings to strike posturings.

It provides another source (besides, for example, TWcrossroads) for keeping abreast of industry happenings outside of the office.

-- Dennis Schaal