Forty-one businesses and attractions in eight categories have been nominated for the annual Chicago Visitor Choice Awards. The awards will be given March 20 at a fundraiser benefiting the Special Children’s Charities and the Gateway Green Committee at the Arie Crown Theater at McCormick Place. The winners are chosen by tourists’ ballots placed in hotel magazines.
Nominees in each category are:
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Suburban: Brookfield Zoo, Six Flags Great America, Village of Oak Park, Woodfield Mall and the Ravinia Festival.
Entertainment: Blue Chicago, Blue Man Group, Chicago Cubs, House of Blues and Navy Pier.
Restaurants: Cheesecake Factory, Gino’s East, Harry Caray’s, Michael Jordan’s, Rainforest Caf, and The Signature Room at the 95th.
Retail Stores: Bloomingdales, Carson Pirie Scott & Co., Crate & Barrel, Lord & Taylor and Old Navy.
Accommodations: Hilton Chicago and Towers, Chicago Marriott Hotel, The Drake hotel, Sheraton-Chicago Hotel & Towers, and the Palmer House Hilton.
Service: Chicago Architecture Tours, Chicago Motor Coach Co., Metra, Chicago Trolley Co. and Ugly Duck Cruises.
Attractions: Cows on Parade, Museum of Science & Industry, Navy Pier, Sears Tower and John G. Shedd Aquarium.
Hidden Gem: Billy Goat Tavern, Chicago Botanical Gardens, Cows on Parade, Lincoln Park Zoo and Navy Pier.
The awards are co-sponsored by the Metropolitan Pier & Exposition Authority, WHERE Chicago Publications and Levy Restaurants.
Keep trying: One thing is certain, the nation’s airlines are persistent.
Two weeks ago, the carriers failed to push through a distance-based fare increase that would have added $30 or more to the price of a round-trip ticket. Three airlines, including Northwest Airlines, a unit of Northwest Airlines Corp., refused to go along with that increase.
That didn’t stop Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines, a unit of Delta Air Lines Corp., and our hometown carrier, United Airlines, a unit of UAL Corp., from trying again.
Last weekend, the two carriers tried to push through another fare increase. This time no other airline went along, forcing both to cancel the increase.
Keeping track: Lost baggage may be a thing of the past–at least in the international terminal of O’Hare International Airport.
International carriers are using a bag reconciliation system provided by Lufthansa Systems Division North America, a unit of Lufthansa German Airlines.
The wireless system, which is connected to an airline’s check-in counter, uses bar-code technology to compare and match passengers’ boarding and baggage data.
The check-and-compare procedure, which has been a time-consuming manual proposition until now, has been required since Pan American Airways Flight 103 was downed by a bomb on Dec. 21, 1988, over Lockerbie, Scotland.
“The beneficiaries of the system range from the baggage handlers, who can load and offload luggage in a fraction of the time it takes them to do it manually, to station managers,” said Robert Gonzalez, Lufthansa Systems sales executive. “There is also the goodwill generated when passengers feel the benefits of greater security measures and improved airline and airport performance.”