The Brancatelli File for 1988 WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT JOE Joe Brancatelli is a publication consultant, which means that he helps media companies start, fix and reposition newspapers, magazines and Web sites. He is also the former executive editor of Frequent Flyer magazine and has been a consultant to or columnist for more business-travel and leisure-travel publishing operations than he can remember. He began his career as a business reporter and created JoeSentMe.com in the dark days after 9/11 while stranded in a hotel room in San Francisco. He lives on the Hudson River in Cold Spring, New York. December 15: SIX RULES TO WIN THE AIRFARE GAME IN 1989 There’s good news and bad news about the air-fare outlook in 1989. The bad news: You will pay more to fly on most routes and you might pay sharply more on a few routes. The good news: On average, you won’t pay nearly as much as many pundits were predicting just a few months ago. December 1: PLASTIC PERKS AND THE WALLET WAR Credit and charge-card issuers are locked in a ferocious "share of wallet" war and that's very good news for savvy travelers. Thousands of large financial institutions are offering cards larded with perks designed to catch a traveler's fancy. November 1: SWITCHING CHANNELS Good news: Several airlines are testing individual seatback TV sets that offer passengers six channels of news, movies, sports and arts-and-entertainment programming. Bad news: They're already showing repeats of cop shows and sitcoms. Commercials might not be far behind. May 1: HOW TO AFFORD EUROPE THIS SUMMER Europe is going to be expensive this summer. That's the incontrovertible logic of foreign-exchange rates. The almighty dollar that allowed us to spend profusely and carry a large shopping bag in the summer of 1985 is treading much more softly in Europe now. Compared to the invincible greenback of three summers ago, 1988's dollar buys a third fewer British pounds, 40 percent fewer Italian lire and French francs and only half as many German marks. Copyright © 1988-2017 by Joe Brancatelli. All rights reserved.