Get Northwest points on the ground

Northwest Airlines Biz Perks loyalty-rewards program for owners of small- and medium-sized businesses has signed up Dollar Rent A Car and Thrifty Car Rental as partners, offering 250 points per car rental and 1,000 bonus points after three rentals in a year. See bizperks.nwa.com.

More entertainment on American

American Airlines last week kicked off its year long renovation of Business Class cabins in its 58 Boeing 767-300 jets to add movable video and audio entertainment devices with 11-inch screens and Bose headphones. Devices play up to 14 movies, 15 hours of television programming, and 50 compact discs worth of music, plus the usual 14 American coach audio channels.

Garber to manage Obama travel

Venerable Hub travel agency Garber Travel of Chestnut Hill has been tapped to manage travel operations for Senator Barack H. Obama , the Illinois Democrat seeking his party's nomination for president. Besides last-minute schedule changes, presidential campaign travel agents also have to accommodate Secret Service protection issues and unique record-keeping and media-travel billing requirements mandated by Federal Election Commission finance rules.

Singapore, US Airways in alliance

US Airways in June plans a code-share alliance with Singapore Airlines that will enable passengers to buy single-ticket travel connecting through Los Angeles on the two airlines. Singapore, which has extensive connections to Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand, has set records for the world's longest non stop flights, running 18-hours-plus from its home nation (above) to Los Angeles and Newark Liberty International Airport.

PETER J. HOWE