• Adweek, Los Angeles Times, Monday, June 15, 2009 10:45 AM

Americans say they will travel more than they were saying they'd travel a few months ago, but that doesn't necessarily mean a return to the carefree, charge-now-and-worry-later mentality of the carefree days of, oh, a year or so ago. "Indeed, spending cuts are a recurrent theme of polling data on consumers' summer-travel intentions," reports Mark Dolliver, who takes a look at a couple of surveys and talks to several industry analysts.

Realizing the predicament that it's in, the industry has already responded with deep discounts, of course. "People in the travel industry read the polls, too," observes Andrea Stokes, vp of travel and leisure at research firm Synovate. But they could be setting themselves up for trouble when consumer confidence rebounds. Once you cut your prices, "it's hard to go back," suggests Woody Kay, managing partner and chief creative officer of Arnold DC.

Meanwhile, U.S. airlines have the worst food, least comfortable seats and rudest flight attendants, according to an annual survey by Seatguru.com, Peter Pae reports in the Los Angeles Times. American, United and US Airways, respondents say, serve the worst meals; the best are offered by Singapore Airlines, British Airways, Continental Airlines and Air France. One domestic carrier, JetBlue Airways, came out on top in a category. It has the most comfortable economy-class seats .

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