New bus on Vegas Strip

LAS VEGAS -- Move over, Deuce. There's a new bus in town.

After two years of driving tourists up and down the Las Vegas Strip for $2 each way, the regional transportation authority's double-decker Deuce bus is getting some new competition.

Vegas.com, the travel and booking Web site, launched its "Arrow," a high-tech alternative that goes door-to-door to hotel-casinos on the Strip and downtown and costs $2.50 per ride.

The buses feature touch-screen monitors that allow passengers to buy show tickets and make restaurant reservations along the way. For $10, passengers can ride the bus and Las Vegas Monorail all day.

Vegas.com chief executive Howard Lefkowitz said the service, which runs morning to midnight, is expected to carry 2,000 to 5,000 tourists a day.

In comparison, the Deuce carried about 30,500 a day last year, while the monorail took about 24,500 a day in the third quarter.

"I don't think our expectations are unrealistic," Lefkowitz said. "There's plenty of room for all of us to peacefully coexist. You know, lions and zebras living together."

The company hopes to sell ad revenue, as well as plaster the Vegas.com logo across its bus fleet. Vegas.com claims to have 2.7 million visitors to its site every month and has about 500 employees.

Check-in for flight on your cell phone

GENEVA -- Major airlines have agreed on a standard that will allow travelers to check in using a bar code sent to their cell phones, according to the International Air Transport Association, or IATA.

Passengers will register their cell phone number when buying a ticket and receive a bar code by text message.

Check-in staff will scan the bar code directly from cell phones, doing away with the need for a boarding pass. Alternatively, passengers can also received the code by e-mail and print it out. IATA said the move will help the industry phase out paper tickets by 2010 and save over $500 million annually.