COMING AND GOING

Hedging Your Bets

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DISCRIMINATION WATCH

Buses Flout Rules

"No dog , no dog," shouted the driver and another worker when District resident Joe Orozco and his guide dog tried to board a Todays Bus from Washington to New York. Orozco protested that the company is required by law to accommodate service animals, but the workers continued to block his entry and laughed, he says, when he threatened to call police. Once he called police, the workers said he could ride if the dog was put in the bottom of the bus with the luggage. They relented after police came.

When Orozco tried to board the return bus the next day, a Todays Bus employee in New York yanked his ticket away and tried to return his money, he says. The bus pulled away. After Orozco called police, workers said he could take the next bus but ordered him to sit in the back. He complied, but he is filing a complaint with the Justice Department, which enforces the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA). Todays Bus did not respond to four telephone messages left for the manager and owner.

The ADA guarantees interstate service to disabled passengers; that includes providing access, with advance notice, to people in wheelchairs. But many of the companies that pick up passengers curbside -- the so-called "Chinatown buses" -- simply ignore the law. In 2004, regulators checked 14 companies that operate between Washington and New York and cited 11 of them for violating the ADA. The Justice Department launched an investigation in October 2004. "We continue to work on it," spokeswoman Cynthia Magnuson said last week.

Gathering evidence seems quick and easy to CoGo, who recently called Todays to ask about wheelchair access. The man who answered refused to give his name, but his answer was clear: "No wheelchair."

To register a complaint, call the Justice Department, 800-514-0301.

UPRIGHT AND LOCKED

Hedging Your Bets

Given the fluctuation of airfares, who hasn't looked up a flight online and wondered: Should I buy now? If I do, I might miss a sale. If I wait, the fare might skyrocket.

Now there's a way to hesitate for up seven days, yet not lose out. Farecast.com, a Web site that launched nationally last fall, could already tell you the average lowest fares between any of 75 U.S. cities, plus predict whether current prices would hold steady, drop or increase. Now, the site is putti ng money on its predictions with a new product that is basically an insurance policy for domestic airfares.

You log on to http://www.farecast.com/ and type in a departure and arrival city. The site searches for flights and prices on all major U.S. carriers except Southwest and predicts where prices are headed.

Now the new feature: In cases where Farecast is predicting that fares between particular cities will hold steady or drop, the site will offer you the option of buying Fare Guard for $3 ($9.95 as of February). You buy it, then sit back and wait. Fare Guard will send you daily updates about prices. If you buy your ticket within seven days and the price of the lowest fare is higher than the lowest fare at the time you purchased Fare Guard, the company will refund the difference. You get that difference whether or not you choose to fly the airline that originally had the lowest price.

TRAVEL TICKER

United Airlines, joining a trend, will cancel the frequent-flier accounts of customers who haven't earned or redeemed miles for 18 months. People with inactive accounts will begin being cut off as of Dec. 31. The old rule: three years . . . What are the 10 best hostels worldwide? Find out Tuesday at http://www.hostelworld.com/, when the booking site announces this year's "Hoscar" winners. Among the criteria: character, location and "fun."

BARGAIN OF THE WEEK

Kick Back With Kiwis

Air New Zealand has sale fares from Los Angeles to Auckland of $798 round trip (plus $60 taxes). Deal is good for travel April 1-May 31; book by Feb. 28. Round-trip fare from Washington to Los Angeles is about $239 for nonstop service on American, for a total Washington to Auckland price of about $1,097. Fare ticketed directly from Washington is about $1,388 round trip, for a savings of about $291. Book at www.airnewzealand.com.

Reporting: Cindy Loose, Anne McDonough.

Help feed CoGo. Send travel news, road reports and juicy tattles to cogo@washpost.com. By mail: CoGo, Washington Post Travel Section, 1150 15th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20071.

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