The Center idea grew out of a United Nations-organized meeting Dec. 11, where more than 120 countries shared their strategies, said Pakistani Ambassador Ahmad Kamal, chair of the UN Economic and Social Council's Informatics Working Group. Y2K Revelers looking to ring in the millennium in an exotic locale, or the more traditional New Year's spots like New York City and Las Vegas, can now book airline flights. The computerized reservations systems used by major airlines and many car rental and other travel industry businesses display dates for sale only 331 days in advance. Thus, Thursday became the first day to book travel for next January 1. No major difficulties were reported yesterday related to the possible inability of com puter systems to recognize the year 2000.
Airlines seem to be taking the success in stride.
Bookings began shortly after midnight Thursday morning, with none reporting major problems. Delta's computerized reservation systems are performing precisely as planned,'' said Charlie Feld, chief infor mation officer for the Atlanta-based carrier. Like Delta, United and other airlines saw Thursday as the real test. It was a success across the board. We have a Y2K department that has been working on this issue for over a year, and the entire program is going very well.