Delta Air Lines and American Airlines separately reiterated plans to invest in struggling Japan Airlines. According to Reuters, Delta and SkyTeam partners are prepared to provide "a support package totaling $1 billion in investment, revenue guarantees and financing." Meanwhile, AA said its partnership with JAL "can readily obtain antitrust immunity as early as the middle of next year, which would allow JAL to realize approximately $100 million in revenue annually in future years ... in addition to the approximately $500 million in annual revenue that oneworld delivers to JAL today."

BMO Financial Group agreed to buy the Diners Club North American franchise from Citigroup, to more than double BMO's corporate card business that until recently was dominated by a purchasing card program for Canada-based companies. In addition to the right to issue both corporate and professional Diners Club cards in the United States and Canada, BMO would gain almost $1 billion in net receivables, $7.8 billion in card transactions, 6,000 North American corporate clients with nearly 250,000 cardholders, and 100,000 Diners Club Professional cardholders in Canada and the United States. BMO said the deal is subject to regulatory review but it hoped to close the transaction by March. Discover Financial Services in April 2008 announced it would acquire the Diners International brand, but Citigroup retained 13 of 44 licensee territories, including the United States, Canada, Europe and Japan.

To improve efficiencies, Marriott is reorganizing global operations into four regional divisions: the Americas, Asia-Pacific, Europe and Middle East-Africa, according to Marriott International CEO Bill Marriott. Former executive vice president of global sales and marketing Amy McPherson will lead the European division while former executive vice president for the Eastern United States Dave Grissen will head up the Americas division, according to officials. Managed separately up to this point, oversight of the Ritz-Carlton brand also will be handled within each newly defined regional division.

Twenty percent of 336 European companies expect 2010 travel budgets to increase over 2009 levels, according to American Express Business Travel. Nineteen percent expect reductions. Polled in September, survey respondents from Germany, Great Britain and the Netherlands were more likely to say they expected travel budget increases while those from Belgium and Spain were less likely, Amex said.

U.S. and European officials reported "progress" on negotiations toward a second-stage air transport deal, according to a joint statement. Meeting in Brussels for a fifth round of talks, the two sides "expressed satisfaction" on security and regulatory issues, and noted "in-depth discussions held on other elements of a second stage agreement, such as market access," according to the statement posted by the delegation of the European Commission to the United States. "Further work remains in these and other key areas such as investment and environmental constraints." The two sides aim to reach during 2010 the second phase of Open Skies, and scheduled the next round of talks for mid-January in Washington.