Tripology, a lead-generation service for agents, said last month that it had signed a letter of intent to be acquired (after a previous investor declined to fund the company), but Tripology declined to reveal the identity of its white knight.

Supposedly the "deal is done," but the company is still playing coy. On Wednesday, CEO John Peters posted a rhyming riddle on its agent blog, under the subject "A clue or two from Tripology."

Following the poem, Peters went a little further.

"Do you need a hint?" he wrote. "This company will guide you from here to there. They know the world better than most; the places, the borders, the geographies. Like Atlas, the world is on their shoulders. You’d be hard pressed to find a person in the USA that hasn’t looked to them for travel guidance."

Check out the rhyme and see if you can spot the answer to the riddle. If you can’t, follow the advice from travel tech blog Tnooz and look at each stanza vertically.

Seems that it isn’t just agents who are unhappy over an Australian travel insurance seller’s promotion, “The Travel Agent Is Dead,” which we blogged about on Friday.

Travel Guard, which is owned by Chartis, the underwriter for Sydney-based iTrek, responded to an email from Travel Weekly with this comment:

"The company that is sponsoring this promotion is an online Australian agency called iTrek that writes travel insurance business in Australia,” wrote Tom Zavadsky, Travel Guard's executive vice president. "ITrek is not a Chartis or Travel Guard company. Chartis is simply the underwriter, and has no role in the creating or executing of marketing programs for iTrek products.

"On Friday, Chartis informed the agency that the program is in poor taste and not a good fit for the Chartis brand. We have been in touch with our Australia regional team, and have requested that iTrek discontinue this promotion.

"In no way does Travel Guard endorse this marketing approach and believes this promotion is in very poor taste."

Travel Weekly had written to Travel Guard to try to clarify the relationship between Chartis and iTrek.

As of early Tuesday afternoon, iTrek was still running the promotion, which invites consumers to make 30-second videos around "The Travel Agent Is Dead" theme.

However, Chartis’ name and logo had been removed from the bottom of the promotion's web page.

A travel insurance company in Australia, iTrek, brags about its ability to sell low-cost insurance by cutting out travel agents.

Sydney-based iTrek has taken a brash step forward with its business model by running a promotion called “The Travel Agent Is Dead.” Participants are to film and submit a 30-second TV commercial with that central theme.

All entries will be judged by industry film and advertising experts, and 10 finalists will be selected, said iTrek.

"We believe that the travel agents' days are well and truly numbered," iTrek says on its website. "A large percentage of their margins are made by 'bolting on' travel insurance products to customer's flight bookings.

"Some travel agents have been known to make margins of up to 50% on travel insurance policies. The time has come for the public to see that there is an alternative. By going online and taking your travel agent out of the equation completely. This 'alternative' could save you up to 50% on the costs."

According to iTrek’s website, the company is an agent of and underwritten by Chartis, the new name of the property-casualty insurance business that was spun off from AIG last summer.

TravelGuard, a company that relies on travel agents to sell its insurance products, is under the Chartis umbrella.

If you're interested in aviation history and World War 2 intrigue, check out this video about Pan Am's Pacific Clipper, a flying boat airliner.

The Pacific Clipper was in New Zealand when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. The crew was ordered to fly to New York because flying to the West Coast or Hawaii would be too dangerous.

Because the aircraft engine's design was top secret, it couldn't fall into enemy hands "under any circumstances." And the crew had to embark on its mission with the radio off.

Enjoy this video, with its dramatic narration and music.

The American Hotel & Lodging Association’s daily briefing of news clips, the SmartBrief, recently ran a poll asking hoteliers if they think there should be government standards to ensure that negative reviews on TripAdvisor and other such websites are posted by legitimate travelers rather than competing hotels.

According to AH&LA, Germany already has such standards, so it put the question to its readers: "Do you feel such standards are necessary?"

According to the daily SmartBrief, 79.12% said, "Yes. The system makes it too easy for competitors to unfairly tarnish or destroy a hotel's reputation."

The remaining 20.88% said, "No. The system is democratic and the number of legitimate reviews will nearly always outnumber the bogus ones."

It would appear that the hoteliers have spoken. Despite the kind words they have for the social network sites, a substantial majority appear to believe that some controls are called for.

End of story? Not quite. Now we’re wondering how many hoteliers voted twice. Do you suppose we need government standards for SmartBrief polls?

-- Bill Poling