Businesstraveller.com would like to congratulate the winners at this year's Cellars in the Sky wine awards.
For 20 years Business Traveller, the premium magazine for business travellers, has organised the annual ‘Cellars in the Sky' Awards. This year it teamed up with renowned magazine Wine International, organisers of the International Wine Challenge.
The International Wine Challenge was founded in 1984 and has developed to become the world's most comprehensive blind wine tasting. In 2003 the Challenge comprised 423 judges, including 45 Masters of Wine, tasting and re-tasting 9,438 wines from 37 different countries – figures which make it the largest blind wine tasting competition in the world.
For Cellars in the Sky, 30 airlines entered a selection of their wines, and after a two-day blind tasting organised by Wine International magazine and the International Wine Challenge, the winners of the following categories were presented with their awards at this year's World Travel Market...
The following airlines picked up awards for their business and first class wines:
Cathay Pacific and British Airways were among the airlines that recorded several wins at Business Traveller's "Cellars in the Sky" wine awards.
The annual awards, which were organised in association with Wine International magazine, are in their 20th year. They seek to recognise the best wines served by airlines in business and first class.
This year 30 airlines entered a selection of wines, which were then blind-tasted by a team of expert judges.
BA picked up winning awards for its white wine served in business class and got runner up awards for its Champagne served in business. Cathay Pacific won the best white served in first class and the best port served in business and got runner up awards for its business class white and business class red.
The airline with the best business class cellar was Cathay Pacific and the best first class cellar went to JAL. The most original business class wine list was Delta's and the most original first class wine list was won jointly by Cathay Pacific and Japan Airlines.
Business
Best White
1. British Airways
Laboure-Roi Meursault 2002 Burgundy, France
2. (Joint)
Air New Zealand
Highfield Estate Sauvignon Blanc 2003 Marlborough, New Zealand
Qantas
Grosset Riesling Rockwood Vineyard 2004 Clare Valley, Australia
Cathay Pacific
Framingham Sauvignon Blanc 2003 Marlborough, New Zealand
Best Red
1. American Airlines
Château Batailley 2000 Pauillac, Bordeaux, France
1. Korean Air
Château Giscours 1999 Bordeaux, France
2.Etihad
Possums Vineyard Shiraz 2001 McLaren Vale, Australia
3. Qantas
Saltram No 1 Barossa Shiraz 2000 Barossa Valley, Australia
Best Champagne/Sparkling
1. Malaysia Airlines
Billecart-Salmon Grand Cru Blanc de Blancs 1997 Champagne
2. (Joint)
Qantas
Dom Pérignon 1995 Champagne
JAL
Pol Roger Sir Winston Churchill 1995 Champagne
3. Lan Chile
Taittinger Comtes de Champagne Blanc de Blancs 1995 Champagne
Best Fortified or Sweet
1. JAL
Graham's 30 Year Old Tawny Port, Portugal
2. Varig
Warre's Quinta da Cavadinha Vintage Port 1986 Douro, Portugal
3. American Airlines
Graham's Malvedos 1995 Douro, Portugal(37.5cl)
Overall Awards
Best Business Class cellar
Winner - Cathay Pacific
Runners Up - American Airlines, British Airways, Icelandair
Best First Cellar
Winner - JAL
Runners Up - Etihad, Malaysia Airlines, Qantas, Lan Chile
Best Airline Alliance
1. Oneworld
2. Skyteam
3. Star Alliance
Most original first class wine list
Winner - JAL/Cathay Pacific
Shortlist - British Airways, Etihad, Qantas, Thai Airways
Most original business class wine list
Winner - Delta
Shortlist - American Airlines, Alitalia, British Airways, Finnair, Northwest Airlines, Cathay Pacific
GibSpmuh
Nov 11, 04, 5:33 pm
2. Etihad??? (who are they)
Eithad Airways - http://www.etihadairways.com/ are the National Airline of the United Arab Emirates, and are based in Abu Dhabi. They're looking to emulate that other UAE based carrier, Emirates, and are expanding at what appears to be a crazy pace - wouldn't be surprised to see them ending up in this part of the world sometime, though closest they get at the moment is Bangkok.
QF WP
Nov 11, 04, 5:33 pm
Business travellers care more about upgrades and high fares than security according to a recent survey.
In a survey that questioned 450 frequent flyers about their air travel concerns, a quarter said they would travel more often if they were offered upgrades.
Not a surprising result. What was less expected was that just 3% of respondents were concerned about onboard security, saying that improvements in aircraft security would make them travel more often.
Despite saying that security was not important, only 30% said they would be comfortable flying in the Middle East, compared to 90% who were happy to fly in Europe, 72% in the US and 76% in Asia Pacific.
Another key issue for business travellers is cost, according to the survey results – 35% said they would be tempted to fly more frequently if fares went down.
Frequent flyer programmes were a key issue for 10% of respondents, while only 6% said better schedules would get them flying more often. The views of the travellers were collected for the Corporate Air Travel Survey, which was conducted by aviation analysts, Airclaims and unveiled at this year's World Travel Market in London.
QF WP
Nov 11, 04, 5:36 pm
An x-ray machine is currently being tested by security staff at Heathrow, but if successful it will not replace hand searching.
The machine is being tested on passengers in Heathrow Terminal 4 alongside the existing metal detectors and bag scanners in the security area. It works by using a small dose of x-ray to detect objects being carried under travellers' clothes, including both metallic and non-metallic items.
Currently passengers are being invited by security staff to use the machine, and can refuse if they wish. Pregnant women and children are not being asked, despite assertions from the airport's spokespeople that it is completely safe.
The Rapiscan Secure 1000 screens the individual and a digital image of their body is immediately displayed on the security operator's computer screen showing the shape and location of objects hidden under the clothing. Various airports in the US have also tested the x-ray machine.
According to a spokesman for Heathrow airport the machine will not replace hand searching. “We won't see the end of hand searching because it is still sometimes necessary, this machine just adds another layer of security.”
The trial, a joint initiative between Heathrow and the Department for Transport, ends in January after which a review will begin to decide whether to install them across the airport.
og
Nov 11, 04, 6:30 pm
Glad to see the fine Sauvignon Blancs in there at the top of the tree. I only wish QF would add them to the list. Chardonnay is so "yesterday"....
As for Etihad, they may be unknown to us, but Airbus certainly love them since they will own a flock of A380s very soon.
Dave Noble
Nov 11, 04, 7:14 pm
"Business travellers care more about upgrades and high fares than security according to a recent survey.
In a survey that questioned 450 frequent flyers about their air travel concerns, a quarter said they would travel more often if they were offered upgrades. "
This suggests to me that this is nothing to do with business travel. Surely there is either a business need to travel or there isnt. Why would you fly more if there was no need to do so, upgrade or no upgrade
Dave
NM
Nov 11, 04, 7:28 pm
As for Etihad, they may be unknown to us, but Airbus certainly love them since they will own a flock of A380s very soon.
And they have taken two of the old QF 767-238's for use until they can get enough new aircraft.
NM
Nov 11, 04, 7:43 pm
This suggests to me that this is nothing to do with business travel. Surely there is either a business need to travel or there isnt. Why would you fly more if there was no need to do so, upgrade or no upgrade
Consider this scenario...
A business traveller wants to attend a meeting, conference, visit a customer, but can only justify the trip if paying for a discount economy fare. He thinks about the prospect of 40+ hours of travelling in economy (perhaps to London or New York) and decides that altough there would be business value in taking the trip, he will forego that value becuase he does the hours spent flying in WHY will be lost hours (no work accomplished) and he won't get maximum value from the time at the destination due to lack of sleep on the flight.
However, if he pay a discount WHY fare and travel in J, he could get some work done, get some sleep and get better value out of the trip. But he still cannot justify the business class fare.
Now, I am not suggesting the airlines should offer business class travel for discount WHY fares! If they did, we would end up with the best airlines going broke (who mentioned AA, UA, DL, US???) or the premium cabin services going the way of airlines that have liberal upgrade policies. I am all for encouraging people to pay for premium fares if they must travel in a premium cabin. In fact, on my last two long haul trips I have paid several thousand dollars of my own money for the benefits of travelling in business class for a work trip. Thanks to FT I know how to find the cheapest J deals while maximising FF status ;) .
However, that example above may explain why some people would travel more for business purposes if they were offered upgrades - perhaps not always free, perhaps with points/credits etc.
QF WP
Jan 6, 05, 5:35 pm
British Airways and Virgin Atlantic (http://www.businesstraveller.com/default.asp?Page=3&PUB=67&ISS=12304&SID=462107&LS=EMS34613) are giving premium passengers the opportunity to earn triple miles.
As I'm not sure whether non-subscribers can access that link, here's the story:
British Airways and Virgin Atlantic are giving premium passengers the opportunity to earn triple miles.
BA is offering Executive Club members the chance to triple miles earned on business and first class flights taken up to March 24. Only full fare return tickets with both directions of travel taken in the same cabin are eligible, and the deal is available for a maximum of four flights. It does not apply to travel on BA franchise carriers such as GB Airways and Bmed and travel must start and finish in the UK. Business travellers wishing to qualify for the extra miles need to register in advance. Go to www.ba.com/firsttriple.
A similar deal is being offered by Virgin Atlantic for its Flying Club members. The carrier is offering members triple miles on their first Upper Class flight taken between January 15 and March 31. The triple miles can also be earned on two separate Upper Class sectors flown by March 31. As with the BA offer, members need to register online. Go to www.virginatlantic.com.
QF WP
Jan 6, 05, 5:38 pm
2004 safest year in skies
Air travellers experienced the safest year on record in 2004 (http://www.businesstraveller.com/default.asp?Page=3&PUB=67&ISS=12304&SID=462080&LS=EMS34613).
Air travellers experienced the safest year on record in 2004. Last year saw 11 accidents involving commercial flights in which passengers were killed. This is according to industry monitor and consultancy, Airclaims, which posts the death toll from the 11 accidents at 347. The figure does not include the destruction by suicide bombers of two Russian jets after they took off from Moscow in August, resulting in the death of all 90 passengers on board.
Excluding such deliberate acts of violence, the safety of aircraft has improved dramatically since the late 1940s and 1950s when annual accidents involving fatalities averaged 40 or 50 aircraft. During the 1980s and 1990s this dropped to around 25 and in the last four years the number of fatal accidents has steadily decreased.
"This series of 'safe years' starting in 2001 is unprecedented", said director of safety at Airclaims, Paul Hayes. "There has been no other time in the 60 years since World War II where the number of fatal accidents has reduced year on year for four consecutive years", he said.
QF WP
Jan 27, 05, 5:45 pm
Club World faces upgrade
In a bid to see off competition British Airways is making its business class flat-beds more comfortable than ever. The airline is taking its inspiration from the sleeping experience 35,000 feet beneath it, and using technology employed by makers of household mattresses. The airline says the new mattresses, which are being installed across the long-haul fleet, will offer better ergonomic support.
Coupled with larger pillows and thicker blankets, passengers in Club World should be able to sleep more soundly. Improvements to the flat-beds are part of an overhaul of Club World cabins over the next six months. Seats will be covered in dark blue covers and images of Britain hung around the cabin to create a more attractive environment.
Before passengers nod off, BA says it will treat them to a top class restaurant-style dining experience, with the introduction of linen tablecloths, Royal Doulton china, more personalised service and new menus devised with the help of a council of chefs including Richard Corrigan of The Lindsay House in London and Shaun Hill from The Merchant House in Ludlow.
With better seats and higher quality food, you might ask what's left for first class... A spokeswoman for BA told businesstraveller.com there were still distinguishing factors between business and first class products. She said smaller cabins of 14 seats, bigger beds, duvets, more selective in-flight entertainment and more one-on-one service all add up to a more exclusive experience in first.
Earn your bonus
Fly across the pond in United Airlines' premium classes and you can earn two free US domestic flights with the carrier. The airline is offering members of its frequent flyer scheme, United Mileage Plus, the chance to earn over 50,000 miles when they take a qualifying premium class transatlantic flight from the UK with United or Lufthansa. Normally premium passengers would earn around 8,000 miles on a return transatlantic flight, depending on the route and class.
The offer applies to various classes of business and first class tickets, including F, A, C, D and Z for a return ticket on travel completed by April 30. During that period there is no limit to the number of qualifying trips a United or Lufthansa customer can take.
The 50,000 or more miles are added to the relevant frequent flyer account and can be spent on any award within United's scheme. For example, 50,000 miles would get a “saver” return transatlantic ticket in economy, 25,000 miles would get a “saver” return ticket in the US and Canada and 15,000 miles, an upgrade from economy to business class on one sector of a transatlantic flight.
In order to receive the bonus miles members of United Mileage Plus need to register online at 50K to USA (www.unitedairlines.co.uk/50ktousa).
Conrad counts down to Tokyo opening
Conrad's next hotel opens in Tokyo and will be home to the first Gordon Ramsay restaurant in Japan. The Conrad Tokyo, due to open in July, will have 290 rooms and is located near the exclusive Ginza district. It occupies the upper floors of the mixed-use Tokyo Shiodome building.
The Gordon Ramsay restaurant, open for lunch and dinner, will offer fine dining and more casual all-day dining. Regional specialities will be served in the hotel's Chinese and Japanese restaurants. Ramsay, the British celebrity chef with seven Michelin stars under his belt, will advise on the menu, ingredients and cooking methods and instruct the chefs. In addition to the restaurants, the hotel will have a lobby bar and lounge where afternoon tea is served, and later on cocktails with a backdrop of live music.
As well as becoming famous for its Ramsay restaurant, the hotel's wedding chapel is sure to court publicity – an ideal place to establish or renew vows, according to the website. Guests who want to work off the excesses of Ramsay's cuisine can use the hotel's fitness centre and pool, or simply relax in the spa, which offers internationally-inspired treatments include grape seed aromatherapy from California and natural bio-cosmetics from Germany.
Rooms have floor-to-ceiling windows, some with views of the Hamarikyu gardens, a former Royal residence. They also feature all the mod cons: 37-inch plasma television screens, DVD and video on demand, wired and wireless internet access and electronic safes.
Conrad is the luxury brand of the Hilton International chain. Openings planned over the next two years include properties in the US, Thailand and Dubai. Go to Conrad Hotels (www.conradhotels.com).
QF WP
Feb 7, 05, 7:27 am
Losing sleep over business travel
A new study on the effect of travel fatigue gives business travellers the ammunition they need to push bosses for upgrades on long-haul flights.The study commissioned by Gulf Air found that fatigue levels reach up to 107 following a bad night's sleep on a long-haul flight, compared to a maximum of 78 following a decent kip.
It's common knowledge that a poor night's sleep on a long-haul flight leaves the traveller under par, but the study has found that attending a meeting in this state is the equivalent of doing business while over the drink-drive limit.
"No employer would let their staff attend meetings if they were drunk. Yet the impact of a bad night's sleep on work performance can be comparable to a significant intake of alcohol." This is according to Dr Paul Jackson, managing director of Awake, a consultancy specialising in sleep patterns that undertook the study.
Factors contributing to a poor night's sleep on a long-haul flight are cited as seats, cabin noise, lighting and proximity of other passengers – factors that would be alleviated by an upgrade to business or first class. Other factors that affect flyers regardless of their class of travel were cited as cabin temperature and smoothness of the flight.
Gulf Air is using the results to demonstrate to companies why they should upgrade travellers to the airline's revamped business product. With limousine transfers, fast-tracked check-in, airport lounge access, and new seats following a £10 million investment by the airline, business travellers should arrive feeling more refreshed than those travelling at the back of the plane.
British Airways has beaten rail and air rivals to win a key industry award for innovation.
The carrier won the "Innovation Award" for its "Manage My Booking" online service, which enables customers to select a seat, request a meal, check in online, print a boarding card, manage Executive Club membership and change flight details. It can be accessed through ba.com and requires customers to register their contact details and enter a user name and password.
BA received the award from organisers of this week's Business Travel Show in London. The judges, a panel of business travel writers, put BA ahead of Lufthansa, nominated for its inflight internet access, and Eurostar, nominated for its revamped business class carriages and faster trains.
Business Travel Show director, Paul Robin said BA clinched the award for what essentially was a simple idea that made the business travellers' life easier. He added that he expected the idea to spread to other airlines, although Easyjet and Ryanair are already offering customers the chance to change their ticket online.
Other nominations included OAG for its "Flight Finder" product, and Harry Weeks Travel, which offers customers a self-service rail ticketing system.
Commenting on the award, Simon Parks-Smith, BA head of product management, told businesstraveller.com that the airline's Manage My Booking technology has already proved "very popular" with customers.
Cutting down on travel
Spending more time at home and less time travelling are characteristics of today's business traveller, according to a recent survey.
The survey, which questioned 1,500 senior level executives found that average nights spent away from home decreased from an average 4.4 per month in 2002/2003 to 4.1 the following year.
Coupled with the fact that respondents said they were travelling 31% less miles each week to an average 642, executives should be seeing more of their friends and family – it's all about improving their work/life balance, says publishers of the survey, Barclaycard.
So what is helping business travellers stay at home? According to the survey, a quarter of respondents who said they travelled less last year said it was thanks to new technology cutting the need for face-to-face meetings. Nearly a fifth attributed a decline in travel to a new job and a further fifth to improvements in their work/life balance.
Kiwi Flyer
Feb 7, 05, 11:32 am
It's common knowledge that a poor night's sleep on a long-haul flight leaves the traveller under par, but the study has found that attending a meeting in this state is the equivalent of doing business while over the drink-drive limit.
I wonder who the people studied were? If its aussies (or FTers for that matter) then they probably were over the drink drive limit! :D
QF WP
Feb 11, 05, 6:46 pm
American Airlines is reinstating transatlantic flights from two UK regional airports this summer.
Flights from Manchester to Boston and from Glasgow to Chicago will relaunch on May 2. Except for a year-round service from Manchester to Chicago and winter flights from Manchester to Miami, American operates all of its transatlantic flights out of Heathrow and Gatwick, but says it has found success with these seasonal services.
The Glasgow-Chicago route, which is in its tenth summer, will be operated daily until September 30 with fares from £396 including tax. It operates with a two-class configuration. American says about a quarter of passengers finish their journey in Chicago while the remainder fly on to other US cities.
The Manchester-Boston flight will be operated daily until October 29 and is an all-economy flight with fares from £329 including tax. Go to AA UK website (www.americanairlines.co.uk)
Marriott brand gets revamp
Courtyard is ditching in-room minibars at properties in mainland Europe.
The decision by the value-for-money brand of US hotel chain Marriott, will delight travellers who grumble about excessive hotel minibar charges.
The mini-bars are being replaced by in-room fridges which the guest can stock with items of his or her own choice.
The concept is already offered at the Amsterdam Schiphol Courtyard along with the new property located near Brussels' airport. The idea is that guests can either stock the fridge with their own drinks or snacks or buy them from a special "grab and go" shop in the lobby. The concept is expected to be extended to all new Courtyard properties planned for mainland Europe.
At the same time, Marriott is upgrading the Courtyard concept. The latest properties, which are located near airports or at business locations on the edge of town in Germany, Belgium, Holland, France and Poland, are built to higher standards.
Accommodation remains reasonably priced but guests can now expect improvements like larger rooms (30 square metres), in-room safes, air-conditioning, iron and ironing board and a quality food and beverage outlet which is open long hours.
Says a Marriott spokesperson: "These Courtyards offer four-star standards at more affordable rates. They're designed for executives who don't want to compromise on quality yet who don't need the extensive range of services offered by a traditional four or five star hotel."
The new breed of Courtyards (with the typical room rate) are located at: Hanover (Euros 130), Amsterdam Schiphol (Euros 135), Warsaw airport (Euros 110), Paris CDG airport (Euros 155) and Brussels (Euros 149, which includes free high-speed internet access until February 27).
Go to Marriott website (www.marriott.com).
QF WP
Feb 21, 05, 6:46 pm
"Bumped off" air travellers will receive compensation of up to £415 under European legislation coming into effect today.
The legislation is designed to stop airlines from deliberately overbooking flights but airlines are against the rules saying it could push up fares. From today, all airlines, including charter and low cost carriers, which deny boarding because of overbooking will have to pay out £173 on short-haul flights (under 1,500km), £277 on medium-haul flights (over 1,500km in the EU and up to 3,500km outside EU) and £415 on long-haul flights (over 3,500km). This compensation is halved if the passenger is not delayed more than two, three or four hours respectively.
The payouts are set regardless of the fare – something no-frills airlines such as Ryanair are objecting to, claiming the payout could exceed the original fare. "Compensation should be proportional to the fare paid," said Easyjet in a statement. Industry commentators are predicting a rise in fares as a result of the legislation, but few airlines are willing to state this. British Airways told businesstraveller.com its fares will be unaffected, but Easyjet has hinted at "increased costs for the passenger".
Consumer groups are welcoming the new rules. Which? Campaigner Emma Harrison accused the airlines of pulling the wool over their customers' eyes in the past. She said: "For years airlines have washed their hands of responsibility for making sure passengers get to their destinations on time, it's common knowledge that airlines over-book flights as a matter of course."
In addition to a cash payout bumped passengers will be entitled to a full refund of the ticket or alternative flight to their destination, as well as a recoup of accommodation and other subsistence costs incurred while "stranded". Airlines can still appeal to passengers to voluntarily opt for a later flight in the event of overbooking by offering incentives such as flight or duty-free vouchers or cash. The legislation goes into effect today, with leaflets distributed throughout Europe's airports, but airlines hope a legal challenge being made on their behalf by various organisations including IATA, could amend the rules.
Cancelled flights
It is not just bumped off passengers that benefit from the legislation – the same level of compensation extends to passengers on cancelled flights where the problem is deemed to be the fault of the airline and sufficient advance notice is not given to the passenger. However, this aspect of the legislation has been criticised by airlines for being "woolly" and could lead to disputes with passengers over whether the airline is at fault over the delay. In a statement Easyjet said: "...poor wording of the legislation will prove misleading in terms of what passengers will be entitled to." BA told businesstraveller.com that it was also concerned about the wording of the new policy.
Delayed flights
Better treatment of delayed passengers is another impact of the legislation. If a flight is delayed more than two hours, airlines must provide a meal, refreshments and two free phone calls. If this delay extends over five hours, passengers can demand a full refund and a return flight home if relevant.
Baggage
When a bag is damaged, lost or delayed, passengers can claim up to £816. A complaint must be made in writing within a week of return for damaged baggage and within three weeks for delayed baggage.
Claiming compensation
Knowing who to complain to isn't simple – passengers who are not satisfied that an airline has fulfilled its obligation in the event of denied boarding, flight cancellation or long delay need to contact the relevant EU authority, and to find that out they should call Europe Direct on 00 800 6789 1011.
South African Airways has stepped up to compete with the likes of BA and Virgin following the completion of lie-flat beds in Business Class.
The airline has now fitted lie-flat beds across its fleet of B747-400 aircraft, which operate between London and both Johannesburg and Cape Town.
The new beds take the seat pitch in Business from 55 inches to 78 inches, which beats BA's Club World at 73 inches and is close to Virgin Atlantic's Upper Class product at 79.2 inches. As all 14 flights per week to Johannesburg and nine to Cape Town operate overnight, the beds, which come with duvets and pillows, will offer a welcome rest to business travellers arriving for morning meetings in South Africa.
But following the product upgrade Business Class fares have risen. "Fares will rise slightly," an SAA spokeswoman told businesstraveller.com, "because we feel we can now compete with BA and Virgin with our Business Class product."
Business Class fares currently start at £2,400 return including taxes to both Johannesburg and Cape Town. Travel in Business Class includes seatback video with on-demand movies, complimentary airport transfer within a 65-mile return trip and access to departure and arrival lounges. Malaysia Airlines, British Airways and SAS are among other airlines to have recently revamped business class.
QF WP
Mar 13, 05, 6:58 pm
The construction of Heathrow's Terminal 5 has reached the half way mark - ahead of schedule and within budget.
The construction of Heathrow's Terminal 5 has reached the half way mark - ahead of schedule and within budget. The new terminal building and air traffic control tower have been raised to their full heights, giving the airport a new historic skyline.
Terminal 5 managing director Tony Douglas said: "While we are investing £4.2bn in the new terminal development, a further £3bn is also being spent over the next seven years on improving the existing airport facilities. "Two and a half years into construction and over 50 per cent complete, we have already spent £2bn and will be spending approximately £80m a month during this coming year."
The opening of Terminal 5 is scheduled for March 30 2008 and will comprise two terminal buildings, a network of over 13km of bored tunnels, a new air traffic control tower, airfield infrastructure, a 4,000-space multi-story car park and a hotel.
It will increase Heathrow's capacity to 90m passengers a year, compared to the 72m who passed through the world's busiest international airport last year.
QF WP
Mar 17, 05, 6:40 pm
The best online hotel prices aren't always where you think they are
Ask 10 business travellers a good website for booking travel and, chances are, they will give you 10 different answers. In fact, many will name several sites, splitting their bookings for short-haul and long-haul flights, accommodation and even car hire. They may have originally chosen these sites for their prices, but once they are registered and have become accustomed to the idiosyncrasies of the booking engine, they will probably stay with those sites. Yet things are changing so quickly in the travel industry - and particularly on travel websites - that there's likely to be a better deal elsewhere.
To understand why, it's a good idea to look at what travel agents are doing and why. Much has changed for them in recent years. Go back just a few years, and there were frequent predictions of their demise. How could they compete with increasing numbers of travellers using the web to book their travel? How they coped was by offering their services on the web in an easy-to-use format. In many cases, they also undercut the prices that were available directly from the hotels and airlines and, as a result, they thrived.
Yet just in the last few months, things have changed again. Airlines have cut commission payments to agents from 10–15% down to 1% or even zero. By contrast, hotels pay anything from 8% to 30% commission depending on the volume of business. As a result, website agents are now aggressively promoting hotel rooms, which have become the products with the largest mark-up.
Looking at this mark-up, it's no wonder Hubert Joly, president and CEO of global travel firm Carlson Wagonlit, describes hotel accommodation as "...a dream for a company like ours." The big travel management companies have large firms as their clients - the sort that can obtain good rates on airfares on their own.
However, the same might not be true of their accommodation requirements (although in many cases, large travel management companies make their money in the form of an annual flat-rate management fee from large companies, rather than agency commission).
"Corporations feel that hotel expenditure is the next frontier [to be conquered]" says Joly, "and frankly this is an area we've neglected. In the past, travel managers have focused on air travel. But that market has become concentrated. By contrast, the hotels are fragmented and they're profitable."
Joly believes that Carlson Wagonlit, with its huge volumes of turnover, can offer better rates than its online rivals in the majority of cases. In addition, firms that supply substantial volumes of custom may be able to get hoteliers to throw in sweeteners like executive floor upgrades, free breakfast and car parking.
If you are booking your travel individually - or you work for a smaller firm - you will lack this clout, so where are the bargains? In the past, many travellers turned to online agents like Expedia, Travelocity or Lastminute.com.
What has changed recently is the attitude of the hotel chains to these online agents. Many hotels have shaken up their booking systems to price according to market demand, rather than merely quoting unrealistically high rack or full-price rates. As a result, individual travellers can often now find comparable, or even cheaper, rates on a hotel's own website.
To give some examples, Marriott has adopted "rational" pricing on its website, while InterContinental and Hilton offer "best price" guarantees. A spokesperson for US chain Marriott said: "The only time you will find a better rate [than is available on the hotel's own website] is when it's an exclusively negotiated one [like a corporate deal] or where it's a wholesale rate [like those granted to tour operators]." Chains like Radisson SAS, InterContinental and Sofitel can offer Apex (advance purchase) rates at slack times and these can undercut what the online agents quote.
Global chains were forced to act because the online agents negotiated overly generous commission payments in the days following September 11, when hotels were desperate for business. Said a Marriott spokesperson: "The online agents wanted really low rates for rooms, which they then sold off at ridiculously high prices."
In addition, the online agents didn't make it clear which rates included taxes and which did not. They also imposed heavy cancellation and amendment fees (up to 100% for all nights booked), whereas most rooms booked directly with a major hotel can be changed or cancelled without penalty until the late afternoon on the day of arrival. Even if you were to "no show" for a stay of several nights, a hotel would only bill you for the first night, whereas the online agent would charge you for the entire stay, "so there was an integrity as well as a cost per sale issue," added the Marriott spokesperson.
Finally, at times of high demand, the online operators often showed a hotel as being fully booked, when in fact the site had merely sold its allocation of merchant hotel rooms (ie, those bought at wholesale price from the hotel, then marked up for sale on the site).
With business now looking up, hotels are increasingly calling time on these deals. InterContinental recently went as far as to sever its ties with online agent Expedia. According to an InterContinental spokesperson: "We will only work with partners who do not engage in confusing and potentially unclear marketing practices." As a result, Travelocity became the hotel group's "official third-party distributor".
The hotel chains don't want to turn their backs on the online agents completely. They find that they reach a different sector of the business and leisure market - that is, those of us who have grown used to using the sites. But now with business travel returning to pre-September 11 levels, the boot is on the other foot. Christian Ruge, business development manager of the Accor group's new first class Sofitel Bayerpost in Munich, said: "Major hotels were paying a lot of commission to online agents in the past. But we've had a good couple of years so now they have to deal on our terms. If they don't like it, then it's goodbye."
The lesson for those of us using the web to book our accommodation is to shop around, and to make sure that whichever hotel we choose to stay at, we check the price on that hotel's website before we start typing in credit card details. With "best rate" guarantees becoming more common, it can be a complex search to find a real bargain, but at least you can be assured you found the lowest price available.
QF WP
Mar 24, 05, 7:50 pm
Trains to get an overhaul
GNER is upgrading its trains and installing wireless internet across the fleet following a successful bid on the London-Scotland service. The train operator, which has run the service since 1996, beat Virgin Trains to win the contract for the next ten years.
Among the pledges to passengers made by GNER as part of its bid is the installation of wireless internet on all trains by May 2007. GNER says it also plans to make trains more reliable, more comfortable and more punctual.
GNER is a targetting 90% punctuality by 2010 and says £25 million will be spent on upgrading the interior of GNER's high-speed diesel trains to the level of comfort offered by its fleet of electric "Mallard" trains.
Extra services are also planned, with 13 more services on the London-Leeds route by December, GNER's most popular route. But the improvements come at a cost. Industry observers says the £1.3 billion outlay, pledged by GNER to be given to the government over the next ten years, will be compensated for by an increase in fares, already topping £100 on some standard class tickets.
GNER is denying "massive fare increases" but says fares will rise over the coming years with inflation.
Schedule boost for BA
British Airways is boosting flights to Eastern Europe as part of its 2005 summer timetable, and dropping some services to Frankfurt and Amsterdam.
Romania's capital, Bucharest and the Bulgarian capital, Sofia will be served three times a week from May 1 and June 1 respectively. These Gatwick flights will start from around £150 return including taxes.
Other new services from March 27 include daily flights from Bristol to Milan with franchise carrier, BA CitiExpress, which will also launch Bristol to Zurich six times a week. Fares start at £99 return including taxes on both routes.
Also on the summer timetable are flights planned from London Heathrow to Shanghai, which BA will launch subject to regulatory approval, on March 27.
European flights will be boosted to an average 631 British Airways flights a day for the summer, in addition to 372 daily UK and Ireland flights, but some services are being scrapped for the summer. Flights from Gatwick to Frankfurt and Genoa will be suspended over the summer, as will flights from Manchester to Amsterdam and Bologna. Go to BA website (www.ba.com).
New FFP to launch
Air France and KLM are merging frequent flyer programmes. Under the arrangement Air France's "Fréquence Plus" and KLM's "Flying Dutchman" will be replaced by a single programme called "Flying Blue" from June.
Members of the two frequent flyer programmes will be automatically signed up to Flying Blue and over the coming months they will be informed about the changes by letter.
Members will retain their membership number and miles, with Flying Blue miles being equal in value to the Fréquence Plus and Flying Dutchman miles. Flying Blue will have four membership levels – Ivory, Silver, Gold and Platinum. The scheme has 36 airline partners and 100 non-airline partners with which to redeem and spend rewards.
The merger of the frequent flyer programmes follows the merger of KLM and Air France in May 2004.
SAS to go flat
Flat beds and video on demand will be enjoyed by SAS Business Class passengers from next year.
The Scandinavian carrier is introducing flatbeds in Business Class on flights to Asia and the US from Manchester, Birmingham, Aberdeen and Newcastle, which operate via the SAS hub in Copenhagen. The beds will be fitted from early next year following the removal of 14 seats from the original A340 Business Class cabin to make room for 60 flatbed seats. The smaller A330 aircraft will have 34 flatbed seats.
With a 61-inch seat pitch, 66cm width and recline of 11 degrees, the seats should be more comfortable than the current Business Class offering, which bar the front row of "sleeper seats" are reclining seats.
With the beds comes improved entertainment for Business Class passengers from video on demand, available through a larger 10.4 inch monitor. Go to SAS website (www.scandinavian.net)
Businesstraveller.com brings you the best deals for flights, hotels, car hire and packages. Like this one:
Price excludes airport taxes and booking fee. Book online at Business Traveller website (www.businesstraveller.com).
QF WP
Apr 8, 05, 12:25 am
Rome's Airport Closing for Pope's Funeral
Rome's Ciampino Airport will be closed until midnight on Friday April 8, the day of the Pope's funeral, with normal services resuming after that time. Ciampino will be shut to accommodate the aircraft of dignitaries attending the funeral and a five mile no-fly zone over the city.
It is believed that 10,000 British travellers will be affected by the move as the airport is heavily used by low-cost airlines Ryanair and Easyjet. British Airways flies to Fiumicino and its flights will not be affected.
Ryanair has re-directed all its flights to Pescara, 130 miles away, or to Rome's Fiumicino airport, 20 miles away. Those travelling to Pescara will have to take a three-hour coach journey to Rome costing £12 a ticket. Four flights from the UK which arrive just after midnight are still being operated. Ryanair is offering a full refund or a transfer to the next available flight to any passengers affected.
EasyJet, which flies to Rome from Gatwick, Nottingham, Bristol and Newcastle, has increased flights to Bologna, a four-hour train journey from Rome. An Easyjet spokesman said that passengers not wishing to fly to Bologna will be able to obtain a refund or transfer their tickets to flights leaving within the next 30 days.
Travel expenses causes trouble inthe workplace
Arguments over expenses are damaging staff morale and hitting cash flow for UK companies, according to a survey by Barclaycard Business. The research found that nearly one in 10 employees have argued with their company over expenses claims, potentially causing staff dissatisfaction or productivity problems.
Almost half of employees take up to a month to claim back their expenses and 20% said they do not always get round to claiming them back. The survey also found that 41% of employers themselves take up to a month to reimburse their staff.
On average, the highest value receipt lost by workers last year was £128, but 63% of employees are able to reclaim their expenses without having to provide a receipt.
Tim Carlier, head of card issuing at Barclaycard Business, said: "The fact that nearly one in 10 respondents to our survey reported having a dispute with their employer over expenses illustrates that, if not properly managed, the expense claims system can cause friction in the workplace."
The survey was conducted in October 2004 amongst 1,200 CEOs, company directors, managers and executives who are Barclaycard Business commercial card holders. For a full report on the issues surrounding travel expenses, see the May issue of Business Traveller magazine.
False promises for on-line hotel deals
Hotels are failing to honour price guarantees advertised on their websites, says a new survey by professional services firm KPMG. The research, conducted across 330 hotels in 16 countries, found that although 43% of hotels guaranteed that their best rates are to be found on their websites, this was only true in 27% of the cases.
UK hotels performed worse with only 19% of hotels surveyed offering true price guarantees. Nick Pattie, director of KPMG's hotel practice which conducted the research, said: "These survey findings are surprising considering the amount of effort being made by hoteliers to direct customers to their own booking channels. Hotels want their customers to book direct but in practice hoteliers aren't delivering consistent prices and customers will continue to use other booking methods which offer more attractive room rates."
Special Story: London's Grandest Hotels
Are London's famous names resting on their laurels or are they still at the cutting edge? Business Traveller tests their claims to greatness.
Nowadays, we think of London's grand hotels as traditional places, where guests have been visiting for years, and change is resisted rather than welcomed. Yet for much of their history, the opposite was true. Both The Savoy and the Ritz were the designer hotels of their time, with modern technology, unheard of creature comforts and a level of service – whisper it – that often had been imported from the Continent.
Today, it's fair to say you don't stay in one of these hotels if you are working your way up the greasy corporate pole – they're the preserve of those who've arrived and don't mind others knowing it. Concerns about expenses aren't an issue, though if asked, chief executives and chairmen will point out that the convenience of hotel suites and high-quality restaurants for confidential chats represent excellent value for money.
Yet while these well-known names are brands with cachet, they do bring challenges. How does the hotel change without losing what made it special, cherished even? It can't alienate the guests who have been coming for years, but needs to attract a new generation of high-spending visitors , and what is stylish to one person is flashy to another. It's a tough balancing act: rely on history, or construct a new hotel behind a well-known name. Each one of the hotels below has arrived at a different answer.
The Waldorf Hilton
Of all the hotels here, the Waldorf has most radically reinvented itself, having just completed a $56 million renovation and changed from Le Meridien Waldorf to The Waldorf Hilton. The exterior is unchanged: traditional early-20th century London architecture and a prime position between Fleet Street and the Strand. Most of central London is within easy reach and Covent Garden and Soho are an easy stroll away.
Inside, it's a very different story. The reception desk is illuminated yellow glass, the walls are minimalist white, and the main accent colour comes from the bright red leather wing chairs designed by Danish architect and designer Arne Jacobson.
Aldwych is on a slight slope so there are several flights of stairs, including one to reception and to the restaurant (Homage) and bar, but there are new disabled-access elevators for wheelchairs at the side of each. In the bar, wine by the glass is reasonably priced at £5-£9.50. On the other hand, you could always try a bottle of Cristal at £195. The design mixes a traditional parquet floor with mirrored rectangular columns and a stamped pewter effect behind the bar.
Homage Grand Salon is good value, with a no-nonsense approach to its menu: starters cost £5-£12 (the Scottish langoustine salad, baby artichokes and asparagus was delicious) while main courses are around £14. I had grilled calves' liver, cracked black pepper jus and braised cos lettuce. Scalloped ionic columns reach to an extremely high ceiling, a glass-fronted wine cellar is tucked into one of the archways off the main room, and there's a tinted glass central bar used for service at night and the breakfast buffet in the morning.
The 299 rooms come in all shapes and sizes (the first and eighth-floor rooms have higher ceilings). There are good views over Aldwych and the other three surrounding streets, but rooms have differing levels of noise depending on whether they are closest to Aldwych (constant) or the side roads, which are used through the night, but less heavily. The quietest are the internal rooms with no view, and for long stays or light sleepers, these are the best value. Rooms are divided into contemporary and design and both are modern in feel, with strange clothes horses in the corner shaped like robotic women, wall-mounted plasma-screen TVs, tea and coffee facilities, powerful showers, no-fog mirrors (which are a joy when you're in a rush in the morning), a trouser press and a laptop charger integrated in the safe (why doesn't everyone do this?). There's a small, but well-appointed business centre below reception, and guests can use a privately run LA Fitness leisure club two floors below, with a small swimming pool. The club staff are excellent. In April 2005, an executive lounge will be completed.
Verdict: Excellent. A famous name, freed from tradition by frequent changes of ownership, has reinvented itself for the 21st century.
Prices: Queen Hilton rooms from £179 ($337).
contact: The Waldorf Hilton, Aldwych, London WC2B 4DD, tel 020 7836 2400, www.hilton.co.uk/waldorf.
Tom Otley
Claridge's
Part of the Savoy Group (now renamed the Maybourne Hotel Group) along with The Berkeley and The Connaught, Claridge's has the feel of a one-off. Built by Richard D'Oyly Carte, also responsible for The Savoy, it had a similar level of technology and comfort, yet combined this with the old tradition of the hotels that had previously occupied the site, by offering apartments for long-term residents.
A glance over Claridge's guest register reads like a Who's Who of the 20th century. Winston Churchill, Queen Elizabeth II and Jackie Onassis have all stayed here and are immortalised by photos adorning the lobby.
Photographs aren't the only reminder of its history. Although the hotel was renovated in 1999 by New York designer Thierry Despont, the lobby stays true to the 1930s. Topped by a vast glass chandelier made of 300 hand-blown glass pieces, it's a little gaudy to the modern eye, but a temple to Art Deco nevertheless, right down to the signature green and white china that carries petit fours for the afternoon tea brigade.
Art Deco continues through some of the 203 guest rooms, while others take their inspiration from the Louis XVI era. All rooms are spacious and feature a large desk and classy stationery that might tempt even technology-savvy guests to ditch email and put pen to paper. If you need to stay connected, there are European and US dataports, and internet access is available through the TV for £17.50 per day.
But what really sets Claridge's apart is the service. The tail-coated doormen and suited waiters are helpful as well as immaculately turned out. In the restaurant it can be hard to tell the waiters from the customers. Dining here is expensive if you opt for Gordon Ramsay at Claridge's – £150 for two with wine and service – and the chef's celebrity status and rave reviews mean it is tough to get a table.
The Reading Room restaurant is a close second for cuisine (and easier on the wallet). Sitting in lounge chairs to eat is an unusual dining experience, but that could be what makes it popular with a greying crowd. The £37.75 set menu offers a choice of three French dishes per course, such as cumin-scented cream of butternut squash soup to start and roast loin of venison with spiced crust, celeriac mousseline and juniper jus to follow. This is more reasonable than breakfast, which can reach three figures if you order for two off the à la carte menu.
If further indulgence is on the cards, the hotel is in a superb spot for shopping. Nearby New Bond Street is home to shops such as Chanel and Gucci, while Oxford Street offers Selfridges. If the hotel bill has broken the bank, there are 24 channels of in-room entertainment. For £30 guests can access 15 movies and 15 music channels on a system that is refreshingly simple to navigate (this also includes internet access through the TV). Expect more renovation: there are plans in the pipeline for the addition of some 25 rooms and a new luxury spa.
Verdict: After wisely restoring its Art Deco styling, Claridge's is a perfect blend of old and new.
Price: Superior queen rooms from £214.
Contact: Claridge's, Brook Street, Mayfair, London W1A 2JQ, tel 020 7629 8860, www.savoy-group.com
Ginny McGrath
Savoy, a Fairmont hotel
The Savoy has made lots of headlines in recent years, mainly because of its changing ownership. Previously part of The Savoy Group, it has now been bought in a joint venture between His Royal Highness Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and Bank of Scotland Corporate, part of HBOS plc, with Fairmont Hotels and Resorts in charge of management.
A $48 million refurbishment is promised, updating the Thames Foyer area and the restaurant overlooking the river but retaining the history, including the Savoy Theatre next door, which was the original reason for the hotel's creation.
From the minute the doorman sweeps you in through the front doors, there's no mistaking The Savoy for anything other than a luxury hotel. Staff fall over themselves to ensure you receive VIP treatment, regardless of your room category. The turndown service is meticulous, there is silver service at breakfast, and staff remember your name.
Some refurbishment took place under the previous owners, but more work is needed as some of the rooms look a little tired. The best are those with a view of the Thames and the London Eye, Houses of Parliament and Big Ben. My River room was huge and set off by a working fireplace. The modern bathroom was kitted out with an oversized shower head, fluffy towels and expensive toiletries but my favourite feature was the mirrored ceiling which, in such a traditional hotel, is a decadent and slightly racy touch.
Business travellers are well catered for with plenty of power points and a broadband modem to plug into, as well as internet access via the TV, at £17 per day. There is also a mobile phone loan system, which allows guests to rent a phone, free of charge. Insurance (£1.50 per day) and call charges are debited from your credit card. This is useful if you are visiting from overseas as there are no charges for incoming calls.
Aside from the refurbishments, there are already two outstanding dining options. Banquette is Marcus Wareing's take on an American diner, with a theme representing a 1950s Corvette Stingray and decorated in red, ivory, brown and stainless steel with streamlined banquettes that stretch the entire length of the restaurant. Unlike at The Savoy Grill, both the atmosphere and menu are informal with guests in jeans and sneakers ordering burgers, chips and bottles of beer. But this is not your average fast food joint. Josh Emett, head chef at the Savoy Grill, leads the kitchen while Elias Lallouris, formerly of Claridge's bar, ensures guests are happy and relaxed – a key part of the Banquette experience. Thanks to its position over the main entrance, entertainment is provided by the non-stop comings and goings of guests.
For drinks there's the Laurent-Perrier champagne bar, open until 1.30am.
Verdict: Prices might soon go up when the refurbishment takes hold, but the cachet that goes with "you can reach me at The Savoy" is priceless.
Price: Fairmont queen rooms from £209.
Contact: Savoy, a Fairmont Hotel, Strand, London WC2R 0EU.
Tel 020 7836 4343, www.savoy-group.com.
Lauren Custance
The Ritz
Preparing for its 100th anniversary next year, the Ritz was conceived by renowned hotelier César Ritz to be state of the art: bathrooms in every guest room, double glazing, a sophisticated ventilation system and brass, rather than wooden, beds. One of the first steel-framed buildings in London, the French chateau-style Ritz is probably architecturally the greatest of London's
grand hotels, standing proud on Piccadilly with its perfect symmetry emphasized by large copper lions at each corner of the roof.
The Ritz has been owned since 1995 by the fiercely private Barclay brothers, who have spent $75 million on refurbishing the Grade II Star listed building, so to visit now is to see it at its best. The ground floor has a Louis XVI theme, with the vaulted Long Gallery running the length of the building, linking a series of elegant public rooms and drawing the eye to the far windows of the restaurant overlooking the hotel's Italian Garden and Green Park. Off the Long Gallery, Palm Court is the place for tea and you must book weeks in advance.
The Ritz doesn't hide from view and, as such, is firmly on the tourist trail. To keep the tourists at bay, discreet uniformed attendants mill around the lobby, and there's a formal dress code in both the fabulously ornate Ritz Restaurant and Palm Court (jacket and tie), and the Rivoli Bar (jacket). Shorts, jeans and trainers are not allowed.
There are several room grades: superior single, superior king, deluxe king, junior suite and deluxe suite. All are in the distinctive Ritz colour schemes of blue, peach, pink and yellow and furnished with rich fabrics, 24-carat gold leaf and restored antique furniture in keeping with the original Louis XVI style. In fact, so fine are these rooms that you tend to keep a tie on even while relaxing. A ratio of two staff to every guest room means there's never a delay for room service, though it is unobtrusive and co-ordinated with a brilliance that comes with a great attitude and excellent training. In fact, without exception, every member of staff left the impression that in a few years they might be management themselves.
Who stays? Well, anyone who can afford it, on business, pleasure, or simply because they haven't got around to buying a place to live in London just yet. The night we visited, there were mummy, daddy and child-sized cowboy boots left outside the door of the next room for overnight polishing.
For dinner we pushed out the boat and, among other dishes, had crepes suzette cooked on a trolley by the side of our table, then a night cap before bed – though the price of hot water with a lemon infusion (£5.25; $9.90) was a reminder that the Ritz will always be a treat.
Verdict: The grandest of the lot. Perfect for special occasions or when you want to impress.
Price: Superior king rooms from £370.
Contact: The Ritz Hotel, 150 Piccadilly, London, W1J 9BR, tel 020 7493 8181, www.theritzlondon.com.
Tom Otley
The Dorchester
Regal enough to host Prince Philip's stag party on the night of his marriage to Queen Elizabeth II, and refined enough for General Eisenhower to plan the Normandy invasion from his office suite, the Dorchester is a hotel you have to look very closely at to find fault. Built in 1931, the property completed a multi-million dollar renovation in May 2003, revitalizing the faded grandeur of its public spaces and moving the Dorchester at full speed ahead into the 21st century.
On entering the hotel, I arrived at The Promenade, a lobby that runs the length of the ground floor, where guests sip tea and listen to live piano music. The Promenade's gilded marble columns, sparkling chandeliers and abundant floral arrangements exude affluence, but manage not to feel too overdone.
In the guest rooms, hand-woven carpets and antique furniture create the cozy feel of an English country house, while tucked discreetly behind an armoire sits a near-perfect entertainment and business centre. Through the TV, with an infrared wireless keyboard, guests can use the internet and e-mail; Microsoft Office programmes Word, PowerPoint and Excel; 60 on-demand videos, 5,000 music tracks and various news and entertainment channels. The console also contains a colour printer, fax machine, DVD/CD player, and modems for UK and US plugs.
If you have any technical questions, a team of E-butlers can come to your rescue. Of course, this hi-tech wonderland comes at a fee: £15 for 24 hours of internet, £5 for music and £12.50 per movie. It may be a bit pricey, but it's well worth the convenience of getting work done from the comfort of your four-poster bed.
There is no shortage of dining options. For impeccable service and well-presented food, try The Grill Room, which serves traditional British fare, though the menu is extensive enough to satisfy all tastes – expect to pay £75 per head. If that doesn't excite you, the other option is the Dorchester Bar, which serves Italian food.
A more unusual dining experience is offered in the Krug Room, a subterranean restaurant located in the master kitchens. With the flick of a switch, the opaque glass becomes clear and reveals 12 red leather chairs around a glass table. A far cry from the ornate decor of The Grill Room, the clandestine Krug Room is another testament to the Dorchester's discreet approach to hi-tech amenities, which have been carefully placed around the room so as not to interfere with the property's Old World elegance that has attracted well-heeled guests for over 70 years.
Verdict: Hi-tech blends with elegance, allowing guests to stay in style without sacrificing business essentials.
Price: Superior doubles from £375 including tax and service charge.
Contact: The Dorchester, Park Lane, London WIA 2HJ, tel 020 7629 8888, www.dorchesterhotel.com.
Mary Beth Hubbard
QF WP
Apr 14, 05, 6:56 pm
Skyteam boosts RTW offering
The Skyteam alliance has increased the attractiveness of its Round the World (RTW) and Europe Pass tickets following the inclusion of three more carriers.
Current members of Skyteam that participate in the RTW offering include Air France, Korean Air and Delta. Now they've been joined by Northwest, KLM and Continental, adding 141 destinations in the US, Canada, Latin America, the Caribbean and Africa to the 658 destinations previously available to RTW passengers.
The RTW tickets allow customers to opt for one of four packages that includes between three and 15 stops for a trip ranging from 10 days to one year. They cost from E2000, for the package starting in Amsterdam. Rules governing the RTW ticket mean travellers must start and finish in the same country, cross both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans and can backtrack
only within the same continent.
The Europe Pass is for alliance passengers who do not reside in Europe, have made a transatlantic or transpacific flight and want to buy three or more single tickets around Europe at a reduced rate. Airlines offering these European routes are Air France, Alitalia, CSA Czech Airlines and now KLM.
Passengers travelling on either the RTW or Europe Pass tickets can earn and redeem frequent flyer points with all Skyteam airlines. The alliance is expected to make additions to its America Pass ticket later this year following the inclusion of Northwest, KLM and Continental.
Skyteam's alliance rivals, One World and Star Alliance, also offer RTW ticket options utilising the network strengths of their member airlines. Go to Skyteam UK website (www.skyteam.co.uk)
Icelandair eyes San Francisco
An airline launching flights between the UK and San Francisco hopes to lure economy class passengers further up the plane with its competitive business class fares.
Icelandair will operate flights from Heathrow and Glasgow via Reykjavik to San Francisco from May 18 until October 15. It is offering business class fares from around £1,000, which compare to usual business class fares upwards of £2,000 for an indirect flight and £5,000 for a direct flight between the UK and San Francisco, although airline sales can bring direct fares down to £2,000.
The only drawback of the Icelandair flights is that flights are not operated daily – it will operate twice a week during May and September, rising to four times a week during the peak months of June, July and August.
The flight will be operated by a wide-bodied Boeing 767 with 230 seats in economy and 30 in business class. It will leave Heathrow at 1pm on Wednesdays and Saturdays (plus Monday and Thursday during peak season) and arrive in San Francisco at 6.35pm. The return flight leaves at 11.35pm and arrives in London at 8.10pm the following day.
Icelandair also operates flights from the UK via Reykjavik to Boston, New York, Washington Baltimore, Minneapolis St Paul and Orlando. In anticipation of increased traffic to the US the carrier has upgraded its business class Lounge. The extended lounge has room for 130 passengers and offers free wireless internet access, workstations and computers with free internet access and meeting facilities for up to 10.
For passengers not wishing to work, there's a relaxation area offering soothing music, all decked out in a modern Scandinavian design with plenty of wood, leather and a homely fireplace. Go to Icelandair UK web site (www.icelandair.co.uk)
India flights on the up
Flights between the UK and India are set to increase again next year, with Mumbai the focus of expansion plans.
Following an agreement between the British and Indian governments, 21 more flights will be allocated from winter next year. The flights are likely to be distributed between British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and Bmi, all of which have announced their desire to boost frequency to Mumbai.
British Airways wants to take its Delhi and Mumbai flights from daily to double daily, while Bmi has announced an intention to serve Mumbai daily, up from four flights a week. Virgin Atlantic also wants a daily service to Mumbai by the end of the year from three per week.
All three carriers have also expressed interest in other Indian destinations, which under the new agreement between the UK and Indian authorities could include destinations such as Amritsar, Hyderabad and Cochin.
An earlier agreement between the UK and India enabled the launch of 21 more flights per week over the course of 2005. The 21 extra services were allocated between BA, Virgin Atlantic and Bmi. Previously the only UK airline to fly to India was British Airways with 19 flights per week.
The first flights to launch were daily services to Delhi with Virgin Atlantic in time for winter 2004. At the end of March Bmi launched four flights per week to Mumbai, competing head-to-head with three flights per week from Virgin Atlantic to the city and a daily service from BA. Finally for the winter 2005 schedule launching at the end of October will be four flights per week to Chennai and three per week to Bangalore with British Airways. Go to BA website (www.ba.com), Bmi website (www.flybmi.com) and Virgin Atlantic website (www.virgin-atlantic.com)
Inflight meals go gourmet
An inflight meal of smoked salmon or lobster, once the staple of business and first class passengers, is now available to all passengers to pick up before boarding.
The take-away meals are on sale at Caviar House Seafood Bars, the luxurious enclaves serving champagne and seafood that have become a well-known fixture in London's Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted airports.
Passengers can select their meal from the range of seafood on offer. Prices start at £11.50 for a smoked salmon platter and rise to £30 for a lobster salad. Meals come with bread and butter, napkins and cutlery.
The take-away boxes are the same size as regular airline meal trays and come in a cool bag, keeping the contents chilled for up to five hours. Go to Caviar House web site (www.caviar-house.com)
Aisle Seat H
Apr 21, 05, 12:48 pm
As QF WP is still poorly, I'll post these for him ! Get well mate !
Oneworld goes paperless
21 April 2005
The Oneworld airline alliance has beaten rivals Star Alliance to enable e-ticketing across all member airlines.
The announcement by Oneworld means passengers travelling on any of the alliance's eight member airlines will have one electronic ticket covering an entire trip, regardless of how many transfers made between airlines.
Aer Lingus and LAN were the last two airlines to implement e-ticketing this month, nearly three years after the first Oneworld airline pair enabled interline e-ticketing in May 2002.
Star Alliance will have completed interline e-ticketing across its members by August, with the exception of TAP Air Portugal, which recently joined Star and will be integrated by the end of the year according to Star Alliance director media relations, Markus Ruediger.
Now any combination of the eight airlines - American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Qantas, Iberia, Finnair, Aer Lingus and LAN - can be covered by an e-ticket. The only exception is where bookings are made to one of a small number of airports that cannot handle e-tickets – in these cases a paper ticket would be issued.
The Oneworld network encompasses 600 destinations in 135 countries.
The advantages to having an e-ticket rather than a paper ticket is that there is no possibility of a ticket being lost or stolen, plus passengers can use self-service check-in machines where available. According to Oneworld e-tickets also make check-in quicker and smoother by removing the administration associated with paper tickets, but the main advantage is to airlines in terms of cost savings.
Oneworld estimates that interline e-ticketing will save the eight airline members a total $65 million a year.
Aisle Seat H
Apr 21, 05, 12:49 pm
Lufthansa rolls out new business seats
21 April 2005
Availability of Lufthansa's new long-haul business class seats has been extended to the carrier's prime destinations out of Frankfurt and Munich.
The new seats offer more sideways space (56 cms as against 50 cms) and more legroom (152cms compared with 122cms). Although not fully lie-flat, such as the business class seats offered by British Airways and Virgin Atlantic, Lufthansa's new seats recline almost to the horizontal whereas its older seats had a 135 degree recline.
Destinations now covered from Frankfurt include: Dallas, New York JFK, Los Angeles (from May 1), Washington Dulles in the US, Tel Aviv, Abu Dhabi, Cairo and Muscat in the Middle East along with Hong Kong, Singapore, Osaka, Seoul and Tokyo in Asia.
From Munich the available destinations include: Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York JFK, San Francisco, Washington Dulles (from May 2) in the US along with Delhi, Beijing, Shanghai, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur in Asia.
Readers should bear in mind that one daily flight on each route features the new seating. Where the routing is served by several flights a day, it's essential to check with Lufthansa or your travel agent to determine the relevant service. The airline stresses that last minute plane substitutions may affect new seat availability.
Lufthansa says that the new seating will installed throughout its long-haul fleet by 2007. Go to www.lufthansa.com
Aisle Seat H
Apr 21, 05, 12:51 pm
Starwood launches meetings concierge
21 April 2005
Starwood Hotels and Resorts has boosted its meetings and conference offering by launching a concierge service.
A Starmeeting Concierge is assigned to each meeting to welcome delegates, explain use of the facilities and deal with queries relating to audio-visual equipment.
The service is offered free of charge to meeting planners, who are handed a business card featuring a photo of their concierge so they can recognise them easily.
The Starmeeting Concierge service has been implemented across the US and is being rolled out across Starwood hotels in Europe, Africa and the Middle East at the moment. So far it is available at Sheraton Heathrow, Sheraton Skyline, Park Lane, Sheraton Belgravia, and Sheraton Park Tower in London, and in Scotland in Westin Turnberry Resort and Sheraton Grand Hotel and Spa.
The introduction of the service follows customer research and testing in Starwood's Heathrow, Frankfurt and Madrid properties. According to the hotel chain, during the test phase 95% of delegates rated their concierge's responsiveness as "excellent". Go to www.starwood.com.
Aisle Seat H
Apr 21, 05, 12:52 pm
Emirates plugs South Korea route
21 April 2005
Emirates is offering free hotel nights to lure premium passengers on to its Seoul flights.
The carrier launches flights from Dubai to Seoul on May 1, with a connection time of less than three hours from Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester, Birmingham and Glasgow.
In a bid to get bums on premium class seats, Emirates is offering three hotel nights in Seoul to first class passengers and two nights to business class passengers.
The hotel nights, which include breakfast, are in a Deluxe Room at the Ritz Carlton Seoul, which is close to the World Trade Center, home to the Olympic Stadium, shops, and restaurants. The hotel has a fitness centre, indoor swimming pool, driving range, six restaurants, a pub and disco, bar and lounge.
Emirates flights will operate daily to Seoul with a connection of less than three hours in Dubai for customers departing the UK.
The total travel time between the UK and South Korea is 18 hours outbound and 20 hours return. Weekday return fares start at £709 in economy, £1,872 in Business Class and £2,672 in First Class (fares include taxes and charges). Go to www.emirates.com/uk.
QF WP
Apr 21, 05, 6:53 pm
Gheesh!! :rolleyes: I'm sick for two days and he steals my thunder just as I come to post them. You have my blessing to post them if I don't get in first !!!
Good to see somebody else gets BT Asis, Aisle Seat H.
But you forgot one....thankfully ;)
Securing an emergency exit
Securing an emergency exit seat has long been an exercise in brute force, charm or deception, but now you can get the extra legroom that goes with it simply by spending a few pounds.
The latest airline to allow passengers to reserve a seat with extra legroom is Bmibaby, which is undercutting rivals by £5 by offering the service for £10.
Passengers travelling with Bmibaby can reserve the extra legroom seats online on a first-come-first-served basis. The £10 charge is per flight, per passenger, and with only 8 emergency exit seats on the carrier's Airbus 300 aircraft and 12 on Airbus 500 aircraft, you need to be quick.
The extra legroom seats can only be reserved by able-bodied passengers over the age of 16. Remaining Bmibaby passengers can reserve a standard seat online for £2.50, and reserve one at check-in for free. Go to bmibaby website (www.bmibaby.com)
Other carriers offering extra legroom seats for a fee are Monarch Scheduled and Thomsonfly, which charge £15 per flight to reserve the seats online. Both also charge £5 to book standard seats online. Go to www.thomsonfly.com or www.flymonarch.com.
Virgin Atlantic offers extra legroom seats for £50 per passenger, but this can only be done at airport check-in.
Aisle Seat H
Apr 21, 05, 7:17 pm
But you forgot one....thankfully ;) I would not say 'forgot' - was more 'selective editing' as did not want to lower the tone of this esteemed Forum with 'news' from 'airlines' that charge to get a bulhead seat, or any reserved seat for that matter ! :) (And this comes from a BMI Gold FF !) Didn't wanna ruin anyone's lunch ! ;)
Aisle Seat H
Apr 28, 05, 5:36 pm
Latest offerings. And I beat QF WP to it again... boy, he ain't gonna be happy ! ;)
Little of interest this time I suspect, who knows :-
Free food is back on Swiss
28 April 2005
Swiss is re-introducing free food for economy class passengers on flights over one hour.
The carrier has taken a u-turn on the decision it made in summer 2003 to start charging economy class passengers for in-flight snacks.
The free food and drink will be introduced from May 25 and will include hot or cold snacks depending on the time of day and length of flight. Passengers on flights of less than half an hour will receive only chocolate, while those flying up to 45 minutes will receive water and chocolate.
Flights over one hour, which include all flights between the UK and Switzerland, will receive more substantial snacks such as breakfast pastries, a selection of sandwiches and Calzone, a folded pizza.
Alexander Arafa, head of product and project leader, said: "In addition to these warm snacks, the in-flight food service will include such items as yoghurt, chocolate, sandwiches, ice cream and biscuits, depending on the time of day and length of the flight."
Passengers will also be served wine free of charge.
Swiss food and beverage supplier, Nestlé, will provide some of the food and drink, and Dutch-based Supplair will provide the rest.
According to Swiss the move is part of more general service enhancements that have included installing more comfortable economy class seats on its Airbus A320s and reducing transfer times at Zurich airport from 45 minutes to 35 minutes.
Spanish strikes averted
28 April 2005
Low-cost carriers are reinstating flights between the UK and Spain after Spanish airport strikes were called off.
The strikes, planned by Spanish baggage handlers across the country for April 29 and May 4, threatened to cause extensive delays to travellers visiting Spain over the Bank Holiday weekend and saw many people changing travel plans.
Easyjet cancelled up to 56 flights between the UK and Spain departing from and arriving into Stansted, Luton, Gatwick, Bristol, Liverpool, and Newcastle airports. The flights have now been reinstated and Easyjet is allowing customers who changed their travel plans to either stick with their new itinerary or rebook on the reinstated flights, subject to availability (call 0871 244 2366 to rebook).
Flybe had not cancelled any of the nine daily flights between the UK and Spain, but had advised passengers to travel either the day before or day after the strike on April 29. In addition the airline made plans to lay on extra flights on April 30. On hearing the strikes have been averted, it has issued the same policy as Easyjet: To allow passengers to revert to their original plans, availability permitting, or stick with changed plans (call 0871 7000 123 to rebook).
British Airways, which operates 29 daily flights from the UK to Barcelona and Madrid (not including GB Airways services), had also not cancelled any flights, but was preparing to adapt its services. "We started contingency planning," a spokeswoman told Businesstraveller.com, "like putting on larger aircraft ahead of the strikes, but hadn't issued cancellation advice to passengers yet as these situations often change."
New ticket policy for SAS
28 April 2005
SAS is allowing passengers to book different classes for each leg of their journey.
The airline is limiting the new initiative to passengers flying from the UK to Denmark and Norway.
"It means passengers leaving the UK could fly out Business Class if they wanted to make use of the lounge, for example, and back in Economy or Economy Flex," a spokeswoman told Businesstraveller.com.
Economy Flex was introduced by SAS at the end of last year, offering passengers fast track security and 10 minute check-in at some airports, plus ticket flexibility, free catering, and seats immediately behind business class. Out of the UK, the price saving against business class is around £100 on a return Economy Flex ticket.
This is how weekday return fares between the UK and Copenhagen would compare when combining classes: Economy Class return: £279 including tax (one day minimum stay) Business Class out, Economy Class back: £441 including tax (one day minimum stay) Business Class out, Economy Flex back: £549 including tax (no minimum stay)
In addition to enabling combination tickets out of the UK, SAS has reduced the minimum stay requirement from three nights on all Economy Class tickets to two nights on restricted (cheapest) Economy Class tickets and one night on the higher priced, but more flexible Economy Class tickets.
Dusseldorf flight takes off
28 April 2005
Lufthansa has launched flights between London City Airport (LCY) and Düsseldorf.
The German carrier launched the flights on April 18, with a twice-daily service Monday to Friday. Lead-in fares start at £89 return including taxes.
The flight is operated by a 46-seat ATR42 aircraft. It leaves LCY at 8.55am and 7.10pm and leaves Düsseldorf at 7.50am and 6.05pm.
Lufthansa also offers four flights a day out of London City to Frankfurt, operated by a subsidiary, Contactair.de. This flight is in direct competition with British Airways, which operates a thrice-daily service to Frankfurt.
QF WP
Apr 28, 05, 6:26 pm
And I beat QF WP to it again... boy, he ain't gonna be happy !
Singapore Airlines (SIA) has been forced to delay the introduction of the Airbus A380 into service.
The airline has confirmed that due to a delay from Airbus, the world's largest commercial passenger jet will not start flying until well after the anticipated launch date of April 2006.
Airbus has declined to comment on the reasons behind the delay.
SIA vice president public affairs, Stephen Forshaw, said: "SIA remains committed to being the first to fly the new Airbus A380, and we are working with Airbus on a timetable which will see entry into service during the second half of 2006."
SIA plans to fly the A380, the first fully double-decker aircraft, between London, Singapore and Sydney. It has ordered 10 A380 aircraft, with an option to order a further 15.
The news comes just over a week after the A380 successfully completed its first test flight, taking off from an airstrip near Toulouse for a four-hour flight.
Emirates, Virgin Atlantic, Air France, Lufthansa, Qatar Airways, and Qantas are among the other carriers that have placed orders for the A380, with Emirates placing the largest order of the aircraft, at 43.
Aisle Seat H
May 5, 05, 5:57 pm
Dubai hotel to be world's tallest
5 May 2005
Two hotels opening in Dubai are planning to make a distinctive mark on the burgeoning state.
The first is a Radisson SAS property, which will open later this year in Dubai's Media City.
The 251-bedroom property will have a distinctive architectural or design feature in keeping with other Radisson properties such as Stansted, which has a wine wall scaled by wine waiters fitted with a climbing harness and ropes, or Berlin, which has the world's largest freestanding aquarium.
The Radisson SAS Hotel, Media City will have three stylish bars and restaurants, seven meeting rooms and an executive lounge with boardroom and business centre. There will be two pools (one rooftop), a fitness centre, separate male and female steam rooms and a spa with five treatment rooms.
The second property is being built by Dubai-based airline, Emirates. It will be the world's tallest building, at 70 storeys or 800 metres high, when it opens in 2008. The hotel will be built on Sheikh Zayed road and will have 560 rooms, 112 suites and a presidential suite.
Emirates says it hopes to break architectural boundaries with the property, which will have rooms jutting out from the main tower in curved wings. The hotel will also have a health club with fitness centre and spa, 15 food and beverage outlets and a rooftop bar with panoramic views of Dubai.
Dubai received 5.4 million visitors in 2004, which is expected to increase three-fold in the next decade.
Aisle Seat H
May 5, 05, 5:58 pm
KLM cuts fares from London and the regions
5 May 2005
The cost of flying from the UK to Amsterdam and beyond continues to fall. On May 1, Dutch airline KLM introduced lower excursion fares designed to compete with budget carriers who have expanded their regional flights in recent times.
The simplified KLM tariffs are offered on non-stop flights to Amsterdam and, by taking connecting services (via Amsterdam), to dozens of cities throughout mainland Europe and Scandinavia.
Flights to Amsterdam are now arranged in four price tiers: £69, £79, £89 and £99 return. It means that a return flight from Heathrow, Birmingham or Manchester to Amsterdam costs from £69 while the top rate of £99 would apply from Aberdeen, Bristol or Cardiff. All fares require either a Saturday night or two-night stay.
Further afield the price varies depending on the route and your UK departure airport. But typical examples include: Birmingham-Barcelona for £126, Newcastle-Cologne £138, Leeds-Oslo £163, Manchester-Rome £135. Edinburgh-Vienna £151 and Newcastle-Lisbon £187.
The new deals are available online with rates and availability clearly displayed. Go to www.klm.com.
Aisle Seat H
May 5, 05, 5:59 pm
Royal Brunei cuts UK fares
5 May 2005
Royal Brunei Airlines is targeting the UK market with a dedicated website and special fares.
The carrier officially launched its UK website this week. It has a UK bias, displaying fares out of London Heathrow to Brunei and beyond in pounds sterling.
Royal Brunei offers flights from London via Dubai to Brunei, with connections onto destinations such as Sydney, Jakarta, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur and Auckland. Current special offers include return economy class fares (including tax and charges) from £275 to Dubai, £550 to Perth and £590 to Sydney. These fares are bookable up to June 15.
The website also includes an interactive route map which shows schedule details when users place their cursor over a destination. Details of the airline's in-flight service, including Royal Brunei's business class bed, are featured online, and passengers can download the in-flight screening schedule ahead of their flight or reserve a seat. Go to www.bruneiair.com/uk.
QF WP
May 6, 05, 7:11 pm
Naah, I have given you the right to carry on when I'm not available...
Was away in MEL from Tues PM, arrived home last night at 9.10pm. Laptop doesn't have wireless access yet (until this afternoon), so haven't downloaded my work emails.
Actually, that's good - one less email I have to worry about....
QF WP
May 17, 05, 11:21 pm
Can't believe I beat Aisle Seat H to posting this weeks stories:
Air France commits to business class
Passengers using Air France to Paris CDG from Heathrow and Manchester can toast the airline. This week it has declared that it will retain business class within Europe at a time when its rivals are considering dropping the class for short haul flights.
The carrier is one of the very few among Europe's national carriers in offering three classes on mainline services: L'Espace Affaires, Tempo Challenge (superior economy class) and Tempo (economy class).
Says Catherine Jude, the carrier's route director for Europe and North Africa, " Last summer we experimented by removing business class from three routes but we found we lost more money in the process. Business class passengers opted for Tempo Challenge [with its lower fares] so our revenue suffered."
Air France's business class features roomy two by two seating (with a fold down table) while Tempo Challenge, although offering an economy class layout, is aimed at cost conscious travellers with its provision of essential business features like expedited airport handling and dedicated seating. Both these products are offered on mainline flights to and from France. In the case of the UK, it would cover services departing Heathrow and Manchester.
Catherine Jude says that the flexible curtain in the cabin enables the carrier to tailor capacity to demand. She also argues that Air France needs premium products to look after top fare paying customers who are transferring between short and long-haul services at its main Paris CDG hub. The carrier claims that over 50% of its passengers at CDG are now in transit rather than destined for Paris itself.
Heathrow gets another dedicated rail link
A new stopping service between Paddington and London Heathrow will start next month. Train companies BAA Rail and First Group have spent £11.5 million on developing the new Heathrow Connect link which will start on June 12. Trains running every 30 minutes will link the west London suburbs of Ealing Broadway, West Ealing, Hanwell, Southall and Hayes & Harlington with Heathrow's Terminals 1, 2 and 3. Overall journey time will be around 25 minutes.
The new service looks set to answer critics who have long complained about having to backtrack to Paddington for a fast airport service, and passengers heading to the airports from areas to the west of the airport need no longer rely on bus connections at Reading. They will be able to take the train to Hayes & Harlington for a connection to Heathrow.
The single fare for the section of track between Hayes & Harlington and Heathrow, a six minute journay, has now been set at £6. It's unclear whether a through Paddington-Heathrow fare will even be made available on the new service because of fears of the competition with the non-stop Heathrow Express. In addition, the service is intended for airport workers and people travelling from intermediate stations.
The train firms have dreamt up several ruses to dissuade Central London passengers from using it as an airport link. So Heathrow Connect trains will depart Paddington from different platforms and will not be advertised as a through service.
Wi-fi users in fake hotspot scam
Business travellers who use wireless hotspots are in danger of falling victim to the latest internet scam – access point (AP) phishing – according to wireless security firm AirDefense this week.
AP phishing is a technique where an attacker tricks victims into downloading viruses to their laptops or PDAs by faking the log-in screen of a legitimate wireless hotspot. The attacker can then record confidential information, such as usernames, passwords and financial details, entered by the hotspot user.
In a recent AP phishing attack, also known as an Evil Twin attack, AirDefense found that a hotspot was being spoofed and when unsuspecting users made a wireless connection, they received a false log-in page. Clicking anywhere on the page triggered an avalanche of viruses to the user's machine.
Richard Rushing, AirDefense's chief security officer, says: "Attackers are most interested in stealing user IDs and passwords to gain access to corporate networks."
The company has issued five tips to help business travellers avoid becoming phishing bait:
1. Install personal firewall and security patches.
2. Enter passwords only into websites that include an SSL key at the bottom right.
3. Avoid hotspots where it is difficult to tell who is connected, such as at hotels and airports. Use hotspots for Web surfing only.
4. Turn off or remove your wireless card if you are not using the hotspot.
5. Do not use insecure applications such as e-mail or instant messaging while at hotspots.
Special Report - Fit to Work
There's no longer any excuse to be idle on your business trips as hotels race to offer better health facilities, says David Jones.
There's no doubt that business travel is bad for you. If DVT doesn't get you then exhaustion, jetlag, mind-numbing meetings and the strain of absence on your relationships probably will. Luckily, however, there are alternatives to watching your health and happiness decline in the face of the latest company cutbacks on travel expenses – you can stay in a "healthy" hotel.
There are two main ways a hotel can help you get, or stay healthy: the first is through exercise, the second through diet. Yet on the exercise front it seems that many hotels disappoint. In a survey of 300 business travellers conducted by Lieberman Research Worldwide for Westin Hotels & Resorts, 64% said that hotel fitness rooms "seem like an afterthought," while 75% felt the quality of gyms was inconsistent from one hotel to the next. As a result, more than half of the travellers (55%) avoid hotel gyms because they are in such bad condition.
"Working out on the road is a priority for many travellers, but hotels have typically cut corners in hotel workout rooms," says Sue Brush, senior vice president of Westin Hotels & Resorts.
To address this Westin launched the "WestinWORKOUT(TM) Powered by Reebok". The name alone may knock the wind out of you, but this is Westin making a determined bid to be different. "We want to improve our guests' lives so they feel better from check-in to check-out," says Brush. And why would they want to do that? "Because accomplishing that will build loyalty and clearly distinguish Westin from other hotels."
So far Westin has spent $12 million on building new fitness centres in 53 of its North American, Mexican and Caribbean hotels, with another 40 to be fitted across Europe and Asia-Pacific. The centres have treadmills, cycling machines, elliptical trainers, medicine balls, yoga mats and core boards and, just in case you don't know your medicine ball from your core board, it has also helpfully developed 20, 40 and 60-minute complete body workouts targeting each major muscle group. So there's no excuse for not using them.
For those of us who are too shy or too lazy to be tempted out of our hotel rooms, there are also in-room training programmes.
Marriott offers the "Great Health – Fit for You" programme – a snappy name is clearly a pre-requisite – which incorporates the BodyRev(TM), Michael Sena's Traveling Trainer and BodyWedge21(TM). This alarming-sounding equipment can be delivered to your room on request at full-service Marriott and Renaissance hotels in North America.
What are they? BodyRev is a portable device that looks like a dual steering wheel loaded down with dumbbells ranging from 2 to 4kg. By rotating the device into different positions, it provides a combination of aerobic workout and strength training exercises. The BodyRev kit includes a travel bag, DVD, exercise manual and meal plan (you can buy it for $89/£46) and professes to "turn a few simple moves into an efficient calorie-burning, muscle-toning, energy-boosting routine".
The Traveling Trainer is the invention of Chicago-based personal trainer and fitness expert Michael Sena, who helped Marriott devise its fitness programme. The Trainer "utilises resistance bands to help travellers increase strength and maintain balance". The kit, which improves strength, balance and energy, includes fitness-club quality resistance tubes and comes complete with a users' guide.
The third option is the BodyWedge21, a foam wedge shaped like a large doorstop and offering 21 different exercises to tone the abdominal muscles, buttocks, triceps, lower back and other body parts. You can buy it online for $19.99/£10.
So you can now work off your stress and jetlag in the comfort of your hotel room, but, as we all know, that's just one part of a healthy lifestyle. Realising that diet is equally important, Marriott originally launched its Fit for You programme in December 2003 as a series of low-carb and low-fat breakfast options. In September 2004 it expanded to include lunch and dinner menus, room service, catering menus and the selections available in the hotel shops. New menu items include low-cholesterol pan-seared Alaskan halibut with brown rice, asparagus and lump crab vinaigrette. It's not just the food: hotel lounges also began serving Splenda-sweetened iced teas and low-carb beers and wine selections.
Marriott also expanded its healthy options to children's menus. Robin Uler, senior vice president of lodging food and beverage and retail services at Marriott, says many guests have wanted healthier food options in the past but were not comfortable enough to ask for changes to the menu. "They felt intimidated," said Uler. "They didn't want to say: 'I want you to cook this without butter.'" By changing the menu options, Uler says, a hotel guest can now just point to what he or she wants and not feel they're being awkward or demanding.
Other hotels chains have taken a different approach. Hilton Hotels has entered an alliance with Bally Total Fitness to offer guests access to more than 5,000 personal fitness trainers in North America. Hilton commissioned a study, carried out by the former director of the NASA Fatigue Countermeasures Program, which showed that people who exercised when on the road perform 61% better in terms of alertness and reaction.
Guests can arrange a personal fitness consultation at 400 Bally locations in the US or in the hotel's own fitness centre. Hilton is also offering special mini-gyms that guests can use in their hotel rooms. The Hilton Travel Fit Kit includes a yoga mat, elastic exercise bands, resistance bands and two sets of hand weights. Hilton will also bring a treadmill into your guest room at 100 Hilton locations for a small charge.
Of course, rolling something out across hundreds of hotels takes time, but individual hotels can make their own efforts to cater to their guests. The Westin Times Square in New York has created a health-conscious floor, with 13 spa-inspired guest rooms. The rooms include a Kinjoy shiatsu chair, which is an electronic recliner that offers a range of massage settings for the back and an adjustable footrest. Spa rooms include bath salts, body washes, herbal extracts and an air diffuser that releases a soothing fragrance. Guests in these rooms can receive in-room spa treatments for the same price as regular spa treatments.
The rooms also have a Bose radio and CD player with two relaxing CDs, and the minibar shuns chocolate bars and whiskey miniatures in favour of herbal teas, healthy snacks and complimentary water. The rooms are located on the same floor as the fitness centre and spa; however, guests have the option of ordering resistance bands or an in-room yoga kit.
Meanwhile, Marriott is testing a new hotel concept that combines fitness facilities with hotel accommodation, with its prototype property based in Walnut Creek, California. The Renaissance ClubSport resort is snappily described as a "suburban wellness resort" and is equipped with a 650sqm spa, a 1,100sqm fitness centre, five exercise studios, a gym, three pools, fitness classes, an on-site nutritionist and also provides childcare facilities.
Steve Gilmour, president and chief executive at Leisure Sports Inc., which manages the property for Marriott, says the aim is to combine an elite fitness centre with a four-star business hotel. "Basically, when I travelled I had to break my routine from what I did at home," he says. "At home I like to exercise so I have to eat a certain way. Typically at a hotel you have a converted guest room and they have one or two treadmills. This is basically giving the business traveller a resort experience during the business week."
Leisure Sports and Marriott have entered a joint venture to develop six of these new concept hotels across the US.
While physical fitness is important, for many guests the problem isn't about getting enough exercise, it's about getting enough sleep. Many business travellers find it difficult to fall asleep in an unfamiliar environment or may be anxious about waking up in the morning for an important business meeting.
In June 2004, Crowne Plaza hotels launched a program called Sleep Advantage which offers special amenities to help hotel guests get a good night's sleep. The hotel chain created designated "quiet zones", night lights, sleep CDs, eye masks, lavender sprays and special bedding to help soothe guests suffering from sleep deprivation.
"Crowne Plaza is the only hotel brand taking a holistic approach to address the entire sleep environment, from bedding and night lights to wake up calls and quiet zones," says sleep disorder specialist Dr Michael Breus.
Under the Sleep Advantage programme, guests who do not receive their guaranteed wake-up call get a free night's stay. The hotels also designate at least one floor as a quiet zone – where children and leisure groups are banned – from Sunday to Thursday nights.
If these hotel initiatives don't help to keep body and mind in peak condition, there are other options for revitalisation. A growing trend among business travellers is to visit urban day spas. In the past, the vast majority of spa customers have been women, but these facilities are increasingly catering to men and are becoming a regular routine among male business travellers.
In 2003, the former Manhattan East Suite Hotel in New York was converted into an urban spa property called the Affinia Dumont following a $15/£7.76 million renovation. The hotel offers special in-room fit kits for yoga, running, strength training and walking; a wellness library of books and CDs; a fitness valet who will launder your workout clothes and a fitness concierge who arranges sessions with personal trainers and leads fitness seminars. The hotel includes an Oasis Day Spa, which offers seven treatment rooms and a fitness centre with limited membership.
Irvin Sherman, a regional sales manager, travels to New York at least five times a year from his home in Kentucky. Sherman is an avid runner who says the Affinia Dumont allows him to keep in shape when on the road.
"It's hard to run outside in New York unless you want to get up at 4.30 in the morning," he says.
The 57-year-old began running more than 20 years ago because he was overweight and needed to develop an exercise routine to get in shape. He now runs three-and-a-half miles, six times a week and works out with free weights. "Running and exercising to me is just like brushing my teeth in the morning," he says.
Karen Dumont, president of Marketing Specialists Inc, based in Florida, switched to the Affinia Dumont from other hotels on the Upper East Side because of its on-site spa facilities. "When I stay at the other hotels, they have an agreement with [local health clubs]," she says. "It's not the same thing."
Hotels can provide the means to eat well and keep in trim, but guests need the willpower. A recent American Express survey found that only 33% of business travellers use a gym, compared with 60% who spend their leisure time "socialising" – and that's 90% in the case of British business travellers. And even if there isn't a gym in the hotel, that doesn't mean you can't go for a jog or, failing that, at least improve your eating habits.
The bottom line is, hotels can make it easier to stay healthy, but it's really up to you.
Staying healthy on your travels
Diet and fitness advice including tips from Reebok University master trainer Lisa Wheeler
Diet
1. Don't skip breakfast
You need energy to lug luggage, stand in endless airport queues and negotiate confusing airports. Eat before you leave — if you're too rushed for a proper breakfast, peanut butter on wheat toast is a great hit of carbs and protein. Hard-boiled eggs, a banana or an energy bar are other good choices for on-the-go travellers.
2. Stick to a routine
When we travel, we cede a lot of control over our schedule, our meals and our workout facilities, so it's harder to stick to our diet and fitness routine. I tell my travelling clients that when we're on the road, our focus should be on maintenance — squeeze in workouts, eat right more often than not, and do your best to not totally erode all your good work.
3. Don't just eat convenience food
The easiest thing to eat when you're in a rush is typically the worst for you. Skip the bagels and the muffins that will ultimately slow you down.
4. Pack your own food
Carry a stash of sports bars for emergencies.
5. Drink lots of water
You can't rehydrate enough.
6. Order a vegetarian meal
This is the healthiest in-flight fare. If you do order your meal after take-off, opt for protein heavy meals (chicken, seafood, beef) rather than carb-heavy sandwiches or pasta.
7. Don't go mad
Try to eat like you would at home. So if you don't tend to polish off a three-course meal with a giant hot fudge sundae at home, don't eat one on the plane. I guarantee it's not going to be the best hot fudge sundae you've ever had, so why blow it on a mediocre treat?
8. Try local delicacies
Life is too short to skip pasta in Florence or cheese in Paris.
9. Order room service
We've all been faced with a bread and pastry laden buffet in hotels. Better to order room service breakfast where you can be more in control of your meal.
10. Drink red wine
Attending a cocktail party or night out on the town with clients? Stick to red wine. At least it's good for your heart! Have a few glasses of really good wine versus a few too many mediocre drinks.
And for fitness
1. Do some research
Call ahead and make sure your hotel has a good gym. Inquire about nearby fitness clubs that might offer classes you'd like, or research local running routes. And schedule exercise ahead, incorporating time into your itinerary so you'll be much likely to actually do it when you arrive.
2. Pack your kit
Packing running shoes is a big pet peeve. Stuff the shoes with underwear and socks — use the space wisely. Consider bringing old shoes that you can leave behind in the hotel room. Pack one pair of shorts or exercise pants and one t-shirt and wash them in the room.
3. Exercise in the morning
Get it over with — at the end of the day there are too many variables that may get in the way. Besides, if you work out in the morning, you'll perform better all day.
4. Squeeze in what you can
Even 20 minutes of exercise is better than 0 minutes. I tell my clients that workouts on the road are about breaking even. Don't expect the workout of your lifetime when you travel, it's probably not a reality. Just try not to lose any ground on the good habits you've established at home.
5. Take the stairs
Do some sit-ups and push-ups in your room. Go for a walk on your break. Remember, you're just trying to "break even".
6. Get plenty of sleep
Never underestimate the pros of recharging on the road with a nap, a bath or a silly movie — business travel is tough, so don't feel guilty if you need a little time to veg out.
Aisle Seat H
May 18, 05, 8:06 am
Didn't wanna step on your toes again mate, so let you do it ! ;) You are an influential man around here after all !!! :D
QF WP
May 18, 05, 11:22 pm
Hey Aisle Seat H, it's up to anybody to post the articles, but it seems that only you and I get BT. But it was nice that I had something to do yesterday while I am a home recuperating from a nasty attack of cold/flu (better I got it out of the way this week, before ozfest II).
Me, influential....here?? You're almost as funny as Seat 2A... but at least he likes my TR's - unlike somebody over on AFF who took a dislike to my Auckland one :o
Craigo
May 18, 05, 11:32 pm
Me, influential....here?? You're almost as funny as Seat 2A... but at least he likes my TR's - unlike somebody over on AFF who took a dislike to my Auckland one :o
Oh don't worry about curmudgeons like that, QF WP. I notice that he trawled back to a post that was three months old to make his comments, then bragged about flying first class, and then went quiet when Bill got stuck into him.
Aisle Seat H
May 19, 05, 2:20 pm
Me, influential....here?? You're almost as funny as Seat 2A... but at least he likes my TR's - unlike somebody over on AFF who took a dislike to my Auckland one :oYeah, you are a nobody mate... I just wrote that to be nice, an ego boost for ya while you are again bedridden with a nasty cold !!! ;) :D
Here are the latest BT offerings, and first one i'll post is QF related...
More stopovers on kangaroo route
19 May 2005
Qantas and British Airways are allowing travellers a greater choice of stopovers on flights Down Under.
The move applies to passengers booking an economy class return ticket between the UK and Australia or New Zealand.
Current stopovers on the new Dreamtime Fares are Singapore, Bangkok and Bali, to which have been added Hong Kong, Tokyo and Jakarta. Passengers can stopover in different cities on the inbound and outbound legs, which could make a trip more cost effective.
Until now Qantas and BA has offered either a Dreamtime or Dreamtime Plus fare for economy class tickets to Australia and New Zealand. The former enables one stopover in each direction and the latter allows the same, plus further stopovers in Australia and New Zealand.
A third type of ticket, launched by the carriers this month, is a combination ticket which means passengers can book a ticket with multiple stopovers and each leg can have different restrictions. The outcome is that passengers can cut the price of their ticket. Go to www.qantas.co.uk or www.ba.com.
Ginny McGrath
Aisle Seat H
May 19, 05, 2:21 pm
Seats on sale
19 May 2005
Air France and British Airways are encouraging executives to combine business with pleasure this summer.
Both carriers are running extensive premium fare seat sales over the coming months, a time when executives tend to stay at home.
During the sales, business class tickets are being cut by over 50 per cent. Alternatively, travellers wishing to combine work with pleasure or who like to take along a companion can upgrade to business class comfort for a bargain price.
Air France's offers are available from London and the UK regions via Paris to most major long distance destinations. You can book up until June 30 for travel between June 1 and August 31.
Examples of return business class fares include: Beijing and Shanghai for £1,176, Hong Kong £1,561, Singapore £1,557, Dubai £1.075, Cairo £778, Rio de Janeiro £1,550, Boston and Washington DC for £1,101, Chicago £1,476 and Los Angeles £1,301.
BA's deals cover most important short and long distance routes from London and the regions. Book by May 31 for travel between July 15 and August 31.
Long-haul examples include: New York £1,599, Atlanta £1,839, Los Angeles £1,899, Vancouver £1,979, Delhi £1,829, Tokyo £2,099 and Rio de Janeiro £1,839.
Short-haul examples include: Amsterdam £179, Copenhagen £219, Istanbul £389, Prague £199, Rome £259, Vienna £229 and Warsaw £249.
Both airlines' deals come with advance booking and minimum stay restrictions.
Go to www.airfrance.co.uk and www.ba.com.
Alex McWhirter
Aisle Seat H
May 19, 05, 2:22 pm
Easyjet and BA top travellers' poll
19 May 2005
Nearly three quarters of business travellers have used a low cost airline in the last year, with Easyjet the clear favourite.
This is according to a survey of 1,200 executives who travel regularly on business. Low cost airlines were used by 71% of respondents in the past year according to Barclaycard Business, which undertook the survey. This is up 2% from the previous year.
Ryanair was unable to topple Easyjet as favourite low cost airline for the fourth year in a row, with 35% of business travellers voting for Easyjet and only 12% for Ryanair.
Easyjet also faired well in the overall airline ratings, coming in third with 6% of the votes, but it was still a long way behind British Airways, which topped the list and was voted by 43% of respondents as their favourite airline. Second was Virgin with 7%.
Despite the increasing trend towards flying with low cost airlines, motivated by a desire to keep travel costs down, the number of respondents travelling in business class also increased slightly, by 2% to 29% in the past year. BA and Virgin were the favourite airlines for travelling business class, followed by Emirates, KLM and Singapore Airlines.
Ginny McGrath
Aisle Seat H
May 19, 05, 2:25 pm
Heathrow to lose early weekend Tubes?
19 May 2005
Proposals to delay weekend morning Tube links to Heathrow by an hour are being met by fierce opposition from British Airways.
Transport for London, the body that oversees the running of the city's Underground, is considering the move to enable the Tube to run an hour later at the weekends to service late-night revellers enjoying a night out in the capital. This would see the last trains leaving central London at 1.30am on Friday and Saturday nights, instead of 12.30am.
According to Transport for London, if the Tube were to run later at weekends, morning services would need to be pushed back by an hour in order to enable essential maintenance work to be carried out overnight.
If the Tube schedule change goes ahead, the first Tube services would not arrive at Heathrow until after 7.30am on Saturdays and after 8.50am on Sundays.
British Airways has slammed the move, saying that passengers travelling on up to 206 flights that depart early on Saturday and Sunday mornings, would be unable to use Tube services to reach Heathrow from central London, and would instead have to opt for more expensive options to take a car or taxi.
According to BA up to 28,000 passengers fly on the 206 early weekend departures, operated by 33 airlines. In addition the airline claims there are up to 7,000 arriving passengers who would have to wait at Heathrow before being able to catch the Tube into central London. In addition 4,000 airport staff begin shifts before Piccadilly Line services reach Heathrow, so those currently dependent on the Tube would have to find an alternative way to get to work.
An alternative option to reach Heathrow from central London is to use National Express coach services from Victoria Coach Station. The first service leaving central London on weekends is at 7.15am, which is scheduled to arrive at Heathrow at 8am, but this is only an option for central London residents as those not close to Victoria Coach Station would need to get there without the use of Tube services.
But numbers are not in BA's favour. According to a spokesman for Transport for London, which has just completed a period public consultation into the issue, around 140,000 people would benefit from later-running Tube services at the weekend versus the 50,000 people who use it during the first hour of the morning at weekends.
However, the spokesman told Businesstraveller.com that the decision was not just about numbers, and that concerns raised by organisations and companies including BA would be taken into consideration. The final decision will be made at the end of the summer and if the change goes ahead it would be implemented in December 2006.
Ginny McGrath
Aisle Seat H
May 19, 05, 2:27 pm
And this is an interesting one...
New loyalty scheme for Star
19 May 2005
Six members of the Star Alliance have begun rewarding small to medium-sized firms with their own loyalty scheme.
Believed to be the first alliance scheme of its type, Company Plus is currently available in the UK and is now being rolled out across mainland Europe. Some 900 firms are currently signed up with the number expected to double within a year.
Said Marcel Fuchs, United managing director of worldwide sales and alliances in Europe: "Our scheme is aimed at those firms who lack the large volumes of turnover to qualify for a global corporate agreement."
Participants ANA, Austrian, LOT, Luftansa, SAS and United provide awards such as upgrades and free flights.
Travellers book flights online and all published tariffs qualify. Typical awards include a free London-Lisbon business class ticket in return for the purchase of four London-San Francisco return tickets. Or a free London-Warsaw return when buying two Birmingham-Moscow business class returns.
The awards are transferable within the company. In addition travellers can earn points with any individual schemes to which they belong.
For a limited time, the scheme is providing 1,000 bonus points for new members
www.staralliancecompanyplus.com.
Alex McWhirter
QF WP
May 19, 05, 6:16 pm
Gee, Aisle Seat H, you were up late tonight (your time) to get these in before me...I had to trawl through the 150 German web site emails before I found the BT one...
Aisle Seat H
May 20, 05, 8:17 am
Gee, Aisle Seat H, you were up late tonight (your time) to get these in before me...I had to trawl through the 150 German web site emails before I found the BT one...Was up past 4am mate, far too much work on, far too much ! No rest for the wicked... :rolleyes:
Aisle Seat H
May 26, 05, 11:57 am
Latest offerings....
As already widely discussed on the BMI Forum (we are NOT happy)...
Bmi downgrades product on Heathrow flights
26 May 2005
Bmi is turning its London Heathrow services into a low-cost operation from August 1, scrapping business class on almost all domestic and international routes, simplifying fares and charging economy class passengers for in-flight food and drinks.
Nigel Turner, Bmi's CEO, claims the move is in response to market pressure and it will save the carrier £30 million a year. "Over 50% of our passengers are travelling on business but most of these now do so in the back of the plane. Now we're getting back in sync with what our customers want. We're giving them the choice of paying for what they need."
Bmi is retaining business class on routes from Heathrow to Mumbai, Brussels, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Belfast City.
But Bmi's move may not go down well with premium ticket passengers making long-haul connections at Heathrow. Bmi is a Star Alliance member and feeds passengers to over a dozen member airlines including United, ANA, Thai and Varig.
Says a spokesman for Star Alliance: "Yes, first and business class passengers will no longer get separate seating on many routes, but Bmi has assured us that frequent flyer benefits will stay and so too will the lounges. Bmi's move shows that member carriers are adapting to market needs."
Bmi will announce details of fares and catering in mid-June. www.flybmi.com
Aisle Seat H
May 26, 05, 11:59 am
Indian airline joins the battle
26 May 2005
Jet Airways has become the latest carrier to enter the London-Mumbai route.
The privately owned Indian carrier was established 12 years ago and until now has been a major domestic carrier.
This is its first European service and will be a daily flight from Heathrow, operated with Airbus A340s (configured with 38 business and 231 economy class seats).
"We are looking at adding flights to cities elsewhere in the UK and mainland Europe, particularly those places which are not currently served by Air India," says chairman Naresh Goyal.
What sets Jet Airways apart from its rivals (Air India, BA, Bmi and Virgin Atlantic) is that it offers both lie-flat seats and the advantage of an extensive domestic network.
Says UK general manager Dan Brewin: "Our seats recline to 180 degrees. They are fully lie-flat. Our overnight flight from London connects with over 40 domestic Indian destinations and we provide through fares and through check-in."
According to chairman Naresh Goyal: "We want to challenge other leading Asian airlines for service and reputation. Our crew and in-flight catering are multi cultural."
Regarding pricing, Goyal says: "We have no intention of getting involved in a price war. Our tickets will be priced according to market demand."
Return fares from London currently start at around £470 for economy and £2,100 for business class.
www.jetairways.com
Aisle Seat H
May 26, 05, 12:00 pm
Virgin Atlantic Upper Class sale
26 May 2005
Virgin Atlantic is following in the footsteps of Air France and British Airways by launching a summer business class seat sale to cities in the US and Asia.
During a time when many executives are not travelling, Virgin Atlantic hopes to fill the empty seats by discounting Upper Class (its brand name for business class) seats by 50%. Between July 15 and August 31, a London-New York return will cost £1,599 as against £3,679 normally, a London-Los Angeles ticket is priced at £1,900 (usually £6,161) while London-Tokyo is offered for £2,099 (usually £4,060).
Other destinations included in the seat sale are Boston, Washington DC, Miami, Mumbai, Delhi and Hong Kong. Return fares to these cities range from £1,599 to £1,911.
Tickets must be booked by May 31. A Saturday night stay is required.
www.virgin-atlantic.com
Aisle Seat H
May 26, 05, 12:01 pm
What does this mean though in the last article "During a time when many executives are not travelling" ? Is this a travel fact that the industry are adjusting to, or an assumption of the journo ?
Aisle Seat H
May 26, 05, 12:02 pm
More regional flights to New York
26 May 2005
Continental continues to make the Big Apple more accessible from the UK regions by launching daily flights from Bristol and a new service from Belfast.
Until now both cities have had no direct flights to New York.
The US carrier is operating Boeing 757 twin jets in a two-class (business and economy) configuration. All flights operate to and from New York's Newark airport.
Services depart Bristol at 1100 arriving Newark at 1400. The inbound overnight service leaves Newark at 2055 to reach Bristol at 0855.
Belfast flights depart at 0900 arriving Newark at 1125, with the inbound service at 1955 landing in Belfast at 0730.
For travel from now until the end of June economy class passengers pay rates starting at £302 return from Bristol and £299 from Belfast. These deals expire at midnight tonight (May 26) but other offers are expected to take their place.
Business class passengers pay discounted rates starting at £1,169 return from Bristol and £1,129 return from Belfast. They are valid for travel between now and August 31 and you can book until July 30.
Other UK regional airports served by Continental are Birmingham, Manchester, Glasgow and Edinburgh. From London, the carrier operates from Gatwick.
www.continental.com
Aisle Seat H
May 26, 05, 12:03 pm
Second Park Inn for London
26 May 2005
Rezidor SAS Hospitality takes over the management of the Gresham Hyde Park London on June 1 and will re-launch it under its mid-market Park Inn brand.
The 188-room Park Inn Hyde Park, in Lancaster Gate, will be the group's second Park Inn property. The first is the Park Inn Heathrow.
Kurt Ritter, president and CEO, Rezidor SAS Hospitality, said: "London is a key destination for Rezidor SAS and it is no secret that we have been looking for the right opportunity to expand Park Inn, our fastest growing brand, into central London. With our aim to have 700 hotels by 2012, the Park Inn brand is key to Rezidor's growth and we hope to have 150 hotels in operation and under construction by the end of 2006, with London being a significant success in targeting strategic destinations across Rezidor's area of operation."
The Park Inn Hyde Park, London has a restaurant, bar and a 24-hour fitness centre.
Aisle Seat H
May 26, 05, 12:05 pm
Doubt many of you will give a damn about this, bit seeing as I'm posting the articles, might as well post this one...
Miles go further
26 May 2005
SkyMiles for qualifying stays at the global hotel chain.
Millennium & Copthorne Hotels will award five miles for every US dollar or equivalent value in pounds or euros spent on room rates at their worldwide hotels and resorts.
To celebrate the launch of the partnership, Millennium properties in North America will offer SkyMiles members an additional "summer bonus" of five miles per US dollar or equivalent spent, for a total of 10 miles per dollar, on qualifying stays from June 1 until August 31.
Millennium & Copthorne Hotels, PLC, the London-listed international hotel arm of the Hong Leong Group Singapore, owns and operates 88 hotels in 16 countries.
Delta's marketing alliances allow customers to earn and redeem frequent flier miles on more than 14,000 flights offered by SkyTeam and other partners, including Air France, Korean Air and Czech Airlines.
Globaliser
May 26, 05, 12:35 pm
What does this mean though in the last article "During a time when many executives are not travelling" ? Is this a travel fact that the industry are adjusting to, or an assumption of the journo ?It's a travel fact. It's the summer holiday period - a well known down period for premium class travel.
For the same reason, driving around central London is a dream during the same period.
Aisle Seat H
May 26, 05, 12:50 pm
It's a travel fact. It's the summer holiday period - a well known down period for premium class travel. Ah, ta, I see now what it meant... I misunderstood it as suggesting that generally at the moment there is a drop in business related travel, espec. in J and F, but "during this time" is as you say a referrence to travel during the hols period.
As for London around this time, I know, its a dream isn't it !
QF WP
Jun 4, 05, 1:49 am
Lead story (IMHO):
Star and One World to expand
The leading global airline alliances, Star and One World, are adding airline members.
Star Alliance has this week announced that it is adding Swiss International Air Lines, while rival One World is making steps to integrate Malev Hungarian Airlines. The announcement from Star Alliance was anticipated, following the acquisition by one of the alliance's leading carriers, Lufthansa, of Swiss in March this year.
The deal means Star Alliance members will eventually be able to enjoy reciprocal frequent flyer programme and lounge benefits with Swiss. They will also be able to interline between Swiss and other alliance carriers, i.e. book a multi leg trip under one ticket and check-in luggage to their end destination in the event of an indirect flight.
The decision by Budapest carrier, Malev, to join One World will boost the alliance's global reach by four countries (Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia, and Slovenia) and add 11 new airports. But first Malev must present a business plan and ensure it offers service in line with One World specifications.
Malev chief executive Janos Gönci said membership of the alliance was crucial for the carrier. "In the current state of the airline industry there is no chance of sustainable earnings for a mid-sized network carrier without partners," he said.
Report by Ginny McGrath
Eurostar adds first class value
Eurostar is reorganising and simplifying its offering for first class passengers travelling between London, Lille, Brussels and Paris.
From September 1, the high-speed train company will offer a two-tier first class service - Business Premier and Leisure Select, with passengers seated according to the price and type of their tickets. The new tow tier first class will replace the existing Premium product (available only for London-Paris).
The advantages to business travellers are clear. Until now first class passengers were seated together irrespective of ticket price. On off-peak services in particular, this might lead to smartly-dressed executives being seated next to happy holidaymakers who have been upgraded to first class as part of a package deal. "Our research has shown that travellers want specific business and leisure classes," says a Eurostar spokesperson. "Whereas business travellers want to be as productive as possible on the journey, leisure passengers called for greater indulgence."
First class carriages will retain the same comfortable three-across (1-2) seating, but the revised product will see Eurostar designating different coaches for each passenger group. Full fare passengers will be seated in Business Premier and will benefit from a 10-minute check-in, lounge access, free meals and drinks (including an express breakfast option) and at-seat power sockets.
Passengers buying first class excursions will occupy the Leisure Select carriages. They will get the same first class seating and meal service (minus the express breakfast) but check-in time is extended to 30 minutes and they can't use the lounge.
Tickets for the revamped classes go on sale from June 3 for travel on and after September 1, but the price of tickets look set to drop from the top price for the existing Premium product of £560 to a new top price for a flexible Business Premier ticket of £430 (Leisure Select will be priced from £149). Go to Eurostar website (www.eurostar.com)
Report by Alex McWhirter
More private jets for Lufthansa
Lufthansa is extending its private jet service to Frankfurt following positive uptake of the product at Munich.
The private jets were launched from Munich on a trial basis in March, offering short-haul connections across Europe. The jets can be booked for flights to over 1,000 European destinations at a time that suits the passenger, rather than being confined by Lufthansa's schedule.
Another benefit is that customs, baggage, immigration and security are expedited. Lufthansa hopes this will encourage premium passengers arriving at or leaving Frankfurt on long-haul flights to book the jets for a short-haul connection that suits their schedule.
But passengers using the private jet service from Frankfurt will need to add up to 30 minutes to the trip because the jets are being operated out of nearby Egelsbach Airport, a quieter airfield. Complimentary chauffeur to Egelsbach is included in the cost of hiring the jets.
Passengers are also offered a complimentary chauffeur to Lufthansa's new First Class Terminal at Frankfurt, which includes a lounge and business area, a la carte restaurant and luxurious bathrooms.
The aircraft used by Lufthansa have a seating capacity of seven passengers. The price you pay is for the entire aircraft, plus up to 300 euro per additional passenger. A fare structure for Frankfurt private jets is still being devised but example fares from Munich are from 4550 euros for Munich- Lugano or 9,530 euros for Dublin-Billund.
Private jet flights can be booked up to 24 hours ahead. Go to Lufthansa website (www.lufthansa.com) or call the dedicated call centre, +49 18 02 99 33 00.
Report by Ginny McGrath
Shanghai flights up
British Airways launched flights to Shanghai this week.
The service operates five times a week between London Heathrow and the Chinese city. It competes directly with Virgin Atlantic, which operates five weekly frequencies to Shanghai.
The Shanghai service is the first new longhaul route launched by British Airways for over two years. The move by BA follows an agreement made between the UK and Chinese authorities to allow more flights between the two countries. Flights were previously limited to six per week to Beijing, which are operated by BA, and four to Shanghai, operated by Virgin.
The agreement will enable 25 passenger flights between China and the UK each week, allowing BA to launch to Shanghai and Virgin to boost frequency to the city to five a week, which will increase to six a week from mid June and seven a week from October.
British Airways (www.ba.com) and Virgin Atlantic's (www.virgin-atlantic.com) return fares both start at £505 to Shanghai. The other carrier operating direct flights between London and Shanghai is China Eastern Airlines.
Virgin has also this week announced plans to fly to Dubai and Jamaica. The carrier will launch services between London Heathrow and Dubai from April 2006 and services from Gatwick to Montego Bay, Jamaica from July 2006. It also plans to increase Mumbai flights from three a week to daily from December 2005.
Report by Ginny McGrath
Globaliser
Jun 4, 05, 2:43 am
Eurostar adds first class value
Eurostar is reorganising and simplifying its offering for first class passengers travelling between London, Lille, Brussels and Paris.
From September 1, the high-speed train company will offer a two-tier first class service - Business Premier and Leisure Select, with passengers seated according to the price and type of their tickets. The new tow tier first class will replace the existing Premium product (available only for London-Paris). I think this article is slightly misleading. There is already a "top tier" first class called Premium which has a separate carriage with enhanced service. And then there is effectively the "second tier" First Class. There are many business passengers who don't buy the fiendishly expensive Premium tickets but just one of the normal First Class tickets, and who therefore end up in the carriages which may also have leisure First Class passengers.
The new pair of products replaces the old pair of products, not just Premium.
You could therefore read this as Eurostar wishes, namely "we're doing something extra for business passengers", or as I suspect, namely "Premium is a flop as not enough business passengers are buying it, so we're dumbing it down a bit and making it cheaper".
Strawb
Jun 4, 05, 8:27 am
You could therefore read this as Eurostar wishes, namely "we're doing something extra for business passengers", or as I suspect, namely "Premium is a flop as not enough business passengers are buying it, so we're dumbing it down a bit and making it cheaper".
Premium First was always more popular with extravagant Americans and celebs than with business travellers. The price of a Premium ticket has gone up so much in the past few years that now even Americans cannot justify the cost of this extravagance for a 2-hour 40 min journey. At weekends the whole Premium coach (24 seats) was nearly always empty, give or take a couple of seats on some services on a Saturday morning. With First being much busier at peak times, often to full capacity, I think they've realised they could free up these otherwise vacant seats (more than 200 extra seats a day) and make them available as normal First.
QF WP
Jun 9, 05, 7:38 pm
Airlines look to replace Concorde
Two airlines are planning to launch transatlantic carriers that revisit the luxury, but sadly not the speed of Concorde. Both airlines are backed by industry veterans who believe there's a gap in the market left by the withdrawal of Concorde from service in 2003.
Eos plans to launch flights from Stansted to New York JFK from September and has been founded by ex-British Airways executive David Spurlock. Other members of the executive team include past employees of Continental Airlines, Delta Air Lines, and Northwest Airlines. They have secured $185 million in funding.
The service will be operated by a Boeing 757, which usually seats 200 passengers, but will be refitted with 48 luxury seats. Tickets will be priced at less than a standard schedule business class fare between New York and London, according to sources from the airline.
The in-flight service will include 21 square-feet of space per customer, a healthy meal that can be taken at any time, in-seat light and laptop outlet and a quality blanket. The launch of Eos is still subject to regulatory approval. Go to EOS Airlines (www.eosairlines.com).
A second carrier, Fly First, also plans to launch a premium-only transatlantic service, but will fly from Luton to New York Newark.
Fly First hopes to launch in November, operating Boeing 757-200 aircraft with 48 seats. The carrier would use the private jet terminal at Luton, allowing for a speedy check-in. According to reports, flights would leave at 6.45am, arriving in New York at 9am.
It is being spearheaded by former Eurostar chief executive, Hamish Taylor, who previously worked at BA. Fares have not yet been disclosed but are expected to be between £3,500 and £4,000.
Report by Ginny McGrath
W's little sister
The company that launched W hotels has unveiled plans to launch a cheaper alternative to the fashionable brand. Dubbed "Project XYZ", the new hotels from Starwood Hotels and Resorts are scheduled to start opening in 2007 in US cities, with Tampa, Minneapolis and Palo Alto cited as possible locations.
Starwood has confirmed the emphasis will be on design, with 90-180 loft-style bedrooms, trendy public spaces including a lounge, outside space and a 24-hour kitchen area serving food and drinks. The hotels will offer a pared-down service that is suitable for longer stays or guests on a budget.
Bedrooms will have oversized windows, large working spaces, large bathrooms with Bliss Spa products, and the entire property will be wireless internet enabled.
The properties will also feature a gym and swimming pool, plus meeting facilities and "business booths" where guests can use a computer, print documents and check emails. Starwood says XYZ is a working title and may not be the final brand name for the properties.
A spokeswoman told Businesstraveller.com that the two brands were targetted at different types of customer, XYZ being less pricey than W hotels.
With the two brands not in competition, it's possible they could open in the same cities, although a spokeswoman could not confirm whether this would happen. However, a statement issued by Starwood said it had received interest in the XYZ concept from developers in cities including Los Angeles, Chicago, New York and San Diego, which are all locations for existing W properties.
Report by Ginny McGrath
Lounges for Easyjet
Easyjet is adding airport lounges in a bid to woo business travellers.
The low cost carrier is making a break from the traditional no-frills model by offering the lounges to its passengers at an extra charge.
At a cost from £12 per passenger, the lounges offer complimentary drinks including wines, beer and spirits, snacks, newspapers and magazines. Business facilities include phone, fax, computers with internet access and printers, and some lounges have showers.
Easyjet passengers can book the lounges online at www.easyjetlounges.com and use the lounge for up to three hours before their plane departs.
The lounges are operated by Servisair/Globeground and will be available in 33 Easyjet airports in Europe, although Belfast, Basel and Paris Orly airports do not have lounges.
Customers wearing shorts, football shirts or baseball caps will be turned away according to the rules stated on the website and some lounges don't allow children under the age of 12.
This is not the first business traveller-friendly initiative undertaken by Easyjet. Earlier this year the airline trialled a scheme to offer passengers the chance to board the aircraft first for a fee of £10, allowing them to take the seat of their choice. A second trial at a UK airport is being considered.
Easyjet last year trialled self-service check-in machines at Nottingham East Midlands Airport, and consequently rolled them out at Nottingham East Midlands, Geneva and Berlin airports, with other airports under consideration.
Report by Ginny McGrath
Airport currency exchanges slammed
Waiting until the airport to change currency leaves travellers out of pocket according to a recent survey, which named the UK's worst offending airports.
Robin Hood Airport in Doncaster was named the worst airport for currency exchange rates by the report. Researchers asked to change £100 at the airport and were quoted a return of 130 Euros or $160. This compares to an average return of 141 Euros or $174 from an independent high street travel agent, according to the report.
Businesstraveller.com checked the rates of exchange online on Thursday June 9, and found the Post Office would return $175 for £100 and Travelex $179, for currency ordered online, which can then be picked up at the airport.
Other airports which fared poorly in the survey were Belfast, Bristol, Cardiff, Liverpool and Leeds Bradford.
The survey was carried out by Co-op Travel, a group of independent high street agents in the UK.
Report by Ginny McGrath
Comfort downgrade
A comfort downgrade is in prospect for Club World (business class) passengers flying British Airways to Tel Aviv this month. One of BA's two daily flights from London Heathrow will be operated by a short-haul version of the 767 up to and including June 30. The flights in question are BA165 from Heathrow at 0840 and flight BA164 returning from Tel Aviv at 16.55.
It means that business class passengers on this five hour flight will find the sort of seating normally offered on a 90 minute service to Frankfurt even though their ticket may have cost more than £1,400. Although the configuration remains six across (2-2-2), the seats are not quite so wide while legroom is cut from 50 to 34 inches.
Says a BA spokesperson, "The problem was caused by an engineering overrun for major maintenance which has made us short of 767s. We will continue to offer the normal Club World service with the exception of the seat. Passengers can either opt to transfer to one of our other flights or take a downgrade payment of £200 in travel vouchers or £150 in cash for a return flight."
The two flights which retain the normal Club World seating are BA163 from Heathrow at 22.30 and BA162 from Tel Aviv at 08.05. See BA website (www.ba.com)
Losing FFP points
BA Executive Club members booking transatlantic flights with American Airlines continue to lose FFP (frequent flyer programme) miles and points because of government restrictions.
Reader Clive Whittall, a member of British Airways' Executive Club, discovered the hard truth when he recently booked first class flights from San Jose (Costa Rica) to London via Miami.
His travel agent selected American Airlines because of the latter's convenient connections. But this decision cost Clive Whittall his FFP benefits for the Miami-London sector. BA told him that "it does not authorise the credit of miles or points for American transatlantic flights."
According to American Airlines, "We can't co-operate or co-ordinate transatlantic services because the US and European governments haven't given ourselves or BA anti-trust immunity. It means we can't enter into reciprocal commercial agreements."
A BA spokesman agreed with American. "Only four carriers [two UK and two US] can operate from Heathrow to the US and there are very strict guidelines under which we can operate. There is nothing in the pipeline which suggests the system will change."
According to Ravindra Bhagwanani of FFP consultancy Global Flight Management, "The BA and American is the only partnership of any of the three alliances to share such a restriction." Bhagwanani suggests that travellers get round this by signing up to the FFPs of other Oneworld members like Finnair, Iberia or Cathay Pacific.
Report by Alex McWhirter
Globaliser
Jun 10, 05, 8:01 am
Airport currency exchanges slammed
Waiting until the airport to change currency leaves travellers out of pocket according to a recent survey, which named the UK's worst offending airports.The authors seem to have overlooked the BAA price promise which applies at its airports. These include LHR, LGW and STN. As a condition of their leases, outlets at the airport promise to charge no more than at their normal shops.
Surprise, surprise, none of the airports named in this piece are BAA airports. Typical slanted reporting designed to mislead.
NM
Jun 10, 05, 8:47 pm
I always get my local currency at the airport. But not from the Travelex or similar Bureau de Change kiosks. Always from an ATM, and now using my CitiBank Readicredit ATM card which has no fees and faviurable foreign exchange rates. Even if the ATM provider charges a fee, its still a lot better exchange than any over-the-counter or travellers cheque is going to give.
QF WP
Jun 16, 05, 8:39 pm
London-Paris less than two hours by train
Eurostar has revealed that the London area will be under two hours from central Paris from 2007. London to Brussels will fall to around 95 minutes.
The dramatic improvements in the train service represent savings of 40 minutes on current schedules. They coincide with the opening of three new stations and the extension of the London-Folkestone high-speed line into London's St Pancras station.
Rather than departing a single London terminus (currently Waterloo), Eurostar has revealed that it will operate from three separate stations all with their own catchment areas, an arrangement which will appeal to passengers living to the north and east of the capital.
Although some Eurostar trains will continue to run non-stop from St Pancras to Paris (journey time 2 hrs 15 minutes) and Brussels (1 hour, 53 minutes) a number will call at Stratford and Dartford International. Stratford will have connecting train, tube and DLR (light rail) services, while Dartford International is being developed as a park and ride facility. It is located near the busy M25/M20 motorway junction (convenient for areas to the east and south of London) and will have parking spaces for 5,000 cars. Journey times from Dartford will be 1 hour 58 minutes to Paris, and 1 hour 35 minutes to Brussels.
But the closure of Eurostar's Waterloo terminal will inconvenience travellers in the Southwest who now face longer journeys to an alternative station. Says a Eurostar spokesperson, "It's regrettable, but there will always be pockets of the UK which will not so be so accessible. We feel that the potential number of passengers [from other areas] to be gained from the move will always be higher." Go to Eurostar's website (www.eurostar.com).
Report by Alex McWhirter
Heathrow rail connection boosted
A train service connecting Paddington with Heathrow is undercutting the Heathrow Express by £5.50.
The Heathrow Connect service, launched on June 12, costs £9.50 for a single ticket compared to the £14 charged by Heathrow Express for the same trip. The saving on a return ticket is £7 because Heathrow Express prices its return at £26, while Heathrow Connect charges £19.
In addition, national railcards including Senior Railcards, Young Persons Railcards and tickets like Business Savers are valid on Heathrow Connect.
However, Heathrow Connect has not been launched to rival the airport express train. It makes five stops at west London stations before reaching the airport so takes 25 minutes to travel from Paddington to Heathrow compared to the 15 minutes taken by Heathrow Express.
As well as offering a cheaper service from Paddington, albeit less speedy, Heathrow Connect stops at Ealing Broadway, West Ealing, Hanwell, Southall, and Hayes (see map), meaning that residents of west London and the western suburbs no longer need to back track to Paddington in order to travel to Heathrow by train.
Heathrow Connect could also be the only train service stopping at Heathrow's Terminal 4 once Terminal 5 opens in March 2008. This is according to preliminary plans laid out by airports operator, BAA, concerning the operation of the new terminal, although this is still subject to discussion.
Heathrow Connect operates its first trains from Paddington at 4.42am and the last train at 23.08, with trains every 30 minutes for most of the day. The first Heathrow Express train pulls out of Paddington at 5.10am and the last one at 23.25, with trains operating every 15 minutes for most of the day.
Go to Heathrow Connect (www.heathrowconnect.com) and Heathrow Express (www.heathrowexpress.com).
Report by Ginny McGrath
QF WP reports that Dave Noble is about to use this service within the next 12 hours, so we should have a report on it soon...
Air France unveils new consumer-friendly website
Air France is the latest of Europe's traditional airlines to unveil transparent pricing for bookings made online.
Until now the carrier's website has lagged behind the likes of British Airways, KLM and Swiss, all of which offer potential passengers an easy way to select the best fare for their needs.
The new Air France site displays a simpler range of fares with availability for three days either side of your preferred date. The price you pay varies depending on when you book and when you travel. But an executive booking a midweek London Heathrow-Paris CDG daytrip one week ahead would pay £191. A similar journey booked three weeks ahead would cost £102. The new site provides online check-in facilities, or passenger taking e-tickets can use self-service kiosks at a growing number of airports.
At present the new display covers point-to-point flights to and from France from destinations throughout Europe. But Air France says it hopes to offer the similar, simpler display for connecting flights, covering both long and short-haul routes, from next July. Go to Air France UK website (www.airfrance.co.uk).
Report by Alex McWhirter
New routes for Scotland and regions
SN Brussels Airlines has launched flights from Glasgow to Brussels.
The flight is timely for business travellers with weekday (and Saturday) departures at 6.20am from Glasgow, arriving in Brussels at 9am. A second daily flight leaves on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 2.15pm, arriving in Brussels 5pm.
Return flights leave Brussels at 7.25pm, arriving in Glasgow at 8.15pm every day except Saturdays and an additional return service operates Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 1pm, arriving at 1.35pm. The flight is operated by an Avro RJ aircraft in a two-class configuration. Business Class passengers enjoy dedicated check-in, lounge access, improved catering and larger seats.
SN Brussels chief executive, Peter Davies hopes Glagow-based business travellers will use the service to connect with the carrier's European and intercontinental network.
The airline is currently offering a special rate of E69 return including taxes on its website for flights booked up to June 30 for travel between July 21 and August 21, subject to availability. Go to SN website (www.flysn.com).
In addition Easyjet has released its winter timetable from UK regional airports. The flights launch at the end of October:
- Liverpool to Alicante, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Basel, Belfast, Berlin, Cologne, Geneva, Madrid, Malaga, Nice, Palma, Paris.
- Newcastle to Alicante, Barcelona, Belfast, Berlin, Bristol, Budapest, Geneva, Malaga, Nice, Palma, Paris Prague, Rome.
- Nottingham East Midlands to Alicante, Cologne, Faro, Geneva, Malaga, Prague, Rome, Venice.
Report by Ginny McGrath
Reprieve for US-bound travellers
US authorities have extended the deadline for European countries to begin issuing biometric passports, saving business travellers visiting the US the hassle of getting a visa for another year
.
In a move to improve border controls the US wants visitors from Europe, who can enter the country under the visa waiver programme, to carry biometric passports, which contain fingerprint and detailed personal information.
The US had previously insisted that all passports renewed after October 26 2005 should be biometric, otherwise the passport holder would have to obtain a visa, which includes an interview at the US visa department and can involve a wait of up to three weeks, ruling out a last-minute business trip.
But following negotiations with European countries, the US has agreed to extend the deadline by one year – the second time it has pushed the deadline back - after European nations said they did not yet have the necessary technology in place to produce biometric passports.
The extension of the deadline to October 26 2006 also applies to countries outside Europe that are part of the visa waiver programme: Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and Japan.
Travellers carrying passports issued before October 26 2006 will be able to continue to travel to the US without a visa until their passport runs out, after which they need to renew it with a biometric version if they wish to travel to the US.
Business travellers bound for the US should also be aware that from June 26, they must have a machine-readable passport to enter the US without a visa. This is different from the biometric requirement, and affects fewer people because most passports are already machine readable, i.e. have a sequence of lines that can be swiped by US customs officials. Only those with passports issued by foreign embassies, or children, who could previously travel on a parent's passport, need to apply for a new one.
Report by Ginny McGrath
'New Concorde' on the cards
The days of commercial supersonic travel may not be over.
Less than two years after Concorde was withdrawn from service, Japanese and French aircraft engineers are looking to develop a new supersonic jet.
The first route mooted for supersonic flight is New York-Tokyo. The aircraft will seat up to 300 people, according to Japanese authorities, and would almost cut the flight time between New York and Tokyo in half to six hours. It will not be ready until around 2015.
According to reports from the Paris air show, the two countries have secured over £1 million in funding to develop the aircraft, which would be cleaner and more efficient than Concorde according to the Japanese authorities.
Report by Ginny McGrath
Aisle Seat H
Jun 16, 05, 8:45 pm
QF WP reports that Dave Noble is about to use this service within the next 12 hours, so we should have a report on it soon...And this is why I don't post this stuff now before QF WP gets the chance... How can I compete when I don't have such vital related info as this to post ! ;)
QF WP
Jun 23, 05, 7:17 pm
Dubai hotel chain goes international
Jumeirah International, the Dubai-based luxury hospitality group behind the Jumeirah Beach and the Burj Al Arab hotels, has announced plans for rapid worldwide expansion focusing on destinations served by Emirates Airlines.
Bill Walshe, Jumeirah's chief sales and marketing officer, said that over the next five years the group was looking to open 40 new hotels in a mixture of resort and city locations.
"We will start by targeting capital locations, most likely ones served by Emirates Airlines, as well as cities necessary to become a credible world force, such as New York, Paris, Sydney, and Tokyo."
Speaking to Business Traveller, Walshe accepted that it would be a challenge to maintain service levels in the new hotels, which will be run under management contracts, but he insisted that the group would not "shy away from moving outside our traditional operating base of Dubai".
The group is re-branding all but one of its existing eight London and Dubai properties with the Jumeirah name, so that the Emirates Towers Hotel in Dubai for example will become Jumeirah Emirates Towers and the Lowndes Hotel in London is now the Jumeirah Lowndes Hotel. The group's landmark Burj Al Arab in Dubai, however, will not take on the Jumeirah branding.
"The Burj al Arab will always be displayed in conjunction with the brand, and will be endorsed by the hotel group, but as the most famous hotel in the world, it is something more than just a hotel," explained Walshe. "It is like Dubai's Sydney Opera House and the identification it has for Dubai as a destination is bigger than any brand."
Live TV first for Gulf airline
Etihad Airways will be the first airline in the world to offer live television and internet access through its seatback entertainment systems next year after signing a deal with Boeing.
Singapore Airlines is set to launch a similar live TV and internet service for its passengers later this summer, but it will only be accessible to passengers travelling with Wi-Fi enabled laptops. Both airlines are using in-flight broadband technology developed by Boeing called Connexion by Boeing.
The Abu Dhabi-based airline will start rolling out the live TV and internet seatback service from mid-2006 on routes between the Gulf region, Europe and North America.
It will give passengers at every seat access to the worldwide web, e-mail, corporate intranets, virtual private networks, live TV and the ability to stay in touch with friends, family and the office.
Until the full new service comes into operation, Etihad will offer the Connexion by Boeing high-speed internet, data and entertainment connectivity through passengers' Wi-Fi-enabled laptops. This service is also being installed by several other airlines including JAL, Lufthansa and All Nippon Airways.
Peter Dunkin, Etihad's UK general manager, said: "With the introduction of this high-speed mobile internet and entertainment connection on board our new aircraft, we are confident that we will raise hospitality standards to a revolutionary new level of service."
Competition hots up on London to Berlin
Flight connections between London and Berlin will be boosted again in November when Air Berlin adds a fourth daily service from Stansted to Berlin Tegel.
The airline, which operated two flights a day until launching a third daily service in May, will add the fourth in its winter schedule starting November 1.
The move is expected to mean keener prices on services between the two business cities. Air Berlin competes with Ryanair from Stansted to Schonefeld, British Airways from Heathrow to Tegel, and Easyjet, which will launch a new twice daily service from Gatwick to Berlin Schonefeld on September 26 alongside its existing flights from Luton.
Tegel airport is more convenient for Berlin city centre, especially the former Western sector. Schonefeld is further out but provides good access to the city's former Eastern sector. It is also a good gateway for areas of the former East Germany and Poland.
Lufthansa does not fly direct to Berlin from the UK.
Eighties revival for New York fares
Research commissioned by Virgin Atlantic to mark its 21st birthday on June 22 has found that fares for its flights to New York are almost the same as they were when the airline started flying in 1984.
According to its findings, a flight to New York 21 years ago was being advertised for as little as £119 (excluding taxes and charges), compared to Virgin Atlantic's cheapest fare this year of £118 (excluding taxes and charges), a decrease of 0.8 per cent.
Sir Richard Branson, chairman of Virgin Atlantic, commented: "It is eye-opening to see how the prices of goods have changed in the past 21 years since we first started flying.
"When you consider that inflation has gone up by 109 per cent in that time it is surprising that some goods have actually gone down in price and others have only gone up by a fraction of the cost of living rate. "Prices in Britain are often classed as rip-off, but our research shows that many things are cheaper now than they were in the mid-80s."
An Apple Mac computer, for example, has plummeted in price from £1,388 in 1984 to £680 now, while (perhaps unsurprisingly) mobile phones have dropped a staggering 96 per cent from £1,750 in the mid-1980s to about £85 for a handset with a yearly contract now.
The biggest increase has been in house prices with the average UK property going up from £32,751 in 1984 to £162,840 now - an increase of 397 per cent.
The price of a McDonald's Big Mac hamburger has also seen a big rise from 63p in 1984 to £1.88 today.
Indian hotel group takes over the Pierre
The Pierre, New York's landmark hotel on Fifth Avenue, has changed hands.
Previously operated by luxury hotel chain Four Seasons Hotels, it is now being managed by Mumbai-based Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces.
The 75-year-old Pierre, which overlooks Central Park and was once owned by US oil billionaire John Paul Getty, is set to switch over on July 1. It will be the first North American property for Taj's parent Tata group.
For the latest review of the Pierre, by Business Traveller Editor Tom Otley:
What's it like? The Pierre doesn't suit everyone, but those whom it does suit will love it. The restored 1930s Georgian-style 41-story building is a mix of
hotel rooms and condominiums (known as “co-ops” and run by a committee who can reject potential purchasers).
Not surprisingly, the co-ops tend to take the lion's share of the Central Park views, but then with Pierre Bergé's (co-founder of Yves Saint Laurent's haute couture empire) 38th-floor apartment recently on the market for $9 million – with a monthly maintenance fee of $12,000 – they certainly pay for the privilege, as will you if you stay here.
A typical floor might have both co-ops and hotel rooms, giving the hotel a unique feel. Wood panelled elevators each have their own white-gloved operator, and there are post shoots on each level, allowing residents to send letters without leaving their floor.
Where is it? On the corner of Fifth Avenue at 61st Street.
How many rooms? 201, including 52 suites, plus 72 condominiums. There are several room categories, from moderate, superior and deluxe to premier, park view and boudoir. Broadband internet access is available for $10 per day.
Business centre: Just off the lobby, the business centre is small but well equipped, manned during office hours but open 24 hours for hotel guests.
Fitness centre: On the third floor, though Central Park jogging is the main draw.
Restaurant: A good, English-style breakfast of sausages and bacon is available in either Café Pierre or the Rotunda, with its Renaissance-style trompe l'oeil and ceiling murals painted by American artist Edward Melcarth in 1967, faux marble staircase and domed ceiling. Good for afternoon tea, though for dinner it's best to walk a few extra paces to Café Pierre, which is decorated with etched Italian mirrors, imported silks and satins, and a colour scheme of saffron, green and gold.
Bar: The bar is small, dark and intimate, like an Upper West Side apartment – with the addition of a pianist. It has a good wine list, served by the glass, assisted by the 10,000-bottle wine cellar for the restaurant, with cocktails also available.
Price: Starting from $395.
Contact: The Pierre New York, Fifth Ave at 61st St, New York, tel 1 212 838 8000
QF WP
Jun 30, 05, 8:30 pm
Bmi Heathrow savings? (one right up Aisle seat H's alley)
Passengers expecting to pay less for their no-frills Bmi flights from Heathrow this summer could be disappointed.
As already reported (see News, May 26) Bmi is converting almost all its short-haul Heathrow services to a low-cost operation on August 1. It means the end of business class and a downgrading of economy class. Flights will become one-class and passengers will now have to pay for in-flight food and drinks. Members of Bmi's Diamond Club also lose out because they will earn fewer points and won't be able to redeem their upgrade vouchers.
Many of Bmi's best customers are known to be upset at the move and have made their feelings known to Business Traveller. However, a recent poll of Businesstraveller.com recorded a split verdict over the issue of whether business class has a future on short-haul flights, with 47 per cent saying business class does not have a future short-haul, and 53 per cent saying it does. One consolation was the fact that Bmi's ticket prices had been expected to fall to reflect the lower standards.
But that's not going to be the case. When Bmi unveiled its new Heathrow tariffs earlier this week, the savings for the carrier's restrictive economy rates (branded "Tiny" fares) appear to be in the order of a few pounds rather than the substantial savings which travellers thought they might achieve.
Flexible (branded "Premium" fares) tickets have similar prices to previous business class rates even though in-flight service will disappear and the seating become more cramped.
For example, Bmi's flexible economy fare for Heathrow-Amsterdam will be £328 in August which is only £1 cheaper than July's restricted business class ticket. Another example is Heathrow-Milan where flexible economy will cost £440 which is only £10 cheaper than the business class equivalent.
A spokesman for Bmi admits that prices haven't fallen dramatically but says that more passengers will benefit because cheap seat availability is now higher.
* Short-haul routes from Heathrow which retain business class are: Brussels, Dublin, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Belfast. The Dublin route, originally set to lose business class, has won a last minute reprieve. Go to Fly Bmi (www.flybmi.com)
Report by Alex McWhirter
(Looks like Aisle Seat H's unhappiness with Bmi got a DUB reprieve - I'll bet he spoke to BT ^ )
Better check-in for Frankfurt
Checking in at Germany's busiest airport is set to become easier following the introduction of self-service kiosks.
The introduction of the kiosks at Frankfurt Airport this autumn will speed up the check-in process and reduce queues according to the airport operator. Unlike check-in kiosks at other airports, the machines can be used by multiple carriers –in this case 42 airlines and ground handlers.
However, airlines including British Airways and Lufthansa will continue to operate their own check-in kiosks at Frankfurt Airport as well as utilising the general use machines.
At first eight kiosks will be installed at the airport, with further added if demand is strong. Operators of the airport hope that by 2010, more than 60% of the 50 million passengers who use the airport each year will check-in using the kiosks.
Report by Ginny McGrath
More flights for skiers
Low cost airlines are going head-to-head with British Airways on flights to Grenoble this winter, a popular destination for skiers heading to the Alps.
British Airways will launch flights from Gatwick to Grenoble on December 10, with fares starting at £79 return.
The airline hopes the route will be popular with skiers due to the transfer times to resorts such as Meribel, Courchevel and L'Alpe d'Huez, which are shorter than the journey from airports such as Lyon and Geneva, at under two hours. BA will operate the Grenoble flight on Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays until the end of March 2006. Go to www.ba.com.
BA faces competition from Easyjet, which offers flights to Grenoble from Luton, and from Ryanair, which will launch flights from Stansted to Grenoble on September 23 with fares starting at 99 pence each way not including taxes.
A second French airport with easy access to the Alps is the subject of route expansion this winter. Chambery will be connected with Leeds and Manchester when Jet2 launches flights to the airport from December 17. It will also be connected with Norwich, Exeter, Birmingham and Southampton when Flybe expands its services to Chambery from December 17 (December 24 in the case of Exeter).
Report by Ginny McGrath
An extra £60 to book online?
Portuguese national airline TAP has begun levying online booking fees across its network.
In the past passengers booking online were led to believe they would pay less because they were using a more efficient system which saved the airline money. But in a new move a number of airlines have begun charging internet booking fees. The latest example is TAP. Passengers booking with www.flytap.com could face a hefty charge.
TAP's so-called "Ticket Service Fee" will be from Euros 11 (£7.30) to as much as Euros 100 (£60.45) depending on factors like the route, class of travel and the country where the reservation is made.
Book online with TAP in Portugal itself and the online fee ranges between Euros 11 (£7.30) and Euros 25 (£16.60). But buy a ticket in Finland and you pay anything between Euros 20 (£13.30) to 100 (£60.45). Switzerland is also costly for online TAP bookings: between CH 50 (£21.35) and CH 80 (£34).
TAP also imposes the fee for bookings made in Belgium, Holland, Italy, Luxembourg, across Scandinavia and in Spain. There are no TAP online fees yet in the UK, USA or Latin America.
When asked why certain countries have escaped the fee, a TAP spokesperson admitted that the decision on whether or not to impose the online fee depended on market conditions. Despite being viewed as a cash-raiser, TAP says that the fee is designed to encourage passengers to book with a travel agent.
Other carriers already imposing online fees in various markets include: Austrian, Finnair, Lufthansa, Maersk Air, SAS and Swiss.
Report by Alex McWhirter
Virgin launches podcasting
Rather than squeezing a guide book into your already stuffed briefcase, the latest technology means you can be guided around a city using your MP3 player.
The technology, known as podcasting, is when radio content is downloaded onto an MP3 player (see Business Traveller June, page 18). It is being utilised by Virgin Atlantic to make city guides available for free to travellers, regardless of whether they travel with the airline.
The first content to be made available for download features New York, with guides to the top restaurants, best shopping and advice on how to "get off the beaten track". The airline says it plans to launch guides to other destinations in its network and will give users the option to register themselves to receive future content automatically. This means further city guides are automatically downloaded to the user's computer, which can then be transferred to an MP3 player, including iPods. Go to Virgin Atlantic website (www.virginatlantic.com/podcast).
Predicted by Business Traveller as an upcoming trend for globetrotters, podcasting also enables MP3 users to download radio shows and play them back at their leisure. BBC Radio and Virgin Radio are two companies trialling podcasting, by making content available for download, although in most cases popular music is edited out due to an issue over rights.
All of the necessary software can be downloaded online from Virgin Atlantic's website as well as from other sources such as www.ipodder.org.
Report by Ginny McGrath
BA increases fares
British Airways has raised its fuel surcharge to £48 on long-haul return fares.
The airline blames the continuing rise in the cost of oil for the decision to increase the surcharge from £16 per long-haul flight to £24. The new charge came into effect on June 27. It does not apply to tickets already paid for and issued.
The fuel surcharge also increased on short-haul tickets, but by less, from £6 per sector to £8, adding £16 to the cost of a short-haul return ticket.
On making the announcement, BA commercial director Martin George, said the airline's fuel bill is expected to top £1.6 billion in this financial year, more than £450 million higher than last year.
Another factor that could put pressure on air fares is a scheme proposed by the European Commission to offset carbon dioxide emissions from aircraft by adding a levy to air tickets. Current proposals put the levy at between £1 and £6 per ticket, which could come into force from 2008. It would only apply to flights within Europe.
Report by Ginny McGrath
Aisle Seat H
Jun 30, 05, 9:58 pm
Bmi Heathrow savings? (one right up Aisle seat H's alley)Yep, but if they actually go ahead with all the changes - e.g. no miles or lounge access on most Y fares (and we thought the QF changes were bad ! :rolleyes: ) - it will be BD management who will have something 'right up their alley' (and I will be first in the queue to insert it). :eek: :mad:
So you are damn right, as ever, QF WP...I'll bet he spoke to BT ^ )... that is exactly what I did (plus a few others who can apply a bit of pressure/shame them in public) !
And I can highly recommend theVirgin podcast thing btw, for any of you going to New York from hols. the guide they are giving out (for free) when you download the software (the only one as yet it seems !) is a great set of 5 little audio guides (sites, restaurants, shopping, etc) , espec. if you will have your IPod (even laptop) with ya.
QF WP
Jul 7, 05, 8:24 pm
Sorry I beat you Aisle Seat H, but you'll have had your hands full if you were in London over the past 18 hours...
London airports stay open
A series of bomb attacks in central London caused major disruptions for the city's transport system, but airports remained open.
The blasts occurred on trains travelling on the London Underground between Aldgate East and Liverpool Street stations, Russell Square and King's Cross stations, and at Edgware Road station. There was also an explosion on a bus at Tavistock Square, near Russell Square.
In response to the explosions, the Underground system was evacuated and all lines suspended. In addition, London buses ceased to operate in Zone 1.
While rumours circulated across the internet that Heathrow and Gatwick airports were closed, both remained open, although Heathrow is reporting delays of up to half an hour on some arrivals and departures, and part of Terminal 3 was closed for a short time while an unattended bag was investigated. Stansted and Luton airports have also remained open, but passengers are advised to allow extra time to travel to the airport.
Passengers headed to and from Gatwick can use the Gatwick Express, which was reinstated on Thursday afternoon following earlier suspension.
Heathrow Express and Heathrow Connect services were also operating on Thursday afternoon between Paddington and Heathrow following earlier suspension. In addition, coach services were operating from Heathrow, but only as far as Feltham.
Black cab share schemes are in place from Heathrow to encourage travellers to share cabs and keep fares down.
The Stansted Express remained suspended. However a spokeswoman for Airport Express told Businesstraveller.com that the company hoped to have the Stansted Express operational at some point on Thursday. In the meantime, passengers can catch National Express coaches to and from Golders Green and Stratford, or the Hopper buses to and from Whitechapel.
Luton Airport can be accessed by rail, first on Thameslink services to Kentish Town, avoiding Kings Cross and Farringdon, from where trains operate to Luton Airport Parkway station. In addition, Greenline coach services operate to and from Baker Street.
Both Luton and Stansted Airports are reporting heavy congestion on the roads around the airports and the Highways Agency, which manages the M25 and major routes around London.
The information above was correct at time of writing, but travellers using London's airports are advised to check the relevant airport website or baa.com.
Report by Ginny McGrath
More disruption for tube to Heathrow
The Heathrow Express is to accept Travelcards, which cost £8 less than its tickets, when parts of the Piccadilly Line are closed intermittently over the course of the coming year.
Engineering work taking place between Hammersmith and Acton Town over eight weekends between August 6/7 and early 2006, will mean that there will be no through Piccadilly Line trains between Central London and Heathrow airport on those dates.
Consequently, passengers heading to or from Heathrow on the affected weekends will be able to travel on the speedy Heathrow Express with a Travelcard (valid for Underground zones 1-6), instead of the more pricey Heathrow Express ticket.
Travelcards for zones 1-6 cost £6 at the weekend, compared to the £14 charged for a single ticket on the Heathrow Express, or £9.50 on the new Heathrow Connect services, which link Paddington with Heathrow, but take 25 minutes to reach Heathrow Central, compared to 15 minutes on the Heathrow Express.
Heathrow Express serves Heathrow Central (for Terminals 1,2 and 3) and Heathrow Terminal 4. Heathrow Connect serves Heathrow Central only.
Passengers wishing to continue their journey by tube on the affected weekends, rather than use the Heathrow Express, will have to allow longer for their journeys as this will involve taking the slower District Line to Acton Town and then changing to a Piccadilly Line shuttle from there to Heathrow Central.
Go to TFL website (www.tfl.gov.uk), Heathrow Express website (www.heathrowexpress.com), or Heathrow Connect (www.heathrowconnect.com)
Report by Alex McWhirter
Trains, planes and mobile phones
Flight updates and airport express train bookings are the latest services to be sent by text message to mobile phones.
BAA has launched an SMS service, Flying Messenger, which keeps passengers up-to-date with the progress of flights operating in and out of Heathrow and Gatwick airports.
To receive the text, mobile phone users text their flight number to 82222, at a charge of 30 pence per request. The mobile phone user is then charged at the standard text message rate, which varies according to mobile phone operator, to receive an instant text message detailing the status of the flight. They are also given an option to request an advanced service called Flying Messenger Plus.
This advanced service sends a series of text messages monitoring the progress of a requested flight, keeping passengers abreast of delays, gate calls and so forth. BAA hopes the service will also be used by people meeting passengers from flights.
The second company offering an SMS service is Airport Express, operators of the Gatwick, Heathrow and Stansted Express trains.
Unlike the BAA service, the Airport Express service is free of charge and available to customers who book their train ticket online. On completion of the booking, a confirmation number is sent to the customer's mobile phone, which can then be retrieved by the user when picking up their ticket at the train station.
Report by Ginny McGrath
After two and a half years, a new Hilton Sydney
Hilton is reopening its Sydney hotel next week to unveil the city's most extensive hotel conference and event space and a contemporary brasserie.
The Hilton Sydney, located in the central business district between George and Pitt streets, will reopen on July 15. It has been closed for 30 months while undergoing refurbishment costing AUS$200 million.
The hotel has been completely renovated, and a 20-metre lobby added, with a design emphasis on light and space. It was overseen by Johnson Pilton Walker, the architects who oversaw a makeover of the Sydney Opera House.
All 577 rooms have been renovated, including 97 Executive Rooms and 31 Relaxation Rooms, which have spa bathrooms with jet showers and holistic relaxation kits, mood lighting and lounge chairs.
The refurbished hotel will feature a contemporary restaurant, Glass Brasserie, in addition to a trendy new bar with the same name and trendy style as the bar in Hilton's London Park Lane hotel, Zeta Bar. There are four levels of event space including seven high-tech meeting rooms, six functions rooms, a state room and exhibition space.
Go to Hilton web site (www.hilton.com).
Report by Ginny McGrath
QF WP
Jul 15, 05, 12:59 am
'No profiteering' from hotels following London bombings
Accusations that some hotels in London raised rates to take advantage of the chaos caused by the last week's bombings are unfounded, according to research revealed today.
Hotel benchmarking firm The Bench carries out a daily survey of 90 four and five-star hotels in the capital. Its research shows that the average room rate paid on 7 July was £148, compared with £149 on Wednesday, £147 on Tuesday and £143 on Monday. Occupancy on Thursday was 84 per cent, down from 93 per cent on Wednesday.
Russell Kett, managing director of hotel consultants HVS International, said: "The Bench's figures amply demonstrate that, on average, no such profiteering occurred in the 90 upscale hotels, representing 26,800 rooms, covered by their survey. The actual figures for Monday to Thursday last week follow the same trends as were demonstrated in the same week last year."
Thistle Hotels, which has the largest number of hotel rooms in the capital, has issued a statement to say it did not raise its rates.
"An emergency conference call took place at midday [on 7 July] with all London, Heathrow and Gatwick hotels to discuss the incident and to confirm that there would be no rise in prices and other contingency instructions were issued. The decision was also taken to waive all charges that would occur due to cancellations and no-shows for all bedroom and Meetings & Events bookings for Thursday 7 and Friday 8 July."
Marriott also said it did not increase rates to take advantage of those stranded in London. Marriott's International's Jürgen Giesbert said: "We tried to be as good a corporate citizen as we could. It was not the time to reap profits at the expense of others."
At the same time, consultants Deloitte believe that any impact on hotel rates in the capital due to reduced demand will be short-lived. Alex Kyriakidis, Deloitte's global head of Tourism, Hospitality and Leisure, says: "The recovery period post terrorist attacks is getting shorter...Our Hotelbenchmark data shows that post September 11th, the recovery period was some 18 months. However, in the case of Madrid, hotel occupancies recovered to their pre-attack levels within six months and tourism arrivals to Spain were up 3.4 per cent in 2004 compared with 2003, with a marginal decline in the second quarter of 2004 of only 0.3 per cent as a result of the attacks.
The World Travel and Tourism Council this week revealed that it expects business travel to the capital to fall by around 2.3 per cent as a result of last week's bombings, based on research carried out for the organisation by Oxford Economic Forecasting using a specially developed crisis event prediction model. The model uses the historic effects of events such as 9/11 and the Bali bombing and takes into account variables such as shock factor, any damage to infrastructure, government response and traveller confidence.
Taxi strike at Zurich airport enters third day
Business travellers flying to Zurich continue to experience disruption with their onward journeys as a strike among taxi drivers serving the Swiss city's airport enters its third day.
Taxi drivers serving the airport are demanding better working conditions and a minimum salary of SFr 4,000 (£1,750 a month) The strike began after negotiations between Unia, the union representing the drivers, and IG Airport Taxi, the umbrella group that represents the seven taxi firms working at the airport, broke down. Drivers are unhappy that the cost of an annual licence to ply for business at the airport was last year increased from Sfr 5,000 (£2,200) to SFr 10,000 (£4,400) while the number of licences was increased, making it harder to find passengers.
Unique, the company that operates the airport, has laid on a shuttle bus service to a point outside the airport where passengers can catch taxis. An airport spokesman said that a better alternative was to take public transport. "There are 250 trains and 800 buses leaving the airport each day. You can take a train to the next station and take a taxi from there. It might even be cheaper than normal."
Since the strike began, Unique has offered to rip up the contract with IG Airport Taxi, which currently runs to the end of 2008. If the taxi firms agree, it would open up the airport, which handles 17 million passengers a year, to any taxi in the Zurich area.
Skype from your mobile phone
The popular Skype internet telephone service has received a significant boost with the launch of a nifty piece of software called EpyxMobile.
The free software, from tech firm Epyx, allows you to use your mobile phone to call other Skype users for free and make calls to landlines and other mobile phones at rates of around a penny per minute to most major countries around the world. Before now, Skype has only been available to users with dedicated internet phones or wireless-enabled devices loaded with the Skype software.
To use EpyxMobile, you need two mobile phones, one with Bluetooth connectivity, and a Bluetooth-enabled PC. You then connect one phone and the PC via Bluetooth. After changing a few settings, you can then use your other phone to call the one linked to your PC and use the Bluetooth link to access the Skype service. Although the set-up is complicated, it can substantially reduce the amount you spend on calls from your mobile.
Skype has this week announced the launch of a new service with wireless hotspot provider Boingo. For US$7.95 (around £4.40) a month, Skype users can use any of 18,000 Boingo hotspots worldwide to access Skype. The SkypeZones service can be used at UK hotspots in many Choice, Quality and Sleep Inn hotels and at branches of Caffe Nero.
More information from www.epyxmobile.com, www.skype.com and www.boingo.com
Easier passage to India from newcomer Jet
Fast-growing Jet Airways is gearing up for a major expansion of services to London this winter. At the same time the Indian carrier hopes to launch its first ever transatlantic flight, one linking Brussels with New York.
The new UK services are expected to get under way at the end of October. They will see a new route being opened between Delhi and Heathrow and the doubling of Jet Airways' flights between Mumbai and Heathrow.
Fares and schedules have yet to be announced but the current daily Mumbai-Heathrow service departs India at 13.20 (services on Monday and Thursday leave slightly earlier) to arrive in London at 17.40. The return flight departs Heathrow at 21.25 to reach Mumbai at 10.50 the next day. Connections are available at Mumbai to and from 40 domestic destinations. Other international services include links between Mumbai and Singapore along with Chennai to Kuala Lumpur.
Privately-owned Jet Airways, which started flying to London in May this year, is seeking to change the image of Indian airlines on the world stage. Rightly or wrongly, the latter haven't enjoyed the best reputation for service in recent years.
Chairman Naresh Goyal told Business Traveller, "Our crew and in-flight catering are multi-cultural. We want to challenge other Asian airlines for service and reputation. It's not rocket science to become the best carrier in Asia."
Current flights from Mumbai to Heathrow are operated by Airbus A340s with fully lie-flat seats in business class along with 73 inches of legroom. Services to Singapore and Kuala Lumpur are handled by Boeing 737-800s with conventional business class seating providing 58 inches of legroom. The airline's business class checked baggage allowance is 40 kilos which is 10 kilos higher than the industry standard.
* The growth of flights to India (besides Jet Airways, services are now operated by Air India, British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and Bmi) and Shanghai (where British Airways has just joined Virgin Atlantic and China Eastern) contributed to an 11% growth in traffic handled by BAA airports during June.
Bonus miles as Lufthansa and Swiss align loyalty programmes
Members of the Lufthansa and Swiss frequent flyer programmes (FFPs) can claim bonus miles for all flights taken with either airline between July 20 and September 15. In addition, members of Lufthansa's Miles and More FFP will be able to collect award, status and Hon Circle (the highest tier) miles operated by Swiss. And miles which are earnt can now be redeemed for award flights with Swiss.
Bonus miles (for both Miles and More and the Swiss Travel Club) amount to 1,000 extra miles for a short-haul economy class or 2,000 miles for a short-haul business class flight. Long-distance flights qualify for bonus miles of 2,500 for economy, 5,000 for business and 10,000 for first class.
Details of the offer coincide with the news that Lufthansa and Swiss have received government permission to merge their operations. It means that both airlines will harmonise their schedules to provide better connecting possibilities at Frankfurt, Munich and Zurich from the start of the winter timetable.
But the future of the Swiss Travel Club remains unclear. Says FFP guru Ravindra Bhagwanani of Frankfurt-based Global Flight Management, "What might happen is that Lufthansa merges Travel Club into Miles and More in the same way as it took over the FFPs of Austrian and Poland's LOT [these carriers fellow members of the Star Alliance]. So far Swiss will not reveal its plans for Travel Club."
* Lufthansa will launch a five times a week service between Frankfurt and Algiers on July 15. It is offering double FFP miles for flights taken before November 30.
More information from www.lufthansa.com or www.swiss.com
Air NZ unveils revamped planes
Air New Zealand's new look for its long-haul fleet was unveiled this week. The airline is spending NZ$160 million (£60 million) on the relaunch which will eventually see eight 747s and eight 777s refitted with lie-flat beds, on-demand in-flight entertainment throughout the plane and a new premium economy class.
Regular flyers with Virgin Atlantic will give a nod of recognition when they see Air New Zealand's new Business Premier class. The airline has gone for 22 inch wide leather armchairs that convert into 6 foot 8 inch flat beds, arranged in a herringbone pattern, just like Virgin's. The seat includes an ottoman footrest, in-seat power and a 10.4 inch screen.
In the new Pacific Premium Economy class – the only premium economy service offered to New Zealand - there will be 23 seats, each 18.5 inches wide and with a pitch of 38 to 40 inches. "With Pacific Premium Economy fares available at just 25-30% more than economy fares we have seen strong bookings, particularly for San Francisco and London, with a total of more than 7,000 sectors booked across North America and London routes," said Air New Zealand chief executive Ralph Norris.
The new planes will come into service on the Auckland - Los Angeles - London route (flights NZ1 and NZ2) from 5 November.
As part of the revamp Air New Zealand has ordered some 14,000 new salt and pepper sets and almost 650,000 items of cutlery.
QF WP
Jul 21, 05, 6:26 pm
Now this first one is going to boil Aisle Seat H's blood :mad:
Making the connection
Thousands of Bmi passengers transitting Heathrow next month face longer and more difficult journeys.
From August 1, the airline says that in order to save money it will withdraw through check facilities for passengers using separate tickets. Both business and leisure travellers carry separate tickets from time to time in a bid to travel more cheaply. In addition, certain corporate "route deals" prohibit the inclusion of Bmi connecting flights.
The new policy applies to passengers connecting at Heathrow from one Bmi flight to another as well as other carriers. It also includes code-share services. Through check facilities will only be offered to passengers holding a single ticket for their flights.
It means that a passenger flying say, from Edinburgh to Milan (Bmi throughout) or from Teeside to Chicago (Bmi to United) will have to claim his or her bags at Heathrow and check-in again for the onward flight. This process could add hours to the transfer time. It also means that passengers who miss connections will not be entitled to any compensation.
A Bmi spokesperson told Business Traveller, "It's part of our new business model at Heathrow [where Bmi is converting to a no-frills airline] and it's basically a cost issue. With the greater availability of lower fares, more passengers have been combining two cheap tickets to save money [rather than buy a through ticket]. In some cases, the cost of dealing with passengers who miss connections is higher than what their ticket cost."
At Heathrow Star Alliance member Bmi feeds travellers to over 12 fellow carriers. Says a major Star carrier, "Everyone's affected by this move. It's a decision made by Bmi in the interests of cutting costs. But it's not for us to comment on the way Bmi runs its business."
One of the passenger benefits of Star Alliance was to offer simpler journeys with one-stop check-in. Doesn't Bmi's move go against the spirit of the alliance?
Says a Star spokesperson, "We fully understand the needs of our members, in this case, Bmi, to react to changing market conditions. Because the majority of passengers transferring from Bmi to a Star carrier will hold a single ticket, these customers will continue to enjoy through check-in. Star Alliance will monitor the situation and hold further consultations with Bmi should it become necessary."
But there is a glimmer of hope. Adds Bmi, "We will take an open mind on this decision. If the rules need changing, we'll adjust them."
[I]Report by Alex McWhirter
London tube closures
London's transport network faced severe disruption again on Thursday afternoon following a series of blasts on the Underground. They were not as severe as the blasts that occurred on July 7, with no fatalities and few injuries reported, but in response a number of Underground lines were suspended.
These were the Bakerloo, Hammersmith and City, Northern and parts of the Victoria Line. The Piccadilly and Circle lines remain closed following the terrorist attacks on July 7.
The blasts occurred mid-afternoon on Thursday at Shepherds Bush, Warren Street and Oval stations and on a bus in Hackney, but were reported to have involved detonators only, rather than explosives. The incidents come just two weeks after four bomb explosions in London killed 56 people and resulted in the suspension of the entire London Underground.
Local news stations were reporting heavy congestion on roads around the affected areas and across central London on Thursday afternoon as commuters took taxis and buses to avoid the tube network.
The overland rail network in and around London was operating largely as normal, although Network Rail warned of occasional security alerts causing disruption to some stations. Airport Express trains operating to Stansted, Heathrow and Gatwick were unaffected.
Report by Ginny McGrath
Bliss opens fifth spa
The spa company famous for its oxygen-enhanced facials and brownie buffets has opened an outlet in San Francisco.
The Bliss San Francisco is the company's first spa on the west coast of the US. It opened this week at the W San Francisco, with eight treatment rooms, an outdoor heated terrace, and sophisticated manicure and pedicure stations, where clients are entertained by television screens, DVD players and ear phones while having their nails seen to.
Bliss San Francisco offers a range of facials, massages, wraps, waxing, and body treatments. It also has a boutique selling Bliss products, which are offered to guests at W hotels as complimentary toiletries.
The Bliss brand gained notoriety in the late 1990s as its spas became celebrity haunts and for its signature offerings, which include the Triple Oxygen Treatment facial (135 for 85 minutes), and brownie and wine buffet – both of which will be on offer at the San Francisco spa.
Bliss already operates four spas – one in London and three in New York, one in the W New York. More Bliss spas are in the pipeline, with openings planned for Chicago later this year and Dallas and Los Angeles next year. These spas will be located in W hotels, the fashionable boutique brand owned by Starwood Hotels and Resorts, which bought Bliss in 2004 from luxury retailers LVMH.
Report by Ginny McGrath
Marriott goes boutique in Paris
Marriott has strengthened its presence in Paris by taking over a luxury boutique hotel, which has an award-winning restaurant.
Now branded the Renaissance Paris Vendome, the 97-room property is located along rue du Mont Thabor, one block north from the Rue de Rivoli and a short walk from attractions like The Louvre, Place de la Concorde and Place Vendome.
Guests staying at the hotel will enjoy luxury, personalised service and various accommodation styles in a peaceful setting. There's also a small leisure centre including a swimming pool (a rarity for Paris).
But what guests won't find is a standardised Marriott with the sort of ubiqitious touches found in the US chain's other properties. This hotel is a world removed from the city's other Renaissance in Paris, a 327-room property located in La Defense business area.
All rooms are luxuriously furnished in different contemporary styles and have the usual business touches including plasma screen TVs. There are 12 junior suites. Le Pinxo restaurant, which has two Michelin stars, serves a meal for Euros 50. It features cuisine from southwest France.
Rates range between Euros 279 (weekends) and Euros 350 (midweek), with junior suites from Euros 350. Renaissance Paris Vendome, 4 rue du Mont Tabor, Paris 75001, tel: + 33 1 4020 2000, Marriott web site (www.marriott.com)
Report by Alex McWhirter
More flights for Aberdeen
Bmi is boosting domestic flights between England and Scotland this autumn. The carrier is adding more flights between Aberdeen and Manchester on the back of increased demand, particularly from Scottish-based travellers connecting onto Bmi's long-haul services from Manchester.
From September 5 there will be four flights every weekday between Aberdeen and Manchester, with fares from £52 one-way including taxes and charges. In addition, Bmi is adding a third daily Aberdeen-Norwich flight to its weekday schedule from September 5. Fares start at £105 one-way including taxes and charges. Go to www.flybmi.com.
Further expansion at Aberdeen Airport has come from Monarch Scheduled, which will fly four times a week to Malaga from November. The carrier already operates to Malaga from London, Manchester and Birmingham, and Aberdeen is its first base in Scotland. Go to www.flymonarch.com.
Report by Ginny McGrath
24-hour hotel for InterConti
InterContinental has opened its first hotel in Beijing. The 332-room hotel is on Financial Street in the Xicheng District of West Beijing, a financial hub where over 300 financial institutions are located. The hotel is 40km from Beijing International Airport and a ten-minute drive from cultural sites such as Tiananmen Square and the Great Wall.
It's not just the location of the InterContinental Financial Street Beijing that will attract business travellers. The hotel is the first international premium hotel on the street and offers a range of services 24 hours a day including the business centre and gym. In addition the hotel has a spa, swimming pool, and conference facilities including a grand ballroom that has capacity for 380 people and five meeting rooms.
Guests have a range of dining options – a modern Chinese restaurant with a soup and dim sum kitchen, a New York-style coffee shop and deli and a café-style restaurant offering Asian and Western dishes. There is also a contemporary bar/lounge called XChange, which serves cocktails and new world wines and offers live entertainment.
The rooms have high-speed internet access, safe, in-room television check-out, phone with voicemail and minibar. There are also executive rooms on the hotel's Club InterContinental floors, which have butler service and separate business centre, complimentary use of meeting rooms, complimentary breakfast and evening drinks, and separate check-in. Rates start at CNY814, which is about £57. Go to Intercontinental web site (www.interconti.com).
Report by Ginny McGrath
QF WP
Aug 1, 05, 7:41 pm
SAS to launch from London City
London City Airport will get a connection with Copenhagen this winter on the back of strong demand from frequent users of the airport. The route is being launched by Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) on October 30, and will be the carrier's first service from the east London airport.
There will be two flights per day between London City and Copenhagen (one daily flight on Saturdays and Sundays), with the first flight departing London at 9.40am and arriving at 12.55pm, and the second taking off at 6pm and arriving at 9.15pm. The return flight leaves Copenhagen at 8am, and arrives in London at 9.15am, and the second flight leaves at 4.20pm and arrives at 5.35pm.
The SAS flight will compete directly with a Copenhagen flight being launched from London City by BA franchise-partner, Sun Air of Denmark, which starts on October 31 with two flights per weekday.
Copenhagen was among a list of destinations mooted by London City managing director, Richard Gooding, as potential new routes for this year in an interview in the Business Traveller May edition. Other destinations that are expected to launch in coming months from London City are Glasgow, Madrid, Milan, Newcastle, Stockholm and Vienna.
SAS will operate the Copenhagen service with a 72-seater turbo-prop Q-400 aircraft in a three-class configuration. The middle class is Economy Flex, which offers passengers a fully-flexible ticket, dedicated seating area on the aircraft, complimentary meal and drink and increased frequent flyer points.
Return fares start at £501 in Economy Flex, £606 in Business and £106 in Economy. Business class passengers enjoy more space on-board, lounge access and improved catering.
SAS operates a ten-minute check-in policy at London City. The airline also supports the airport's claim that passengers travelling with hand luggage only can get from the plane to their taxi in five minutes on arrival.
Report by Ginny McGrath
AA looks north
Transatlantic flights from Britain's regional airports are on the up, with the latest announcement coming from Newcastle International Airport. The airport, in north-east England, will get its first non-stop scheduled link with New York next year. The American Airlines service will start in May 2006 with a daily flight over the summer and five flights per week in winter.
AA plans to operate the all-economy class service using a Boeing 757 with 188 seats. Fares have not yet been announced but tickets are expected to go on sale next week.
The flight departs Newcastle at 11am and arrives in New York JFK at 1.35pm. The return flight leaves New York at 7.45pm and arrives at 7.40am the following day.
The service marks AA's debut at Newcastle but the airline is no stranger to regional airports. It also operates out of Glasgow with flights to Chicago over the summer and from Manchester with flights to Chicago year-round, Boston in the summer and Miami in the winter only. For more information go to www.americanairlines.co.uk.
So much for the good news. UK airline Bmi has found less success with one of its regional UK transatlantic services. The carrier is scrapping its Manchester-Washington flight from October 30. Passengers with bookings are being offered a refund or tickets to an alternative destination. For more information go to www.flybmi.com.
Report by Ginny McGrath
Refunds in doubt for EUJet
Some 50,000 passengers holding tickets with the now-defunct airline EUJet, are still unsure if they will receive a refund.
EUJet was declared bankrupt this week after a main investor pulled out, resulting in the immediate suspension of flights from its base at Manston airport in Kent. The airline claims that passengers with bookings will receive refunds resulting from a policy by the carrier to place revenue from tickets sales in an escrow account and not draw on it until the customer has taken a flight. However, as the airline has now been declared bankrupt, passengers holding a ticket become a creditor of the company and join the list of other creditors hoping to minimise their losses.
A loophole in consumer protection laws means that people who buy tickets direct from an airline and pay in cash are not protected in the event of failure of the carrier. And according to the government regulator, CAA, recent research found only 12% of travel insurance policies include scheduled airline failure insurance in the cover.
The only other chance of receiving a refund is for customers who paid on a credit card to claim to the credit card provider, but this route also has its caveats. Firstly, each credit card purchase must be over £100 to receive a refund, and the average fare sold by EUJet in June was Euros70, and secondly, the company is based outside the UK - in Ireland - which may exempt some credit card companies from providing a refund to customers.
The CAA is appealing to people who bought tickets with EUJet to contact them and to any passengers who were left stranded across Europe when the carrier went bust. All correspondence should go to eujetstories@mac.com.
Report by Ginny McGrath
New corporate card for BA
Free business travel for SMEs is on the cards after British Airways and American Express announced the introduction of a new corporate credit card. The card, available later this year, will reward SMEs who are members of British Airways Onbusiness programme, with free business travel and BA miles on card expenditure.
Tiffany Hall, head of global sales and distribution for BA said: "The SME market is extremely important to British Airways and we have worked closely with our 13,000 OnBusiness customers over a number of years to deliver tailored products to help maximise their travel budgets where possible."
Exact details of earning potential and redemtopion possibilities will be released later this year. At present, British Airways American Express credit cards have three other cards available to Executive Club members: the BA American Express Credit Card, Premium card and Premium Plus card. Card members can earn up to 1.5 BA Miles for every £1 spent on the Card.
British Airways give travel tips for China
Travellers to China are being made aware of Chinese customs and etiquette in a new leaflet from British Airways.
The aim of the leaflet is to ensure that visits to the country run smoothly with business travellers understanding the different cultural sensibilities.
The pamphlets advise on how to dress, how to behave when meeting clients, food etiquette and Chinese customs. Prohibitions include boasting about success in front of others as well as publicly criticising someone, as is leaving food on a plate. Belching and smoking during meals is, however, acceptable. The positioning of chopsticks after a meal and how to accept a business card are just some of the tips BA are giving. Pick up the free advice in Business Class lounges at London, Heathrow.
QF WP
Aug 9, 05, 8:48 pm
Runway remains closed at Toronto Airport
Passengers due to fly to and from Toronto Pearson International Airport, where an Air France flight overran the runway and burst into flames on Tuesday, are being advised to contact their airline before their journey in case of any disruption.
One of the airport's five runways remains closed after Air France Flight 358 skidded off the runway into a wooded ravine, split in two and caught fire.
All 309 passengers and crew on board made a miraculous escape.
A statement by the Greater Toronto Airports Authority (GTAA), issued on August 3, said the airport was now operational, but runway 24L remains closed and will be until a thorough investigation has been completed and the runway has been cleared for use by authorities.
"Travellers are urged to contact their airline prior to coming to the airport and to check the GTAA web site (www.gtaa.com) for updated information as it becomes available," the statement said.
Investigators have now begun checking the flight data and voice recorders. Severe weather and runway conditions are believed to have been responsible for the crash, but it could take months or even years to determine the exact cause.
Rooms from £20, but can you swing a cat?
Easyjet has opened its first no-frills budget hotel in west London and it's just what you'd expect – cheap, orange and compact. The 34 rooms, crammed into what was formerly a run-down 20-bed B&B in Earls Court, are the smallest in Europe (and that's according to the company's founder Stelios Haji-Ioannou, who announced the fact proudly at the opening).
But even the smallest rooms come with a 14 sq ft ensuite pod with shower, sink and toilet.
All are splashed with the distinctive Easyjet logo, but unlike the company's aircraft, there are no windows. Guests must get their own breakfast, pay £5 to use the TV in their room, and £10 to have their towels and bed linen changed.
Rooms start from £20 a night and can be booked on the easyHotel website. As with Easyjet flights, rates vary according to demand. A Business Traveller test the day before the hotel opened found the cheapest midweek room for the same week was £35.
The hotel is set to be one of a number of franchise operations across Europe, the first due to open in Basle, Switzerland.
Emirates to open dedicated Gatwick lounge
First and business class passengers flying out of London Gatwick North Terminal with Emirates will be able to use a dedicated lounge from early autumn. The lounge will also be open to Gold and Silver members of the airline's Skywards frequent flyer programme.
Designed along the same lines as the Emirates lounge at Dubai International Airport, it will have seating for 255 travellers, comfortable leather armchairs, flat-screen TVs, and full shower facilities. Emirates has taken over one floor of the British Airways Terraces for the new lounge, which at 1,590 square metres will be its largest lounge outside of Dubai.
Complimentary hot and cold gourmet dishes and a full bar, including champagne, will be served by Emirates staff and a business centre will have 14 computers and six laptop workstations, all with free broadband and wireless LAN access.
The opening is part of a $13million investment to install lounges at key airports across the airline's network. Emirates operates three non-stop flights a day from London Gatwick to Dubai, connecting to onward destinations including Sydney, Melbourne, Bangkok, Hong Kong and Singapore.
New Luton to Zurich service is good for business
Helvetic Airways will add a second daily flight from London Luton to Zurich on September 20.
Until now the airline has only operated an evening flight to the Swiss city, which has not been convenient for most business travellers. The new morning service leaves London at 09.10 and arrives in Zurich at 11.55. Combined with the later flight that leaves Zurich at 17.35, arriving back in London at 18.20, it allows executives to fly to the city and back in one day.
Those who book early get the best deals as the first 10 seats on every flight start at €19 (around £12.50) excluding taxes.
Fight the fear
Executives who are nervous about flying are being invited to enrol for a Virgin Atlantic 'Flying Without Fear' course at London Heathrow on August 28.
The one-day course includes a 45-minute flight at the end of the session for passengers to put their new-found confidence to the test. The courses have been running for eight years at London Gatwick, Manchester and Birmingham Airport. This will be the first at Heathrow. The day starts with a brief introduction, after which two Virgin Atlantic Captains run through aircraft functions, noises and safety.
After a hot lunch, participants can ask question on a one-to-one basis and psychotherapist David Landau teaches skills to help people learn to control their fears. During the 'test' flight, pilots give a running commentary re-enforcing all that has been learnt throughout the day.
This year Virgin Atlantic is offering all course participants membership of its 'Flying Club' frequent flyer programme, plus 2,000 bonus flying club miles.
The inclusive day course costs £199 plus VAT. For bookings and enquiries please contact 01423 714900 or log on to the web site (www.flyingwithoutfear.info).
QF WP
Aug 11, 05, 8:07 pm
Following on from the current thread on this story:
BA suspends Heathrow check-in
British Airways suspended check-in of all flights from Heathrow terminals 1 and 2 and cancelled a number of flights on Thursday.
The airline was forced to close the check-in desks and cancel flights when around 1,000 of its staff walked out at 3pm on Thursday. The staff are mostly baggage handlers and loaders and are members of the T&G union, who were demonstrating support for their colleagues at Gate Gourmet after the company sacked 800 staff members this week.
Around 30 shorthaul flights had been cancelled by 5.30pm on Thursday and 15 inbound flights were diverted.
Gate Gourmet, which supplies a number of airlines with in-flight catering has been the subject of unofficial strike action since Wednedsay August 10. As a consequence all BA flights have been taking off from Heathrow without food onboard. The airline has been providing passengers with food bags and compensation where possible, but has been advising passengers to eat before boarding.
Airport operator, BAA is warning of "considerable disruption to BA services for the rest of today and potentially tomorrow". Passengers wishing to contact BA can call the disruption line on 0870 850 9850
This story will be updated over the course of Friday
Report by Ginny McGrath
Compensation laws flawed
New laws introduced to bring European air passengers improved compensation in the event of cancellations are proving ineffective.
The legislation, introduced in February, imposed mandatory levels of compensation and a refund in some cases, plus care such as refreshments and overnight accommodation for passengers affected by denied boarding, delays of more than two hours, and cancellations.
The regulations over cancelled flights concern passengers whose flight is cancelled less than seven days before departure and whose replacement flight is scheduled flight to leave either one hour before their original departure date or arrive more than two hours after the original flight These passengers are entitled to a refund if they choose not to travel. They can also get compensation of between 200 Euros and 600 Euros depending on the length of the flight. Extra expenses such as foregone hotel and car rental bookings are not refunded.
But the devil is in the detail – the wording of the legislation allows airlines a get-out clause if the cause of the cancellation was deemed to be beyond control of the airline, i.e. due to adverse weather conditions, strike action or air traffic control delays.
Consumer watchdog, Air Transport Users Council has received record levels of complaints in recent months concerning the legislation. The organisation has received 2,000 written complaints and a host of telephone enquiries – which is the number it usually receives in a year. Business Traveller has also received a number of complaints from readers concerning flight cancellations, whereby requests for cash compensation have not been met.
Another area of the regulations, concerning delayed flights, continues to cause confusion for passengers, who believe they are entitled to cash compensation in addition to a refund if they choose not to travel when their flight has been delayed for over five hours. In fact, they receive a refund only if they choose not to travel, in addition to refreshments, two free telephone calls and overnight accommodation if necessary. Cash compensation only applies to incidents of denied boarding in the event of an overbooked flight, and in some cases when flights are cancelled (see above).
For further details on the regulations refer to the AUC website (http://www.caa.co.uk/default.aspx?categoryid=306&pagetype=90&pageid=1591) and click on delays, cancellations or overbooking.
Report by Ginny McGrath and Alex McWhirter
Hamburg hots up
The announcement of the debut of a low cost airline on the London-Hamburg route is expected to spark a fares war from existing carriers. Germanwings will launch twice-daily flights between London Gatwick and Hamburg on October 31, and is offering return fares from £68 including taxes and charges.
British Airways and Lufthansa also operate flights to Hamburg from Heathrow but until the announcement from Germanwings, the two full service airlines had been unchallenged by other carriers. Hamburg is one of Europe's busiest ports and is less than two hours by train from Berlin and an hour from Hanover, making it a good starting point for a trip in Germany.
In addition to London flights and an existing Stuttgart flight, Germanwings will operate services to Istanbul, Krakow, Toulouse, Warsaw, Zagreb, Munich, Oslo, and Stockholm from October 31, going head-to-head with Lufthansa to the latter three destinations and to Stuttgart.
Other airlines operating out of Hamburg include Air Berlin, which flies to Manchester five times a week among other European destinations, in addition to Deutsche BA and Hapag Lloyd Express. Ryanair flies from Stansted and Glasgow Prestwick to Hamburg Luebeck, which is 30 miles from the city. The other airlines operate out of Hamburg's main airport, Fuhlsbuettel, which is eight miles from the city centre.
Report by Ginny McGrath
Manchester to lose six routes
British Airways-owned carrier, British Airways Citiexpress is scrapping a raft of flights from Manchester and Birmingham this winter.
The routes being scrapped from Manchester after September 11 2005 are Venice, Stuttgart, Cork, Rome, Nice and Pisa, while Zurich and Shannon are being suspended between October 30 and March 26 2006, and the future of these routes remains under review.
A spokesman for BA Citiexpress told Businesstraveller.com that the carrier was reducing its fleet of aircraft by three and was concentrating on business routes, while BA franchise GB Airways, which also operates flights out of Manchester, concentrates predominantly on leisure destinations. He said business demand for the above Citiexpress routes was not sufficient.
Although BA Citiexpress does not cite low cost airlines for its decision to scrap the destinations, the launch of Jet2 from Manchester to Nice, Pisa and Venice, has put pressure on fares.
Customers with bookings for Manchester-Venice will be rebooked on Venice flights from Manchester via Gatwick and Pisa-bound customers will also re-route via Gatwick. Nice, Rome and Stuttgart-bound customers can travel via Heathrow.
Passengers booked on flights to Cork can rebook with Aer Lingus via London, or rebook to an alternative BA or BA franchise carrier destination, with any additional fare costs met by the passenger, and if the fare is lower, the difference is refunded. The change in booking must be done no later than two weeks after the original flight.
At Birmingham, BA Citiexpress flights to Vienna and Rome are being withdrawn for the winter, and a return to service next March is also under review. For Rome, passengers can rebook with SN Brussels via Brussels or choose an alternative destination. For Vienna the option is to fly via Manchester or Heathrow with BA or with SN Brussels via Brussels.
Passengers can also apply for a refund if they are unhappy with the alternative arrangements. For more details of terms and conditions following flight disruption, go to BA website (www.ba.com) .
Report by Ginny McGrath
Near-misses less common
Frequent air travellers can take comfort from the latest report concerning the number of near-miss incidents in UK airspace.
The latest statistics reveal there were eight incidents during 2004 in UK airspace involving at least one commercial aircraft. However, only one incident was considered Category A, which means that an actual risk of collision existed.
The government regulator of the aviation industry, CAA, told Businesstraveller.com that these eight incidents occurred against a background figure of over two million flights in UK airspace each year. This means less than one in every 250,000 flights in UK airspace are involved in "airprox" incidents, defined as a situation when an airline pilot or controller believes that the safety of an aircraft has been compromised by the proximity of another aircraft.
The report is produced by the UK Airprox Board, an organisation made up of pilots and controllers, and whose role in to enhance air safety. According to the Airprox Board there is a down trend in the number of risk-bearing incidents involving commercial aircraft in the UK.
Report by Ginny McGrath
New Gatwick routes for 2006
British Airways is launching flights to Iceland and Albania for the first time next year.
The services are two of four new routes being launched from Gatwick at the end of March. Albania's capital, Tirana will be served three times a week from March 27 2006, with fares from £205 return. BA will be the only airline operating direct flights between Tirana and the UK.
The service to Reykjavik in Iceland will operate five times a week from March 26 with fares from £149 return. BA will compete with Icelandair from Heathrow and Iceland Express from Stansted.
In addition to these services, flights to Varna on Bulgaria's Black Sea coast will operate from March 29 with return fares from £149. BA goes head-to-head with local airline, Bulgaria Air, which also operates from Gatwick three times a week.
The fourth service, launching on March 26 is to Izmir in Turkey. Fares start at £149 return and the service will operate three times a week with competition from Kubris Turkish Airlines, which flies to Izmir out of Stansted and Heathrow. All fares include taxes and charges. Go to www.ba.com.
Report by Ginny McGrath
Little black dress to the rescue
One for female business travellers: taking the mini-bar to a whole new level, W Hotels Worldwide is to provide 'emergency' fashion and beauty kits for guests who, for whatever reason, find themselves without the appropriate attire.
The trendy chain is teaming up with style icon Diane von Furstenberg to introduce to its 'Munchie Boxes' (aka mini-bars) an 'Emergency Survival Kit' containing a boxed set of mini lip glosses, mascara and perfume, all from Diane von Furstenberg's signature cosmetics line. The beauty box costs $24. For even greater emergencies, guests can rely on a fashion kit featuring Diane's classic black wrap dress with matching thong, at a cost of $320. The kits will be available in most W hotels from September, and can also be purchased in W's retail boutiques.
So, in the case of an emergency the girls are OK, but what about the boys?
Alan in CBR
Aug 11, 05, 9:38 pm
For even greater emergencies, guests can rely on a fashion kit featuring Diane's classic black wrap dress with matching thong, ...
So, in the case of an emergency the girls are OK, but what about the boys?
Maybe they need to introduce a men's kit featuring "classic black Stubbies with matching thongs". This is for when you are travelling on business and unexpectedly get invited to a Barbie.
serfty
Aug 11, 05, 10:05 pm
Maybe they need to introduce a men's kit featuring "classic black Stubbies with matching thongs". This is for when you are travelling on business and unexpectedly get invited to a Barbie.What about an emergency pack for when you are travelling on business and unexpectedly get invited by a Barbie. :D
Dazer
Aug 12, 05, 12:52 pm
Maybe they need to introduce a men's kit featuring "classic black Stubbies with matching thongs". This is for when you are travelling on business and unexpectedly get invited to a Barbie.
Add a 6 pack of b*e*e*r and they could call it "The Barbie Pack" :D
What about an emergency pack for when you are travelling on business and unexpectedly get invited by a Barbie. :D
Add a bottle of bubbly and this could be "The Ken Pack" :D
Back on topic for the QF forum ^
QF WP
Aug 18, 05, 9:07 pm
Troubles continue for BA
The British Airways flight schedule out of Heathrow has been reinstated after last week's chaos, but in-flight catering is still not back to normal.
The carrier is warning passengers to eat before they arrive at Heathrow Airport because ongoing strike action taken by staff of in-flight caterers, Gate Gourmet, means many flights leaving and arriving at the airport carry little or no refreshments.
Business Traveller has been inundated with reports from readers who have been affected. Tony Mather, an executive from BOC, flew to Hong Kong in business class this week. He was given a £40 voucher to spend on food at Heathrow. Once onboard he was upgraded to First Class, but offered only water, tea and coffee for the 13-hour flight. He told businesstraveller.com: "The cabin crew were just at a loss as to what to do. They were helpful and charming but had no trolleys to push and meals or drinks to distribute."
James Pearce, managing director of Gold Key Media Limited was also caught up in the chaos. He was lucky enough to be booked on one of the first BA flights that left Heathrow on Friday evening after the strikes and got a snack pack and water to take on-board in the absence of in-flight catering. However, his family returning on Monday from Nice were given 10 Euro vouchers to buy food at Nice airport. All savoury food had run out due to high demand, so they spent their vouchers on sweets. Business Traveller's own reporter Felicity Cousins, flew from Berlin to Heathrow with BA on Sunday received a bag containing an apple, chocolate bar, pretzels, juice carton and bottle of water, but there were no further refreshments on board – and no tea or coffee.
A further problem was encountered by BA business class passengers this week, who were given food vouchers of up to £35 to spend at the airport before boarding the flight, but when they went to Pret A Manger to spend the vouchers, the food outlet had closed for 45 minutes because it was restocking following high demand from passengers.
Other airlines affected by last week's strike action included Qantas and Finnair, but both have confirmed that they are unaffected by the Gate Gourmet strikes and are currently offering full in-flight catering on flights in and out of Heathrow.
Report by Ginny McGrath
Trains adopt low cost airline pricing
Two of Britain's leading train companies, Virgin Trains and GNER, are poised to make the biggest changes to their excursion rail fares seen in years. Both are adopting budget airline style pricing which will see the present range of complex and restrictive tariffs simplified with tickets bookable much closer to departure. Out go those irksome restrictions such as compulsory advance booking and Saturday night stays to be replaced by simple one-way fares with the price you pay depending on when you travel and how far ahead you book.
Says a Virgin Trains spokesman: "It's correct. We are falling in line with airline practice. So rather than passengers having to book 14, seven or three days ahead it will now be possible to book up until 6pm on the day before travel. The idea is to offer passengers more flexibility and to fill seats which would otherwise be empty." Tickets, both for first and standard class, are bookable on a one-way basis. Passengers will be able to combine class and fare types.
Adds GNER: "If a passenger travelling from Leeds to London has to travel south at a busy time but return off-peak, he or she can travel for less by opting for a quieter train for the return."
Existing "walk-up" fares will continue but, as at present, these will be several times more expensive. The train firms say that passengers will still have to book well ahead to get the cheaper prices. But it now means that impulse travellers and those passengers travelling on business will find it much easier to get a good deal.
Prices are not yet available. GNER's new fares take effect from September 26. Virgin plans to follow soon after. For more information go to GNER (www.gner.co.uk) and Virgintrains (www.virgintrains.co.uk).
Report by Alex McWhirter
Improved sites for Easyjet and SIA
Easyjet has today launched a revamped version of its website that is clearer and easier to use, and a bit less orange.
The website is sales-orientated with clearly labelled large tabs along the top that encourage customers to book extras such as hotels, car hire, airport transfers and airport car parking, when they book an Easyjet flight. In addition, the website is easier to use, with a cleaner homepage with links to functions that allow users to change existing bookings, make group bookings, check timetables and pick up destination information.
The homepage is also used to highlight new and existing routes, showing daily frequencies and starting fares. The website also continues to show the full range of fares available on various services offered on the requested day or travel and a day either side, so customers can save money if their departure times are flexible.
Singapore Airlines (SIA) has also unveiled a revamped website, which is one of the best offered by any Asian carrier. Out go the complex graphics and slow-functioning pages in favour of a cleaner, minimalist look with speedier responses.
One of the most important features is where SIA's flights (both point-to-point and connecting services) are simply priced and displayed for five days either side of your requested date. In this respect, SIA has fallen in line with the user-friendly displays offered by Europe's KLM (www.klm.com)[/b], Air France (www.airfrance.co.uk)[/b]) and the afore-mentioned Easyjet website. It enables passengers to choose the best date and price combination for their needs. Also, one useful function (where you can return to the home page by clicking on the SIA logo) isn't highlighted.
Minus points? You can't discover the total price unless you continue to "Passenger Details." Go to SIA UK site (www.singaporeair.co.uk).
Report by Ginny McGrath and Alex McWhirter
Free internet next battleground for hotels
Free broadband internet access is being offered by an increasing number of hotel chains in a bid to woo business travellers. The latest hotel group to offer free broadband is Radisson SAS, which is rolling out the initiative as part of its E@syConnect service across hotels in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. It will be available in most hotels by September 1.
Guests can use wired or wireless internet access free-of-charge in bedrooms, public area and meeting rooms. The group completed installation of wireless hotspots in most of its hotels at the start of 2005. Kurt Ritter, president and chief executive of Radisson SAS parent company, Rezidor SAS Hospitality, said: "Free broadband as a service is what guests want from hotels today."
The brand's nine UK properties in Leeds, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Stansted, Limavady, Belfast, Edinburgh and Glasgow. For more information go to Free Broadband @ Radisson SAS (www.freebroadband.radissonsas.com).
Other hotel groups that offer free internet include Malmaison, which has wireless internet in the lobby and bar areas of its UK hotels and a broadband dataport connection in the rooms.
W hotels, the trendy boutique brand from Starwood also offers free wireless internet access in its public areas, and Staybridge Suites, the new long-stay hotel offering being launched by InterContinental Hotels in 2006, also plans to offer free broadband internet in its rooms.
Report by Ginny McGrath
AA to boost business class (WOO HOO :cool: )
American Airlines is making its business class seats more comfortable for passengers wanting to catch up on sleep.
The carrier is introducing lie-flat style seats to business class from next year. The seats will debut on AA's Boeing 767-300 aircraft, which operate on transatlantic flights from Dublin, Manchester and Glasgow and some flights from London Gatwick. Passengers flying in business with AA from London Heathrow and most Gatwick services will have to wait until 2007 to try the seats on the carrier's Boeing 777 fleet.
The lie-flat style seats are described as such because the seat does not recline to a completely flat bed, instead the head and torso of the passenger remains slightly raised. The seats are more comfortable and adjustable with more space for working, plus they are accompanied by improved in-flight entertainment.
Currently the only airlines operating truly lie flat seats in business class are British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, South African Airways, Jet Airways, and from November, Air New Zealand.
In First Class cabins, AA is extending the availability of its Flagship Suites to 20 more aircraft in its Boeing 777 fleet. This will take place over the next two. The seats can be swivelled into different positions and convert to a fully-flat bed. The intention is for passengers to experience the same product every time they fly on the 777 aircraft.
Report by Ginny McGrath and Alex McWhirter
Easyjet eyes Geneva
Easyjet is boosting flights from UK regional airports to Geneva. The low cost carrier is launching flights from Robin Hood Doncaster Sheffield, Edinburgh and Glasgow from December. The services are being billed as "ski routes" but are likely to be popular with business travellers as well as leisure travellers headed for the slopes.
The Geneva flight from Doncaster Sheffield is Easyjet's debut at the airport. It will operate daily from December 15, with an evening departure at 7.40pm every day except Sunday when the flight leaves at 9.35am. The return flight will leave Geneva at 6.20pm (except Sunday, which leaves at 8.15am). The operators of Doncaster Sheffield airport hope the Geneva flight will be the first of a raft of Easyjet flights launching from the airport.
The Geneva flight from Edinburgh will also be offered daily from December 15, with flights leaving Scotland at 14.40pm daily and return flights from Geneva leaving at 12.55pm (add ten minutes to both times for Sunday departures). The Glasgow flight will be less useful for business travellers as it will operate only on a Saturday, from December 17.
Fares start at £55 return including taxes on all three routes. For more information go to Easyjet website (www.easyjet.com).
Report by Ginny McGrath
QF WP
Aug 31, 05, 10:25 pm
Class divide
SAS will offer one-way fares in all three classes from September 1, giving business travellers the chance to travel in one class and back in another.
Passengers can choose between three classes – Economy for the lowest fares, Economy Flex for those who need more flexibility, and Business Class for passengers who want extra in-flight comfort.
"Anyone who travels on business knows when a meeting is due to start, but often does not know when a meeting will end and needs the flexibility to be able to change travel arrangements," said Lars-Ove Filipson, general manager for SAS UK and Ireland.
"Our new pricing structure gives travellers the opportunity to combine low Economy fares one way with the flexibility of Economy Flex or Business Class, therefore giving choice and flexibility to the business traveller," he said. The new fare structure is available on all routes except for intercontinental services.
In addition, the airline has lifted restrictions on tickets such as minimum or maximum stay requirements and advance purchase conditions. Specifically targeting the UK traveller, it has also lowered fares so that adult one-way fares start from just £45, including taxes, from UK to Scandinavia destinations.
The airline flies from 10 UK airports to the Nordic countries, with connections to the Baltics, rest of Europe, US. and the Far East.
New business airline confident of September launch
All-premium class airline, Eos, is insisting it is still on schedule to launch flights at the end of September between London Stansted and New York JFK.
Eos has recently received its 'show cause order' from the US Transportation Department, tentatively approving the airline's certification, and is currently waiting for the FAA approval that will allow it to start flying.
A spokeswoman said this would be achieved in the next week or so and flights will launch at the end of September as planned. The privately-owned airline is promising each passenger 21 square feet in space by offering only 48 seats in a Boeing 757 aircraft which can seat up to 200.
David Spurlock, founder and CEO of Eos and former director of strategic development for British Airways, said: "We've designed every aspect of the Eos experience specifically with the business traveller in mind. We recognise that time in the air could be better spent relaxing and reviving for an upcoming business trip or to accomplish work along the way in privacy." Each ergonomically designed seat, with a privacy shell, is over 21 inches wide when upright and 24 inches wide when fully reclined to a six foot five-inch bed. All 24 window seats have a direct path to the aisle.
Founded in March 2003, Eos is named after the Greek goddess of the Dawn.
The company has raised $87 million in equity and approximately $100 million in lease financing.
Hyatt unveils a fourth brand
Hyatt Place has been revealed as the name for Global Hyatt Corp's new limited service brand being rolled out after the group's purchase of the AmeriSuites hotel chain in January. The group is investing more than $150 million on renovation and a marketing campaign for the brand, which will sit alongside its existing three brands – Park, Grand and Regency.
Hyatt is currently building a prototype Hyatt Place which will form the basis of the retrofit of the existing AmeriSuites hotels. Renovation and repositioning of AmeriSuites hotels is due to start at the end of 2005 and be completed in late 2006. No specific details have been revealed at this stage, but a spokeswoman said the Hyatt Place hotels would offer luxury limited service suites with kitchens. "Each one will have a restaurant, but there will not be room service," she said.
The 143 AmeriSuites, all in the US, currently have in-room microwaves and refrigerators, high-speed internet access, complimentary hot breakfast daily, fitness centres and pools, business centres and meeting rooms. Hyatt intends to expand the brand inside and outside of the US.
American menus get the Texan touch
American Airlines has enlisted the help of award-winning chefs to devise new menus for business and first class passengers on transatlantic flights.
From September 1, flights from the US to Europe will feature typical American cuisine inspired by Dallas-based chef Stephan Pyles. Pyles is known as the founding father of 'Southwestern' and 'New Texas' cuisine and is the only chef from Dallas to be inducted into The James Beard Foundation's Who's Who of Food and Beverage in America.
New business class main courses include cowboy steak with red chili onions and corn-bean ragout, lamb shank with an ale tomato sauce, chicken Madeira, or pumpkin ravioli with sage cream sauce. In developing the menu, the airline also took advice from its flight attendants who gave first-hand experience of international passengers' likes and dislikes.
Menus on flights from Europe to the US were updated earlier this summer and now feature dishes created from European ingredients and recipes put together by top European chefs.
Earlier this month, American announced that new business class seats, in-flight entertainment and larger overhead bins will be installed on its Boeing 767-300s aircraft from 2006, and on its Boeing 777s the following year.
New routes for British Airways
British Airways will start flying from London Gatwick to Reykjavik, Iceland, and to Tirana, Albania, from March 2006.
It will be the first time BA has served either city. Tirana flights will leave London three times a week on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays, with fares starting at £205 return.
Reykjavik flights go every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday with fares from £149.
In the same month, the airline is launching twice-weekly flights from Gatwick to Varna on Bulgaria's Black Sea coast from £149, and to Izmir, Turkey's third largest city, three times a week, for the same price.
Alan Burnett, BA head of UK and Ireland sales and marketing, said: "We believe these new routes will attract holiday-makers who are looking for new, exciting destinations to visit, as well as business customers, friends and relatives travelling to and from the UK."
QF WP
Sep 1, 05, 7:27 pm
Business jets for KLM
KLM is following in the footsteps of Lufthansa and Swiss with a transatlantic business class-only service.
The Dutch carrier is launching six flights a week between Amsterdam and Houston from October 30. The flights will be operated by a Boeing 737-700 aircraft with 44 lie-flat seats in a 2-2 configuration with plug-in points for laptop computers, and like Lufthansa and Swiss the flights are being operated by Geneva-based company PrivatAir.
The flights will replace the current three times weekly Boeing 767 flights operated by KLM between the two cities, but will supplement the daily Boeing 747-400 flights. The net effect is an overall reduction in general capacity but a 45% increase in business class capacity on the route. Passengers will travel in a PrivatAir liveried jet but can expect the same in-flight service offered in KLM's World Business Class cabins. The flight is being operated as a codeshare with Northwest.
KLM is targeting the service at large corporations, and hopes to appeal in particular to executives from the oil sector. Oil giant Shell recently moved its headquarters from London to Holland, thereby increasing business traffic out of Amsterdam. The new service will also appeal to passengers in transit from Europe, Middle East and North America.
It follows the launch of the Dedicate service by KLM's partner Air France, which ferries oil-related business traffic from Paris to less conventional business destinations such as Equatorial Guinea and Congo-Brazzaville (although Air France offers two classes and uses smaller planes). Flights will leave Amsterdam at 2.25pm and arrive at Houston at 6.45pm, and will return from Houston at 8.15pm, arriving in Amsterdam at 12.35pm the following day. The service will operate every day except Wednesday.
Report by Alex McWhirter and Ginny McGrath
New loyalty scheme for Eurostar
Eurostar claims its relaunched Frequent Traveller scheme is simpler than those of its airline rivals. The new scheme, launched this week, means passengers earn points according to how much they pay for their ticket, rather than the type of ticket they buy. For example, three tickets purchased for between £300 and £499 (equivalent of three return tickets in Business Premier class), would earn 900 points - enough for a return ticket in Standard class.
Eurostar loyalty scheme manager Joanna Ball said: "Our scheme is now far more flexible than before and, with points earned for every ticket purchased, also much simpler than those of competitor airlines." Points can now be earned on promotional fares and on indirect journeys to Eurostar Connections destinations such as Lyon and Amsterdam.
There are two levels to the Frequent Traveller scheme. The higher level, Carte Blanche, applies to customers who earn 1,500 points per year, the equivalent of five return Business Premier tickets. This level of points must be earned each year to retain Carte Blanche status.
Points can be redeemed for tickets booked up to four hours before departure for Carte Blanche members and up to seven days before departure for all other members. Members cannot redeem points for travel on Eurostar's ski service to Bourg St Maurice, Moutiers and Aime-la-Plagne.
To join the scheme customers need to register online and provide proof of purchase of a Eurostar return ticket worth £185 or two singles worth £92.50. To retain membership at least one trip must be made with Eurostar every year.
In addition to its new frequent traveller scheme, Eurostar has introduced a new three-class service. The first class carriages on each train are now divided into Business Premier and Leisure Select, with the number of carriages devoted to each class changing throughout the day according to demand. The remaining carriages are Standard class. For more information go to Eurostar web site (www.eurostar.com).
Report by Ginny McGrath
Radisson goes for wow factor
Frankfurt's hotel offering is being shaken up by the arrival of a striking Radisson SAS property. The 428-room hotel, which opens in November, is located near the Frankfurt Messe exhibition centre and about 15 minutes from Frankfurt International Airport.
The jaw-dropping exterior has a shimmering glass block as the main body of the hotel, framed by a circular disc of blue-tinted glass. All rooms have high-speed plug-in and wireless internet access plus flat-screen televisions, laptop-sized safe and cable and pay movies. The rooms, styled by Italian designer Metteo Thun, come in four different themes: chic, fashion, fresh and at home, to suit the mood of the guest.
The hotel has a choice of two restaurants – Coast Brasserie and Oyster Bar for Pacific Coast cuisine and Gaia Restaurant serving Mediterranean dishes. There are also the Wunder Bar and Cigar Lounge and Jam coffee shop. In addition there's a fitness centre on the top floor with panoramic views over Frankfurt and an eight-metre swimming pool with counter-current unit to save guests the boredom of doing laps. The centre is equipped with steam room, solarium and sauna.
The meeting facilities can cater for 1,000 delegates and all rooms have natural daylight with floor-to-ceiling windows. A ballroom with terrace is available for large events.
The hotel is taking bookings from November 1 with rates from 185 Euros including VAT per night. For more information go to Radisson SAS Web site (www.radissonsas.com).
Report by Ginny McGrath
Virgin unveils new lounge
Already famous for its in-flight massages and pre-flight hair cuts, Virgin is going one step further for its premium passengers with a new luxurious lounge at Heathrow.
Upper Class passengers will be able to enjoy the new Clubhouse lounge from this month, when the first phase opens. When the second phase opens at the end of December, the lounge will be twice the size of the original Clubhouse.
Entered via an elaborate staircase, the lounge has been decorated to look like a private members' club with features such as a Swarovski crystal chandelier and solid walnut and leather seating. It features a spa with a steam room, sauna and spa pool, as well as a tanning booth and therapists offering manicures, pedicures, facials, massages and a wet shave for men. The spa is being operated by the Soho House spa brand Cowshed, and the hair salon by fashionable hairdressers, Bumble and Bumble.
There will be a 14-metre cocktail bar and restaurant serving full meals and light snacks in addition to buffet stations and bars. If there's still time to get on with work, passengers can access wireless internet access or get online through computer terminals provided in the work area. Alternatively PlayStation portable units are available to play games, download music and watch movies.
Report by Ginny McGrath
No-frills expansion for Newcastle (UK)
Jet2.com has announced its second destination from Newcastle International Airport.
From October 20 the carrier will fly to Cork, with three or four flights a week (schedule varies – see Jet2.com web site (www.jet2.com)). The carrier's other service out of Newcastle commences next week to Murcia. Jet2 faces no competition on the Newcastle-Cork route but fares are competitive, with prices starting at £9 each way including taxes. Jet2 also offers flights out of Leeds Bradford to 16 destinations, from Manchester to 16 destinations and from Belfast to five destinations.
Report by Ginny McGrath
Dusseldorf gets new hotel
The InterContinental Dusseldorf will open on September 1 on the Koenigsallee, the city's main shopping and business street. The hotel is three miles from the airport and close to Dusseldorf's main train station, so it can be easily accessed by international travellers.
It has 254 guest rooms and 32 suites, an all-day dining restaurant, wine room, bar, and a Holmes Place Health and Fitness Club with an indoor pool, sauna and whirlpool. It also has extensive meetings and conference facilities, including the largest ballroom in Dusseldorf.
Strawb
Sep 3, 05, 9:20 am
New loyalty scheme for Eurostar
Eurostar claims its relaunched Frequent Traveller scheme is simpler than those of its airline rivals. The new scheme, launched this week, means passengers earn points according to how much they pay for their ticket, rather than the type of ticket they buy. For example, three tickets purchased for between £300 and £499 (equivalent of three return tickets in Business Premier class), would earn 900 points - enough for a return ticket in Standard class.
So from their new earning structure:
Ticket price (either single or return) Number of points earned
Above £500 400
From £300 to £499 300
From £185 to £299 200
From £52 to £184 100
Less than £52 25
A Business Premier single from London-Paris is £215 and will earn you 200 points. A return is £430 and will only earn you 300 points, which is the same as before. So by purchasing 2 separate singles for the same price of a return you earn a free 100 points (doesn't work with Business Standard tickets) each time.
enough for a return ticket in Standard class.
Not quite. It's 1000 points for a return in Standard, or 500 points one way.
QF WP
Sep 8, 05, 8:12 pm
UK in line for BA.com booking fee
BA has quietly brought in a booking fee for passengers booking online using ba.com from certain European countries. Unlike other carriers, who highlight their online fees, the BA charge is only apparent once the "taxes, fees and surcharges" box is reached on the final booking page.
BA's new fee, roughly Euros 5 per person per ticket, was introduced on August 31. It applies to flights originating at 27 countries in mainland Europe, Scandinavia and Israel. But "the online fee will be introduced into the UK once we have worked out the technicalities," confirmed a BA spokesperson to Business Traveller.
By levying this fee, BA has fallen in line with rivals like Austrian Airlines, Finnair, KLM, Lufthansa, SAS, Swiss and TAP who are already charging for online bookings in various countries (the UK excepted). Adds BA, "What we are saying is that British Airways is committed to transparent pricing and that the fee reflects the cost of the booking systems."
The airline says it hasn't yet determined how much its UK online fee will be. But whatever it is you can sure that once BA acts, its rivals will follow suit in the UK. And once imposed, fees have a nasty habit of increasing – witness the London Congestion Charge.
Report by Alex McWhirter
Under 25% of business travellers go wireless
A survey published this week claims that actual use of wireless internet technology by business travellers is far below anticipated levels. The survey of more than 2,000 business travellers from the US and UK found that only 25% of US respondents and 17% of UK respondents use wireless internet access.
The reason for the slow take up of the technology, according to technology research and analyst firm Gartner, which carried out the research, is not because people are bamboozled by the technology required to enable wireless internet access. The survey claims that instead the desire to be "out of reach" of the office is the overwhelming factor behind the sluggish take up. The results were in stark contrast to a poll of Businesstraveller.com readers in October 2004, which found that 64% of respondents use wireless internet access.
The survey reports that 78% of US respondents and 75% of UK respondents said they welcome the chance to be out of contact for a while whilst on an aircraft. Commenting on the results research vice president Delia MacMillan said: "Some airlines such as Lufthansa and SAS in Europe and ANA, JAL and Singapore Airlines in Asia are offering wireless internet access to their passengers but, although the service is accessible, there are a number of technical and business issues that are obstructing growth regardless of the mode of transport."
Additionally an average 31% of the sample said they have no need to use wireless hot spots on the ground. Other factors slowing use of wireless internet access is concern over the cost of access and location of hot spots.
Report by Ginny McGrath
BA admits inflight service still limited
Though out of the headlines for the moment, the catering problems on British Airways flights out of Heathrow continue.
Executive Club members will have recently received an email note from BA Commercial Director Martin George, detailing the current offering. "In World Traveller and World Traveller Plus customers will have a choice of hot main courses for the main meal service with a deli-bag for the second meal. From 6 September, a full bar service will be available on all long-haul flights from London Heathrow (inbound 6-11 September depending on route) as well as duty free sales."
Reports from Business Traveller readers confirm the problems on both short-haul and long-haul.
On a recent flight from Heathrow to Nice, there was no catering on the flight and the drinks service was patchy ("Outbound, drinks served included tea, coffee, water some juices (no ice), inbound a service announced but none materialised"). BA is offering an enhanced food offering in the lounges to compensate, but if you do not have access to the lounges, beware. You may have to ask for a meal voucher (currently £5), particularly if you check in by internet or using self service terminals. The same reader found that it was only by approaching a BA member of staff that a voucher was offered at Nice airport (for Euro15).
Long-haul, the drinks service seems to be close to normal, but there are limited choices of main courses, and indeed Martin George in his note admits that, "due to the reduced catering service, we are currently unable to meet any special dietary requirements onboard our flights to/from London Heathrow".
All business to go lie-flat
Passengers flying the growing number of transatlantic all business class Boeing 737 flights operated by Lufthansa, Swiss and, soon, KLM can look forward to more comfortable and spacious seating.
The services are all operated by the airlines under contract by luxury Swiss charter carrier PrivatAir. Passengers had to make do with older seating which, although adequate by Nineties' standards, is now outclassed by the latest generation. Travellers turned a blind eye because, with less than 50 seats, these B737 flights provided a club-like travel atmosphere with faster ground handling.
But by developing a PrivatDream seat (pictured), the Swiss carrier can at last provide passengers with the benefits of lie-flat seating. Speaking to Business Traveller, marketing executive Markus Schofert says, "Our PrivatDream seat is lie-flat style. It offers 60 inches of legroom and 172 angle of recline. This compares with a seat pitch of 55 inches and a 135 angle of recline on the seating currently offered on the B737 we operate for Lufthansa between Munich and New York Newark."
Until recently it was believed it wasn't feasible to fit the latest generation of popular lie-flat business class seating owing to space and weight constraints, but now PrivatDream seating (which also offers a hand held entertainment system but no email or internet) has been fitted to the B737 operating on behalf of Swiss between Zurich and New York JFK. In addition, 44 PrivatDream seats will be installed on the B737 provided to KLM for its forthcoming Amsterdam-Houston service [commencing October 30]. Towards the end of this year the PrivatDream seat will appear on Lufthansa's Munich to New York Newark B737 service.
Report by Alex McWhirter
Fresh start for London Marriott
Marriott's multi-million pound renovation of London's iconic Grosvenor House Hotel on London's Park Lane continues apace. The US chain is spending GBP 100 million over the next two years on converting this five star property into a JW Marriott, its most prestigious brand.
Meanwhile the Grosvenor House remains open for business. Two hundred existing rooms (out of a room count of 446) are available for sale while the remainder of the hotel is extensively refurbished.
Chip Stuckmeyer, who is in charge of sales and marketing strategy at the Grosvenor House told Business Traveller: "All accommodation is being stripped right down to the concrete while we install the very latest guest standards including state-of-the-art air-conditioning and communications facilities."
The first of the new-look rooms will come on line in July 2006 with the remainder and including all public areas following by March 2007 when the JW Marriott rebranding will be completed.
The property will then feature some of the best accommodation in London's Mayfair district complete with a 22-metre swimming pool and the largest ballroom in Europe. Existing midweek room rates start at £239 (plus tax) with a useful £249 (plus tax) rate throwing in breakfast, internet access and earlier 10.30 check-in. For more information go to Marriott web site (www.marriott.com)
Report by Alex McWhirter
Fairmont eyes Europe
The luxury hotel group Fairmont Hotels & Resorts has announced more details of its expansion plans.
The group, which currently has 44 hotels around the world, announced at the weekend that it is actively seeking properties in Milan, Amsterdam, Paris and Berlin, and aims ultimately to have 10 hotels across Europe. The announcement was made by John Johnston, executive vice-president for Europe, Africa, Middle East of Fairmont Hotels at the group's Monte Carlo property. The hotel is a new acquisition for Fairmont and this week celebrated its 30th birthday following a rebrand in March this year. The group also took over ownership of London's iconic The Savoy in January 2005.
The focus on Europe will put Fairmont in direct competition with the Jumeriah group, which is actively expanding, and Shangri-la, which is expected in the near future to announce the site for its first US property.
Report by Tom Otley
Aisle Seat H
Sep 14, 05, 8:22 am
I won one of the runner up prizes in one of the BT comps btw ! (60-day trial membership of the Golfing Elite service). Not much, but pretty useful seeing as I am a golfer !
The comps can be entered via this link, no need to be a subscriber - http://www.businesstraveller.com/default.asp?page=30
QF WP
Sep 14, 05, 10:03 am
Well done, Aisle Seat H. You'll need all the help you can get for when you and I have a Golf Challenge over here :D ;)
QF WP
Sep 15, 05, 8:03 pm
Then there were four...
Faced with billions of dollars of debt, two of the biggest US carriers, Northwest and Delta, joined United and US Airways in Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection yesterday.
Delta is the third largest US carrier and is based in Atlanta. Northwest is the fourth largest and is headquartered in Minneapolis. Both belong to the Skyteam alliance whose members include Air France, KLM and Korean.
For now Northwest and Delta claim it's business as usual.
Says Delta CEO Gerald Grinstein, "We are open for business and will continue regular operations today and throughout the reorganisation process. We are committed to our international markets and look forward to adding new routes and destinations around the world as we continue to implement our transformation plan and move Delta towards a more secure future."
American and Continental are the only two US major carriers trading normally (although Continental has previously twice traded in Chapter 11). Airlines can trade in Chapter 11 for a period of months or years while they reorganise themselves by cutting labour costs and renegotiating contracts with caterers, airports, oil firms and so on.
Some carriers eventually emerge from Chapter 11 (for example, America West and Continental) but most do not.
Pan Am, TWA, Eastern and Braniff are four majors who traded in Chapter 11 but were eventually forced to close.
For that reason passengers planning to use a Chapter 11 airline must check their travel insurance policy carefully. Not all firms will insure against financial failure of Chapter 11 carriers.
[Hey Aisle Seat H, a lot of good my Northwest status match was...]
Domestic fares down
Increased competition from Virgin Trains has prompted Belgian airline VLM to cut fares. The two UK domestic routes affected are out of London City.
Return flights to Manchester (served eight times daily between Monday and Friday) now start at £78 with Liverpool (served five times a day during the working week) leading-in at £58.
Although VLM's passenger numbers are doing well compared with last year (up by 38% in the case of the Manchester route), Virgin Trains is becoming a fierce rival. The train firm now operates all services with Pendolino tilting trains and from September 25 it will offer new, last minute cheap ticket deals which will be more accessible to business people (see "Trains adopt low-cost airline pricing", online news August 18).
VLM's new tariffs narrow the gap between air and rail pricing. It also means it is substantially cheaper to fly from London City than from Heathrow. Booked today (Thursday) a day return trip to Manchester for September 20 (allowing a stay of seven hours) costs £158 whereas the British Airways price from Heathrow would be £256. A one night stay based on peak time flights and travelling out on September 19 costs £218 from City compared with £295 from Heathrow.
According to VLM's commercial director Peter Kenworthy, "A good number of passengers departing Liverpool and Manchester are using London City as a springboard for harder to reach destinations in mainland Europe."
London City has the only direct flights to cities like Antwerp, Berne, Bremen, Lugano and Rotterdam. You can also fly to Paris Orly (with better access to the capital's south) rather than CDG.
"London City has a 30 minute transfer time," adds Kenworthy, "which doesn't present a problem because lots of passengers using this airport carry only hand luggage." Fly VLM (www.flyvlm.com)
Report by Alex McWhirter
Improved site for Lufthansa
Lufthansa is busy updating its website. Yesterday, without any fanfare, the German airline launched a new booking engine which provides transfer passengers with clearer displays enabling them to locate a better fare more easily.
Not before time, critics might say. The former lufthansa.com was sluggish, long-winded and only provided transparent prices for simple point-to-point flights. This seemed strange when millions of Lufthansa passengers were booking trips not just to Frankfurt or Munich but to destinations worldwide via these two important hubs.
Says a Lufthansa spokesperson, "The new booking system (supported by airline system Amadeus along with IBM) offers two possibilities. Passengers can choose between a 'fare driven' or 'schedule driven' booking. Fare driven provides maximum price transparency for three days either side of your chosen date so you can select the best price and routing combination for your needs. Schedule driven lets you choose your exact dates and flights at a favourable price.
Existing features such as the facility to book "open jaw" and multiple sector trips are retained.
Lufthansa points out that the new site is in the early stages of its launch period. Other features will be added in the days ahead. For more information go to www.lufthansa.com
Report by Alex McWhirter
Prague routes dropped
Passengers intending to fly from London Gatwick to Prague have less choice now that two carriers have recently quit the route.
Fierce competition from Easyjet and British Airways is understood to have prompted budget Czech airline Smart Wings scrap its daily service earlier this summer. National Czech carrier CSA quietly dropped its twice daily flights at the beginning of this month.
Says a spokesman for CSA, "Management decided to make better use of the B737 [the plane being used between Gatwick and Prague] on other routes, especially those between Prague and Eastern Europe where flight frequencies have been increased."
It means that business travellers are now poorly served with limited day trip possibilities. Existing schedules mean that the first Gatwick-Prague flight (with Easyjet) doesn't depart until 11.40 while the first inbound service to Gatwick (also with Easyjet) doesn't leave the Czech capital until 15.05.
Easyjet's other service departs at 18.20, returning from Prague at 21.45. The existing BA service departs Gatwick at 1155 returning at 15.30.
But matters improve with the start of the winter timetable on October 30. Although BA retains roughly the same schedule. Easyjet will advance its present mid-morning service to give an 07.40 from Gatwick with an 11.15 return from Prague.
Ryanair has announced a new UK base. The carrier is expanding its services from Nottingham East Midlands Airport from 5 to 15 routes, with the addition of the following destinations: Berlin, Derry, Nimes, Carcassonne, Nantes, Dinard, Limoges, Lodz, Wroclaw and Bergerac.
Ryanair already flies from Nottingham East Midlands Airport to Dublin, Shannon, Murcia, Barcelona and Rome. The new routes are expected to launch from March 7.
Report by Alex McWhirter and Ginny McGrath
Buenos Aires opening for Hyatt
Park Hyatt is converting a 1930s Argentinian palace into a striking hotel in the heart of the country's capital.
Called Palacio Duhau – Park Hyatt Buenos Aires, the 165-room hotel is set to open early next year, and is expected to wow both the business and leisure markets.
The hotel is located in the Recoleta district, which is home to other upmarket hotels such as Four Seasons and Kempinski properties, as well as a popular shopping district.
The restored palace, a remnant of the district's aristocratic past, is surrounded by landscaped gardens designed by Carlos Thais, who also designed the botanical gardens of Buenos Aires. There are 23 rooms and suites in the main palace, while the remaining 142 are in a separate Posada-style building, linked by an underground walkway, and constructed to complement the architectural style of the palace.
The top suite, The Duhau Suite is on the top floor of the palace and has a private terrace overlooking the gardens.
The hotel's lavish interior, with its bespoke furniture, will also feature an extensive art collection by local and international artists. The hotel will have wireless internet access in public areas and high-speed wired access in all guest rooms.
The restaurant serves international cuisine and is supplemented by a wine bar and cheese room, while the main bar has a 300-year old Normandy oak bar, a wood-burning fireplace, and its own terrace, or there's a more genteel affair next door serving breakfast, afternoon tea and snacks.
Guests will also have access to a gym, indoor swimming pool and five treatment rooms, and there is underground parking for 150 cars. There is a business centre with four computers offering wired and wireless internet access, plus five meeting rooms, two boardrooms, and an event space large enough to hold 300 guests, or the gardens can be hired for receptions.
The Buenos Aires property is one of 28 Hyatt hotels and resorts currently under development, which includes ten hotels in China. For more information go to www.hyatt.com.
Report by Ginny McGrath
Style and substance from Orient Express
Orient Express Hotels & Resorts had its summer party this week.
Lots of news, not least concerning its fourth Italian property, the refurbished Hotel Caruso in Ravello on the Amalfi coast. The hotel is on the site of the old Hotel Caruso Belvedere, which dates back to 1893, and in previous incarnations everyone from Virginia Wolf and Graham Greene has visited, enjoying dramatic, plunging views over the Gulf of Salerno.
Orient Express has spent US$30 million restoring the hotel, which is located 50 minutes from Naples and has extensive meeting facilities, with indoor and outdoor banqueting space for up to 300 people. It might be state of the art, but that old world charm has been retained. Having opened its doors in June, the hotel is closing on November 6 for the winter. Now that's style. Visit www.orientexpress.com.
Also mentioned at the party: the ultimate treat for carnivores: the Orient Express-owned restaurant steakhouse La Cabana in Buenos Aires which opened in 1935 is now offering a complete run-down on the provenance of customers' steaks. Good to know the meat comes from British herds, but a bar code label on your steak allows you to take a peek online at the pastures that nourished your cow, discover its sex and date of birth – and indeed death – the vaccines it received and its weight at slaughter. With food scares becoming more common, this could be the future.
Aisle Seat H
Sep 15, 05, 8:47 pm
Hey Aisle Seat H, a lot of good my Northwest status match was...]Sheesh, almost wish I had never started that Thread. I was only trying to help ! :rolleyes: ;)
Well done, Aisle Seat H. You'll need all the help you can get for when you and I have a Golf Challenge over here :D ;) Dreading it already mate ! ;)
virtualtroy
Sep 16, 05, 2:26 am
La Cabana: Good to know the meat comes from British herds
Really? A steak house in Buenos Aires, capital of the South American country with some of the best meat in the world and they fly in some manky side of British beef? What a shame, up til now I'd wanted to eat there when I go to BA next month.
QF WP
Sep 22, 05, 7:25 pm
US flights cancelled
British Airways is among a number of international and US domestic carriers to cancel a raft of US-bound flights as Hurricane Rita approaches the south-east coast of the US.
The Category 5 storm, with winds in excess of 155mph, is the ninth hurricane to affect the region this year and is predicted to hit land on the Texan coastline between Galveston and Corpus Christi. Both the domestic airport, Houston Hobby and international airport, George Bush Intercontinental, are likely to be affected.
British Airways has cancelled Gatwick-Houston services and Heathrow-Chicago-Houston services due to depart on Friday. Passengers due to travel on Houston flights that are cancelled can rebook an alternative date, choose an alternative destination or get a full refund. Anyone with tickets for travel to Houston up to September 28 can rebook on another date within two weeks of the original date of travel.
Southwest Airlines is cancelling all flights in and out of Houston Hobby from midday Friday September 23 in the interests of its staff and customers, and hopes to resume services from mid-morning on Sunday September 25, depending on the state of the hurricane. Continental has not yet issued a statement concerning the operation of flights in and out of Houston, but is expected to follow suit.
Evacuations warnings have been issued in parts of Texas, including Galveston and low lying parts of Houston, resulting in heavy traffic on some highways heading north from the coast.
Houston's airports are asking passengers without confirmed reservations not to turn up with the expectation of catching a flight because both airports are reporting "unusually high amounts of traffic and flights are already reaching capacity or full". It is urging passengers to contact the relevant airline to find out if their flight is operating.
Report by Ginny McGrath
Up to £100 surcharge on Oz flights
Travellers heading Down Under are facing ever-higher oil surcharges, which could mean it makes financial sense to book direct rather than transfer flights.
Passengers booking a long-haul flight to Sydney may believe they are paying one surcharge for each leg of the trip - while this is true with British Airways and Virgin Atlantic, it's no longer the case when choosing an Asian airline.
Main players in the UK-Australia market such as Cathay Pacific, MAS, SIA and Thai have quietly adopted a policy of charging per sector rather than per trip. When you fly British Airways or Virgin Atlantic directly between London and Sydney you pay two long distance fuel surcharges. But with Cathay Pacific, MAS, SIA or Thai (who operate to Australia with an en route plane change rather than direct) you would end up paying four such surcharges even when you transfer flights.
So whereas with BA the oil surcharge for a London-Sydney return would cost £60 with SIA via Singapore the same surcharge would be USD200 or £111. Foreign carriers don't publish surcharge details on the fares display. Instead these sums are disguised within the "taxes, fees and charges" box shown on final booking page when you reserve your flight online. These now vary widely depending on the airline.
Based on flying economy class the total cost of the "extras" on a return economy ticket booked online amounts to £131 with BA or Virgin. But with MAS the sum is £178, with Cathay Pacific £158 (set to rise further from October 1), with SIA £186 and with Thai £189.
Simon Evans, chief executive of the AUC (Air Transport Users Council) says, "There is nothing sinister in these different oil surcharges as it reflects the cost of doing business. But why not just increase the fares... that's something people would understand."
Report by Alex McWhirter
NY flight for Stansted
Yet another transatlantic all-business class airline has come forward. And this time it stands a better chance of getting off the ground.
US-based Maxjet has announced plans to fly from London Stansted to New York JFK from November 1. The service will operate daily (except Saturday) with a wide-bodied B767 configured with 102 roomy business class seats arranged six across (2-2-2) featuring 60 inches of legroom.
The flight will depart Stansted at 10.00 arriving JFK at 13.00. On the return, passengers will leave JFK at 18.30 to arrive Stansted at 07.00. In-flight service will be to normal long-haul business class standards and passengers will have use of deluxe lounges at both ends of the route. Tickets will cost from £1,278 return (including taxes and charges), which is substantially less than the prices charged by the big airlines out of Gatwick and Heathrow.
A spokesperson for Maxjet said that the airline hopes to appeal to firms based in London's Canary Wharf and the City. It will also prove convenient for travellers based in East Anglia and the Midlands from where there are convenient road links to Stansted. Maxjet also hopes to attract passengers flying into Stansted with the budget airlines, especially those coming from cities with no transatlantic service.
But, despite the keen prices, the carrier admits it will be "a challenge" filling 102 business class seats from Stansted. That's because Heathrow and Gatwick are convenient for a great many people and because flight frequency from these two airports is so much greater, plus there's competition from newcomer Eos (see below).
You can book flights with Maxjet from September 26. The airline can be contacted on 0800 0234300 or visit Maxjet (www.maxjet.com)
* Maxjet faces direct competition from Business class-only carrier Eos, which plans to launch flights from New York to Stansted on November 1. Fares start at £3,500 return, but there is an introductory fare of £2,500.
Report by Alex McWhirter
Geneva route hots up
Scottish low-cost airline, Flyglobespan is launching flights on a key business route out of Stansted.
The airline will launch flights from the Essex airport to Geneva on December 22 following the acquisition of two Boeing 737-600s from SAS. Flyglobespan faces direct competition with three other airlines operating between London and Geneva: Swissair, British Airways and Easyjet.
It will also launch a London Stansted-Tenerife service from November 1. Existing Flyglobespan services include flights from London Stansted to Glasgow and Edinburgh, which launched on June 1, and carried 20,000 passengers in the first three months, according to the airline.
Managing director and chairman, Tom Dalrymple has also announced his intention to launch further routes from London. "We want to mirror what we have achieved in Scotland in the important London market and we are actively looking at extending our network of flights and services available from Stansted," he said.
Report by Ginny McGrath
Step closer to in-flight mobiles
Shrill ring tones and loud chatter could be coming to an aircraft cabin near you from next year following initiatives by two European airlines to enable mobile phone use in-flight.
If Bmi and TAP Portugal go ahead with plans announced this week, mobile phones and GPRS-enabled devices such as the Blackberry, could be used by passengers travelling with both carriers from the end of next year. Both are partnering with technology provider OnAir, which is working with Airbus and Siemens to develop the technology. The in-flight service, which is yet to receive regulatory approval, will begin initially as a test phase, available only on certain routes.
Bmi chief executive Nigel Turner stressed that this is not just to pilot the technology but also to evaluate the "social issues" surrounding mobile phone use in-flight. But he added: "Our research tells us that our premium passengers have two key concerns. These are getting quickly through the airport and the ability to carry on working during their journey."
The debate over the use of mobile phones on aircraft is raging in the US where authorities are considering removing a 14-year ban. While business travellers are broadly in support of use of mobile phones in-flight, the organisation representing flight attendants says its members are concerned that use of phones in-flight could spark "air rage" incidents and also pose a security threat.
Report by Ginny McGrath
Hong Kong presence for luxury hotel brand
Four Seasons has unveiled its latest hotel in Asia.
The luxury property, which opened this month, is located in Hong Kong. It is part of the International Financial Centre, a contemporary mixed-use development of shops, offices and apartments located at Central Waterfront, 23 minutes via the Airport Express train from Chek Lap Kok Airport.
The Four Seasons Hotel Hong Kong is next to Four Seasons Place, the luxury offering from the brand that caters for long-stay guests. The 399-room hotel has two restaurants: Caprice serves French cuisine and has been created by the team from the three-star Michelin restaurant in the Four Seasons George V in Paris; and Lung King Heen, which serves contemporary Cantonese food.
There is also a bar and lounge, plus a series of meeting rooms including two ballrooms that overlook Victoria Harbour and seven smaller rooms. The spa has 18 treatment rooms, a vitality pool, crystal steam room, ice fountain and Finnish sauna. There is also an Executive Club floor where guests have harbour views and can access business and concierge service 24 hours a day.
Rates start from HK$3,200 (£230) for a Deluxe Peak View Room including breakfast for two, excluding tax and service. The hotel is the second of three Four Seasons properties opening in Asia. The Shanghai hotel is already operating and the Beijing property is under construction. For reservations contact 00 800 6488 6488 or visit Four Seasons website (www.fourseasons.com).
Report by Ginny McGrath
Aisle Seat H
Oct 2, 05, 8:55 pm
Latest offerings...
BA catering back on track (almost)
29 September 2005
BA's catering problems continue to improve. All long haul flights have now returned to normal, with the exception of some special meals, while the longer short haul flights (three hours and over) now also offer a normal food and drink service.
It is now over a month since the dispute started, and short haul European flights continue to use a mixture of deli bags and food vouchers out of London Heathrow, while inbound flights are offering either vouchers or pre-departure food, depending on the airport of departure.
Richard Goodfellow, spokesman for BA, said that the next aim was to get catering on domestic flights out of Heathrow back on track.
"We recognise that many business travellers want to get a hot meal in the morning and evenings, but may not have time to use the vouchers at one of the food outlets. As a result all domestic travellers with access to the lounge area can now pick up a hot meal, and drink of their choice to take onboard, when travelling before 10am or after 3.30pm."
Those passengers without lounge passes continue to receive food vouchers for flights out of Heathrow, while incoming flights from the five domestic airports serving BA (Manchester, Newcastle, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen) are now offering onboard meals before 10am and after 3.30pm.
"We are continually pushing Gate Gourmet to reinstate meals on all services, and the situation is improving on a near daily basis," said Mr Goodfellow. "In particular we are working hard to provide catering on flights used frequently by business travellers, and we hope that yesterday's agreement will improve the situation further."
Passengers requiring further information on catering on their flights, should visit www.ba.com, or call 0870 850 9 850.
Report by Mark Caswell
NY carriers go head-to-head
29 September 2005[U]
Just a week after Maxjet unveiled its plans for a business-class only London-New York flight, a rival has announced it has started taking reservations.
Eos will launch daily flights between London Stansted and New York on November 1, in direct competition with Maxjet, which plans to launch on the same day. The carrier announced this week that it has started taking reservations, following receipt of certification from the Federal Aviation Authority (Eos is US-based).
The Eos flight will leave Stansted at 10.30am and arrive in New York at 1.29pm, which compares to Maxjet's timings half an hour earlier. The return service departs New York at 7.05pm and arrives in Stansted at 7.30am, again half an hour later than the Maxjet flight.
Where the two carriers differ is on price. Eos plans to charge from £2,500 for a return ticket, rising to £3,500 after the introductory offer expires. This compares to the £1,278 return ticket price being charged by Maxjet.
The explanation is in the product – Eos has 48 suites per aircraft, which offer 21-square feet of space per passenger and come with a second seat that can be used by a travelling companion for dining together. The seat then reclines into a 78-inch flat bed. Maxjet offers 102 roomy business class seats arranged six across (2-2-2) featuring 60 inches of legroom.
From January 3 2006, Eos hopes to add a second daily flight, leaving Stansted at 4.15pm and arriving in New York at 7.14pm, with the return service leaving New York at 9.15pm and arriving in Stansted at 9.40 am.
For more information visit www.eosairlines.com and www.maxjet.com.
- KLM will introduce its business-class only flight from Amsterdam to Houston on October 30. The flights will be operated by a Boeing 737-700 aircraft with 44 lie-flat seats in a 2-2 configuration with plug-in points for laptop computers. Flights will operate six times a week and will supplement the existing daily flights between the two cities, which continue to operate on a two-class basis.
Report by Ginny McGrath
Ryanair boosts route options
29 September 2005
Ryanair is to launch two new routes from Cork, opening the option of visiting two Irish cities in one trip.
The carrier will launch flights from Cork to London Gatwick and Dublin on November 24.
The possible routings from the UK include Gatwick-Cork-Dublin-Gatwick, Stansted-Cork-Dublin-Stansted, or Liverpool-Cork-Dublin-Liverpool, as Ryanair already offers flights from Cork to Stansted and Liverpool. Customers could also vary their departure and arrival UK airport, for example, leaving from Gatwick and returning to Liverpool.
All this comes at no extra cost according to Ryanair spokesman, Peter Sherrard, who told Businesstraveller.com: "Our flights are booked on a one-way basis so there's no extra charge unlike other airlines, where you'd pay a business class fare just because the booking was one-way."
One drawback is that the multi-trip routing cannot be booked in one transaction online, as each leg has to be bought separately, so it's wise to check the price on all legs before starting to make your booking.
Some of the routes are part of Ryanair's four million seat sale, which lasts until October 6, so fares on Cork-Dublin are from five cents (E18 including tax) and on Cork-Gatwick are from one cent (E10 including tax).
Report by Ginny McGrath
Virgin Trains lounge upgrade
29 September 2005
Virgin first class passengers can now make use of the refurbished first class lounge at Euston Station, following its £175,000 make over. The lounge is split into three areas, for work, quiet time (where mobile phones will not be allowed), or relaxation.
New features include flat-screen TVs, soft chairs, internet points and wifi access, along with a photocopier and fax in the working area. There is also a new reception and luggage area, and the shower and toilet facilities have been upgraded. In addition, the quiet room can be booked for private meetings.
The Euston first class lounge, which attracted over 180,000 passengers last year, now also features a licensed bar, open 11am-11pm Monday to Friday, 11am - 2pm Saturdays and 2pm – 11pm Sundays. Passengers travelling first class with Virgin Trains may use any of their lounges nationwide on the day of travel, where they can enjoy complimentary drinks and snacks.
Dennis Lovett, press officer for Virgin Trains, said: "We inherited our lounges from Intercity, and with the amount of use they get, they were in need of a revamp. This is the last of our lounges to be refurbished, following the recent refit of Manchester Piccadilly, meaning first class passengers can now enjoy enhanced facilities in all of the lounges."
Report by Mark Caswell
Shangri-La opens in Delhi
29 September 2005
Delhi's five-star hotels will have to raise their game following the arrival of a Shangri-La property in the city.
The Shangri-La Hotel, New Delhi opened on September 8 close to Connaught Place, the commercial hub of New Delhi and location of most of the city's western brand hotels. It is a 40-minute drive from the airport.
The hotel has undergone a "soft opening", so only a handful of the 323 bedrooms are currently available, but the Café Uno restaurant, with open kitchen and outdoor terrace dining, bar, lounge, Uno 2 Go patisserie and health club with gym, indoor and outdoor whirlpool and outdoor pool, are all open.
All rooms have high-speed internet access and wireless internet access, plus there's a business centre, three meeting rooms and a ballroom that can be divided into four.
The grand opening will take place in early November, when the hotel's pan-Asian restaurant serving Japanese, Chinese and Thai cuisine, will open. The Horizon Floor, an executive level with 78 bedrooms, separate concierge and lounge, will also open in November.
Rooms start at $365 including tax for a single superior room occupancy and $20 more for a double room. For more information go to www.shangri-la.com.
The opening of this outpost from the luxury Asian brand is sure to stir Delhi's hotel scene, currently dominated by the Oberoi and Taj groups, although a doubling of the frequency of flights between the UK and India over the past year means demand for hotel rooms in the Indian capital is expected to rise.
Report by Ginny McGrath
World's largest cruise ship from Jumeirah
29 September 2005
The Jumeirah hotel group has followed up its announcement of its forthcoming New York property – Essex House – with more news this week.
Firstly the group has been selected to manage a group of five star hotels in the new Saraya Aqaba Real Estate Development in Jordan. The USD610million project on the northern tip of the Gulf of Aqaba will be completed in January 2009 adding over a mile of beachfront to the city of Aqaba.
Secondly, the group will manage the Middle East's largest theme park resort, the GBP1billion Aqua Dunya in Dubailand, opening early 2008. Aqua Dunya (WaterWorld) development will include a traditional souk and port district, a conference centre, 170 vacation apartments and 3,400 residential apartments. The main hotel will be the world largest cruise ship – The Desert Pearl – on the lagoon, a 330-stateroom luxury hotel.
In addition, the Jumeirah group is leaving Leading Hotels of the World and enhancing its website jumeirah.com, along with adding a private label GDS (Global Distribution Code) for trade bookings at its hotels.
Jumeirah properties include the Burj Al Arab, as well as Jumeirah Beach Hotel, Jumeirah Emirates Towers, Madinat Jumeirah and Jumeirah Bab Al Shams Desert Resort & Spa. The group also manages Jumeirah Carlton Tower and Jumeirah Lowndes Hotel in London.
Report by Tom Otley
Aisle Seat H
Oct 2, 05, 9:05 pm
Eos will launch daily flights between London Stansted and New York on November 1, in direct competition with Maxjet, which plans to launch on the same day. The carrier announced this week that it has started taking reservations, following receipt of certification from the Federal Aviation Authority (Eos is US-based)...
The explanation is in the product – Eos has 48 suites per aircraft, which offer 21-square feet of space per passenger and come with a second seat that can be used by a travelling companion for dining together. The seat then reclines into a 78-inch flat bed. Maxjet offers 102 roomy business class seats arranged six across (2-2-2) featuring 60 inches of legroom...
For more information visit www.eosairlines.com and www.maxjet.comThere is a nice virtual tour of the seat and cabin on the EOS website, Maxjet one a lot more basic site.
EOS seat looks very similar to the BA Club World/New Club World, but that may just be how the picture looks, can't recall exactly what the BA seat dimensions etc are for comparison between the two products.
Or is it infact more like the BA or QF F product ?!? Hard to tell just from a virtual picture I have now decided !
QF WP
Oct 3, 05, 6:47 pm
Aisle Seat H, you can load yesterday's as well if you want, we've got computer problems at work at the moment and I can't access the articles.
Aisle Seat H
Oct 3, 05, 7:34 pm
Aisle Seat H, you can load yesterday's as well if you want, we've got computer problems at work at the moment and I can't access the articles.Its not just you QF WP mate, I can't get into them either. Will try again a little later.
alex1948
Oct 4, 05, 10:03 am
For all of you who might be interested ...
Eos has just announced it will now start flights from London Stansted to New York on October 18. In other words, it's brought forward the start date (presumably to jump in ahead of Maxjet who launches Stansted-NY on Nov 1).
aspro
Oct 4, 05, 10:49 pm
I checked random dates in Dec JFK-STN-JFK... big price diff on most flexible tickets: eos (USD5000) and maxjet (USD4000), and interestingly, maxjet offers less flexible tickets at less than half that price. Will be fascinating to see what the differences in product are!
Aisle Seat H
Oct 7, 05, 10:11 am
Latest offerings...
Change of plan for all business-class airline (as already noted above by alex1948).
6 October 2005
The race to offer all business-class flights from Stansted to New York has taken another twist, with Eos moving its launch date forward by two weeks.
The US-based carrier had originally announced flights would begin on November 1, the same date as rivals Maxjet. But following final certification from the US Department of Transportation (DOT) and the UK Department for Transport, the first flights will now depart on October 18.
Eos and Maxjet will be competing on price and seating, with the former offering 78-inch flatbed 'suites', and prices starting from £3500 for a return ticket (£2500 for those booking before October 16).
Maxjet is offering a more modestly priced return ticket from £1278, in business class seats arranged six across (2-2-2) featuring 60 inches of legroom.
Both airlines will initially offer one flight daily in each direction, although Eos plans to add a second flight from January 3.
The Eos flight will leave Stansted at 10.30am and arrive in New York at 1.29pm, with Maxjet's flight departing half an hour earlier. The Eos return service departs New York at 7.05pm and arrives in Stansted at 7.30am, again half an hour later than the Maxjet flight.
Both services will face stiff competition from the frequent New York flights with rival airlines from Heathrow and Gatwick. But a spokesperson for Eos believes the proximity of Stansted to Canary Wharf and the City, as well as reduced baggage handling times and a dedicated lounge for Eos passengers, will prove enticing for business travellers flying to New York.
Maxjet, meanwhile, is confident that its cheaper prices will compare favourably with other airlines, particularly for passengers booking at the last minute.
Report by Mark Caswell
Asian hospitality comes to the US
6 October 2005
Hong Kong-based hotel group Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts will open hotels in Miami in 2008 and Chicago in 2009 as part of its North American expansion, it was announced this week.
The 147-room Shangri-La Hotel, Miami, located on Biscayne Bay, will form part of a $480m mixed-use Island Gardens project including a 50-slip "super-yacht" harbour, sophisticated shops, restaurants, galleries and gardens.
Designed by concept architects Eric Kuhne and Associates, with interiors by renowned designer Piero Lissoni and Associati, the hotel will be shaped like a stylised lighthouse.
Shangri-La will also manage 105 Living Shangri-La residences on the top floors of the tower. These spacious two-four-bedroom suites will be privately owned but periodically will be available to hotel guests.
The Shangri-La Hotel, Chicago, will open in early 2009 in the new Waterview Tower located along the Chicago River at the corner of West Wacker Drive and Clark Street.
The 200-room hotel will be on floors 12 through 27 of the 90-storey tower, within walking distance of the Magnificent Mile, Millennium Park, Lake Michigan, and the city's central business district.
Guests at both hotels will have round-the-clock butler service, wireless internet access, luxurious bathrooms and Shangri-La's signature beds and bed linen.
Report by Beverley Fearis.
The drinks aren't on us
6 October 2005 :mad: :mad: :mad:
Bmi economy passengers will soon have to pay extra to enjoy a glass of red wine on long haul flights.
The UK-based carrier is to introduce charges for alcoholic drinks from January 3.
The airline will be the first European carrier to make such a charge, which will apply to all alcoholic drinks, including those served with the in-flight meal.
A spokesman for BMI said: "A number of US carriers already charge for alcoholic drinks on their flights, so this move will bring us in line with them."
He added that the charge would also enable Bmi to distinguish between its long haul economy and premium economy cabins, with the latter continuing to offer complimentary alcoholic drinks. Business class passengers will be unaffected by this change.
In addition to the new charges, BMI is to introduce a paid-for snack range on long haul flights. From November, passengers will be able to purchase sweet and savoury snacks from the voyager onboard shopping guide.
Report by Mark Caswell
You've got a friend
6 October 2005
A new VIP 'companion' service has been launched in London for female business travellers and the wives and partners of visiting executives.
My Friend in London gives clients, or small group of clients, a tailor-made itinerary incorporating some of London's best-kept secrets.
It was conceived by lifelong Londoners Sharon Glanville and Stephanie Archer, whose 'insider tips' were constantly sought by friends and colleagues looking for something to do in the capital.
"We will open up a broader experience for the discerning woman who is travelling alone with limited time. The accent is not necessarily on 'alternative' London but 'quality' London - and we will provide the companionship to enable a client to explore it fully," said Archer.
"London is a vast and diverse city and visitors risk missing out on so much if they don't know where to go."
My Friend in London also offers a gift-buying service (open to men too), and assistance for executives and their families who are re-locating to the city.
See a review of this new service in Business Traveller magazine's October issue out now. See www.myfriendinlondon.com
Private jet 'light'
6 October 2005
Businesses looking for a flexible way to fly employees around Europe might like to consider the new Jet Membership 'Light' Card from Bombardier Skyjet.
Until November 30, Skyjet is offering 25 hours flying time anywhere in Europe, in a light business aircraft, for around £76,000.
The flying time is valid for one year from the date of purchase, and guarantees the availability of one of Skyjet's range of aircraft.
One of Skyjet's selling points is that it does not charge a positioning fee, meaning that you pay only when you are in the air in one of its four types of business aircrafts (which seat up to six people).
Judith Moreton, managing director of Bombardier Skyjet International, hopes that the 'Light' Card will encourage business users to consider an alternative to scheduled airlines.
"Passengers flying with Skyjet avoid the congestion and time wasting of normal commercial airlines. By calling us before 4pm the day before travel, they are guaranteed an aircraft from our fleet, and our 24 hour support team will ensure a stress free travel experience," she said.
Skyjet has access to the major London airports, including Gatwick, Heathrow and Stansted, as well as many smaller regional bases. The 25-hour card should cover around 10 return flights depending on where within Europe you are flying.
The company hopes that frequent leisure users will also be attracted by the new simple pricing structure and the offer of flexible travel, particularly for family groups looking to avoid summer airport chaos and delays.
See www.skyjetinternational.com.
Report by Mark Caswell
Lansdowne Hotel opens in Brighton
6 October 2005
Brighton has yet another new hotel for style-conscious visitors. Lansdowne Place, located just off Brighton seafront, opposite Hove lawns and formerly the Dudley hotel, has 84 rooms,(including six single rooms) a spa, conference facilities and restaurant.
Designed to go against the minimalist trend set by so many modern design hotels, it has classic wallpapers, lacquered wood and elegant richly-coloured furnishings.
Rooms are fully equipped with baths and power showers, fine Egyptian cotton bed linen, LCD screens and broadband internet connection.
The 90-cover restaurant, The Grill at the Lansdowne, features classic dishes made using locally-sourced organic and free range produce and its head chef, Michael Savva, was previously executive head chef at the Hempel, London.
Seven conference rooms include a ballroom for 150 seated, a conference room with capacity for 200 featuring an LCD projection screen, and the 80 seated Regency Suite.
All private rooms have built-in sound systems and plasma screens, and the hotel also features wireless broadband internet throughout.
And, after all the work is done (and if the weather is good) business guests can chill out on the first-floor sun deck or ask the concierge 'beach service' to arrange a Lansdowne Place deck chair on Brighton's pebbly beach, picnic hampers or bicycle hire.
Rates start from £157 for a standard double (room only) inc VAT.
Brighton is a 35-minute train journey from Gatwick and one-hour from London.
QF WP
Oct 7, 05, 7:40 pm
Aisle Seat H, what are you still doing up at this ungodly hour (to you)....another scorching day in paradise in BNE (allegedly will hit 36 degrees C today, at 10.30am it's hovering around 30).
Thanks for posting this...I gave up and deleted it (without informing them that I could access any of their links). Too much work during the week to bother posting.
I do like your :mad:'s net to the bmi article...I'm surprised you're still flying with them - haven't you got a comp from somebody else yet???
Aisle Seat H
Oct 8, 05, 7:20 am
Aisle Seat H, what are you still doing up at this ungodly hour (to you)....another scorching day in paradise in BNE (allegedly will hit 36 degrees C today, at 10.30am it's hovering around 30).
Thanks for posting this...I gave up and deleted it (without informing them that I could access any of their links). Too much work during the week to bother posting.
I do like your :mad:'s net to the bmi article...I'm surprised you're still flying with them - haven't you got a comp from somebody else yet???UA Prem. Ex. card is in the post, when I get it the profile changes ! Have not stepped on a BD plane since the changes were announced, same for many others, and from the above you can see why ! :mad: (There is another one for ya QF WP !). Oh well, at least will have 2 *A Gold cards for the next 6 months - will mean nothing in practice, but at least I can pretend it makes me special somehow ! :rolleyes: :)
Hope you enjoyed the Bris. weather... not quite as nice here in London !!! (Never is !) Horrible weather on the way soon...
Aisle Seat H
Oct 13, 05, 1:01 pm
Today's tit-bits...
Northwest down to one UK flight
13 October 2005
Northwest Airlines has scrapped flights between the UK and Minneapolis after 25 years operating the route.
From October 30 the London Gatwick-Minneapolis route will be suspended until further notice, leaving Northwest with just one UK flight, operating from Gatwick to Detroit.
Passengers with bookings to Minneapolis after October 30 will be rebooked with KLM flying via Amsterdam, but passengers inconvenienced by the change of schedule, change of departure airport (from Gatwick to London City Airport or Heathrow) or by the extra connecting flight, may apply for a refund, although a spokeswoman told Businesstraveller.com that it would not be a full refund.
Northwest once operated three flights out of the UK, the third to Boston, but has had to scale-down services further since entering Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in recent weeks.
Report by Ginny McGrath
TravelClub scrapped
13 October 2005
Swiss has ditched its frequent flyer programme following a merger with Lufthansa's scheme.
Swiss TravelClub will be terminated on April 1 2006, with all members being invited to switch to Lufthansa's Miles & More. According to Swiss, its TravelClub members will not lose out, with their mileage balance transferred one-for-one to a Miles & More account on March 31 2006.
These miles remain valid for three years and any status awarded will be valid for two years. TravelClub members will also maintain their equivalent status in Miles & More.
TravelClub members can continue to collect and spend their miles until March 31, 2006. Advantages for TravelClub members is that once they are a part of Miles & More they can choose to redeem and earn miles with the other 16 airlines in the Star Alliance.
As well as being Lufthansa's frequent flyer programme, Miles & More is the frequent flyer programme of Adria Airways, Air Dolomiti, Air One, Austrian Airlines, Croatia Airlines, LOT Polish Airlines and Luxair. With 11 million members it is Europe's largest.
According to Ravindra Bhagwanani of Global Flight Management, a frequent flyer programme consultancy, TravelClub members flying longhaul will benefit because longhaul award flights are cheaper with Miles & More than TravelClub. Conversely he says TravelClub is cheaper for award flights in Europe.
TravelClub members should register for Miles & More by November 15 2005 using their membership number and personal code at https://miles-and-more.swiss.com.
Report by Ginny McGrathSecurity tops the agenda
13 October 2005
Companies concerned of the whereabouts of their staff during global security alerts are being offered a new service that uses mobile phone technology.
The service, launched by FCm Travel Solutions UK, works when a company sends a text message to a central server containing details of a country or region and within 60 seconds a message is automatically returned that tells the company how many staff it has in the region and how many are due to travel there. This is backed up by an email that gives names and travel details of the employees involved. The client must enter a security code in order to use the service.
The travel management company launched the IRRIDIS system in response to the increasing demand from its clients for improved security for their travelling staff.
In addition, in response to major incidents, such as the recent Kashmir earthquake or the terrorist attack in Bali, the IRRIDIS server will send a text message to a nominated mobile phone within a company containing details of any staff in the region and anyone planning to travel there.
The system also provides travellers with a detailed itinerary of their trip, sent by email, which includes flight numbers and routings, hotel names, and car hire details including pick up and drop off points. Travel bookings must be made through FCm in order for companies to benefit from these alert services.
Subscription to the service costs £750 a year for the first mobile phone user, and £250 for each additional user, but companies subscribing before the end of November save £150 on the first mobile phone registration if they sign up two or more users.
Report by Ginny McGrath
Business booms for Bmi
13 October 2005
Since Bmi launched thrice weekly non-stop flights from London Heathrow to the Saudi capital of Riyadh on September 1 the carrier has seen strong bookings in both standard and premium classes. It now hopes to add a further thrice weekly service to the port city of Jeddah by Spring 2006.
Currently Bmi is the only British carrier flying into Saudi Arabia following the withdrawal of British Airways earlier this year for commercial reasons. BA had latterly been routing its services via Kuwait (where the crew were based for security reasons) and this had pushed up costs and led to unattractive scheduling. In a part of the world where loyalty is so important, BA's decision to pull out wasn't popular with the Saudis.
Bmi has been welcomed with open arms. Riyadh has limited air connections to Europe and this means that seats are in short supply. At busy times passengers must route themselves to Europe via Bahrain or Dubai which adds hours to the journey time.
Bmi is operating wide-bodied A330s configured for business, premium economy and regular economy. Business class gets a six across (2-2-2) layout with conventional seating offering 60 inches of legroom and a 160 degree recline. Premium Economy is basically the same seating as in regular economy deposed eight across (2-4-2) with 38 inches of legroom as against 32.
But Bmi's seat configuration isn't ideal for the Saudi market. There's no first class (in a part of the world where there's still a good demand) while Saudi travellers aren't familiar with Premium Economy which they also regard as too expensive in relation to the cost of business class. Says Bmi's CEO Nigel Turner, "we do have a different product to what BA was offering but we do have the best crew in the world and they do make passengers feel more comfortable."
However, Bmi will need an extra plane to serve both Riyadh and Jeddah (the single A330 currently used also covers Mumbai) and the carrier indicates that this aircraft may be reconfigured for the Saudi market.
Flights currently depart Heathrow every Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday at 09.35 returning from Riyadh at 00.40 the following day. From November 1, the flights will be rescheduled to leave at the same times every Monday, Wednesday and Sunday returning from Riyadh on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday.
Return fares start at £230 in economy class including taxes and charges. Premium economy costs £1,624 with business class priced at £1,962. For more information go to www.flybmi.com.
Report by Alex McWhirter
Milan base for Easyjet
13 October 2005
Easyjet continue to spread their wings across Europe, with news of the introduction of its first base in Italy.
From March 26 2006, Milan's Malpensa Airport will become the airline's 16th European hub, serving Athens, London Gatwick, Madrid, Malaga and Paris Charles de Gaulle, in addition to Berlin and Dortmund, which commence at the end of October.
Easyjet will use three new Airbus A319s to service the seven new routes, and expects to carry around 1.2 million passengers through the base in the first 12 months. Easyjet currently operates flights to nine Italian airports, and the base will be its sixth to be situated outside the UK.
The low cost airline will face stiff competition from British Airways and Al Italia, both of whom have established bases at Milan Malpensa. The airport is located around 29 miles from the centre of Milan, significantly further than Milan Linate (from where Easyjet already flies to London Gatwick and Paris Orly), but closer than the city's third airport, Bergamo, used by low cost rival Ryanair. Transport links from Milan Malpensa to the city centre include an express rail link and shuttle bus.
Ray Webster, Easyjet chief executive, said: "We have been focusing on growth in Italy over the last year. Our move into Milan Malpensa's airport demonstrates our commitment to provide low-cost efficient services in Italy."
Flights with Easyjet from Milan Malpensa can be booked from October 15 at www.easyjet.com.
Report by Mark Caswell
Paddington hotel for Guest Invest
13 October 2005
The company that offers hotel guests a share in its properties is opening a second hotel in London.
Investors can register their interest to buy a room in the hotel near Paddington Station, due to go on sale in early 2006.
In return for an outlay of around £200,000, buyers will receive a 999 year leasehold on the room, and 50 per cent of its income. They will also be entitled to stay in the room for up to 52 days per year, for a nominal fee of £10 per night.
The Paddington hotel will be the second to be opened by Guest Invest, after the success of Guesthouse West in Notting Hill last year. Ideally located for travellers arriving from London Heathrow, the rooms will be tailored to the needs of the business traveller, with amenities such as broadband and wifi internet access.
A spokesperson for Guest Invest said: "The latest offering is designed to provide a viable alternative to the London pied-a-terre market, where investors can buy their own room in a hotel, without the hassle of maintaining a second home, and reap the revenue from their hotel room for the rest of the year."
To register interest in the Paddington property, or for further information go to www.guestinvest.com.
Report by Mark Caswell
alex1948
Oct 14, 05, 9:39 am
[QUOTE=Aisle Seat H]Latest offerings...
Change of plan for all business-class airline (as already noted above by alex1948).
6 October 2005
The race to offer all business-class flights from Stansted to New York has taken another twist, with Eos moving its launch date forward by two weeks.
The US-based carrier had originally announced flights would begin on November 1, the same date as rivals Maxjet. But following final certification from the US Department of Transportation (DOT) and the UK Department for Transport, the first flights will now depart on October 18.
Eos and Maxjet will be competing on price and seating, with the former offering 78-inch flatbed 'suites', and prices starting from £3500 for a return ticket (£2500 for those booking before October 16).
Maxjet is offering a more modestly priced return ticket from £1278, in business class seats arranged six across (2-2-2) featuring 60 inches of legroom.
Both airlines will initially offer one flight daily in each direction, although Eos plans to add a second flight from January 3.
The Eos flight will leave Stansted at 10.30am and arrive in New York at 1.29pm, with Maxjet's flight departing half an hour earlier. The Eos return service departs New York at 7.05pm and arrives in Stansted at 7.30am, again half an hour later than the Maxjet flight.
Both services will face stiff competition from the frequent New York flights with rival airlines from Heathrow and Gatwick.
It's only a few more days before Eos launches daily STN to NY flights and travellers here are wondering if there's sufficient demand for two business class-only carriers on this route.
All business class transatlantic flights currently operate on selected routes between mainland Europe and the US. But these are on routes where there is little competition and the flights are backed by big name carriers like LX, LH and (soon) KL so passengers are promised reliability, FFP miles and so on.
London-NY is a huge business class market and Maxjet in particular has much lower fares. But despite the savings, will travellers prefer to use LHR rather than far out STN ? Are they prepared to sacrifice LHR superior flight scheduling ?
It will be interesting to see what happens. If one or both carriers succeed then it would be reasonable to expect the concept to spread to other regions.
QF WP
Oct 21, 05, 3:44 am
Delta announces new routes to become world's largest transatlantic airline
Delta Airlines this week has announced 11 new transatlantic routes for 2006, including a new daily Manchester to New York flight and an Edinburgh to Atlanta route. The new services will be from its two transatlantic gateways at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport. The Edinburgh to Atlanta service will begin operating on 5 May 2006 with a wide-bodied 767-300ER configured in two classes – BusinessElite and Economy and a total of 204 seats. The Manchester service will begin with a 767-400 with an all economy product, which will then be reconfigured into the two-class product during the course of the year.
The new routes are as a result of Delta reducing capacity in its domestic market and moving more of its wide-bodied planes onto international routes where competition is less fierce and yields are higher.
Other new routes Delta will fly to next Spring include:
Athens, Greece – Atlanta (effective May 30)
Nice, France – Atlanta (effective May 10)
Venice, Italy - Atlanta (effective June 7)
Budapest, Hungary - New York/JFK (effective May 9)
Dublin/Shannon, Ireland - New York/JFK (effective May 16)
Manchester, England - New York/JFK (effective May 16)
Kiev, Ukraine - New York/JFK*
Tel Aviv, Israel – Atlanta (previously announced to begin March 28)
Düsseldorf, Germany - Atlanta (previously announced to begin April 4)
Copenhagen, Denmark - Atlanta (previously announced to begin May 2)
(*The Kiev-JFK service is subject to U.S. and foreign government approvals. All remaining routes listed except JFK-Manchester are subject to foreign government approval.)
Delta (www.delta.com) is also increasing the seasonal capacity between Atlanta – Shannon, Ireland and between New York (JFK) and Rome, Italy.
Report by Tom Otley
Virgin Trains ticket sales rise
Virgin's train division is selling 5,000 additional Value tickets a week since it simplified its booking procedures (see online News August 18).
Until six weeks ago, the train firm's best priced tickets had to be purchased three, seven or 14 days before travel. But at the end of September, Virgin Trains extended the booking deadline to 18.00 the day before travel and in doing so it has cut the cost of doing business in the key cities it serves which include London, Birmingham, Manchester and Glasgow. It called these low priced tickets Value tickets, and it seems that travellers agree.
Says a spokesperson for Virgin Trains, "We're now selling 75,000 Value tickets [compared to 70,000] every week and the new booking concept has gone down rather well. What we are finding is that canny passengers are learning to 'mix and match' their journeys by, for example, booking a more expensive ticket for a peak hour outward trip and then benefiting from a lower off-peak rate for their return leg."
When Business Traveller checked journeys on Wednesday (Oct 19) for travel today (Thursday Oct 20) it found that a peak hour one-way first class ticket from London to Glasgow was available for as little as £38.
When it came to booking day trips, a peak time standard class London-Birmingham return which normally costs £100 could be reduced to £60.50 by combining a one-way Business Advance ticket with a Value rate in first class when returning in the late afternoon. A similar ticketing method for London-Manchester, usually costing £187 standard class, could be cut to £90.50. Savings of this magnitude weren't previously possible for short notice bookings.
Virgin (www.virgintrains.co.uk) has more empty first class seats available in its off-peak trains. So, interestingly, at these times it can be cheaper to book first rather than standard class.
Report by Alex McWhirter
Oneworld welcomes Royal Jordanian
Royal Jordanian is to join oneworld making it the first carrier from the Middle East region to enter a global airline alliance.
The Jordan-based airline will become a fully-fledged member at the end of 2006 and has already satisfied the initial criteria for membership. Work will now begin on connecting its IT systems to those of its new partners and aligning its services.
Currently, BMed is the only oneworld member serving Royal Jordanian's home market, with daily flights from the capital Amman to London Heathrow. Iberia is the only oneworld airline that has a code sharing agreement with the new member, but agreements are likely to follow with other members.
Royal Jordanian's membership will benefit passengers in the Gulf buying round the world tickets who will no longer need to travel into Europe to access the oneworld network; instead they will be able to travel via Amman to all points east into Asia.
Residents of northern Europe will be able to make stopovers on the Royal Jordanian network – for example, Tunis, Cairo, Damascus or Beirut – on their way to the Middle East and may be able to take advantage of special fares to the Gulf via Amman.
Existing members of oneworld are American Airlines, British Airways, Qantas, Iberia, Cathay Pacific, LAN, Finnair and Aer Lingus. Hungary's Malév signed a memorandum of understanding in May 2005 as a first step towards joining.
Report by Sarah Maxwell and Alex McWhirter
BA and Lufthansa move to inclusive pricing
Two major airlines, British Airways (www.ba.com) and Lufthansa (www.lufthansa.co.uk), have quietly adopted all-inclusive pricing for online bookings.
Passengers using either of their respective websites are now being quoted fares which include taxes, fees and charges from the very start of the booking. Says a BA spokesperson, "We've added more transparency to the booking process. Our passengers have told us they want to see everything presented up front."
Passengers making a booking with almost all airlines worldwide are initially presented with prices which exclude the extras. Airlines prefer to display net prices because it flatters their headline rate. It is only when passengers reach the final booking page that the full cost of their ticket is revealed.
What has prompted this development is the fact that since the advent of fuel surcharges the cost of extras has rocketed. The traditional airlines routinely add £40 to £60 in extras for a short-haul return flight while a trip to Australia might have an extra £120 to £200 tacked on.
By quoting all-inclusive prices BA and Lufthansa are falling in with the AUC's (Air Transport Users' Council) recommendations for simpler pricing. "This is welcome news," chief executive Simon Evans told Business Traveller online, "but it would be nice to think we could shame the others into following suit."
There were opposing viewpoints from two other UK carriers. A spokesperson for Virgin Atlantic (www.virgin-atlantic.com) said that the carrier already operated simple pricing with the final rate, including the extras listed separately, shown at the end and not at the beginning of the booking.
According to an Easyjet (www.easyjet.com) spokesperson, "This is something we would like to introduce at some point but we don't feel that now is the right time because the market is so competitive. We feel that presenting a higher up front fare could be discouraging for customers."
Report by Alex McWhirter
Bangalore gains new flights
Bangalore, the software centre of India is getting better air links with Europe and the outside world. Until now travellers have had to rely on Lufthansa, Gulf Air, Qatar Airways or irregular Air India services. From October 30, British Airways and Air France (www.airfrance.com) will launch five times a week direct flights from London Heathrow and Paris CDG respectively. At the same time Northwest and KLM (www.klm.com) will begin operating a joint service from Amsterdam. Passengers using these airlines' hubs can make connections to elsewhere in Europe plus North America and Africa.
But travellers arriving in Bangalore will be faced with an acute accommodation shortage with room rates at four and five star hotels having rocketed by 42 per cent over the past year. It means that short notice bookings are problematic and hotels charge London prices.
According to global travel agency chain BTI, Bangalore's hotel rates are the third highest in the world after Moscow and Rome. According to BTI's CEO in India Vijay Chadda, "This is hardly surprising as hotels in Bangalore get whatever prices they want since demand far outstrips supply." Says expat interior design consultant Carlito Lo Sosito, "Even smaller, less comfortable hotels can now get away with charging an arm and a leg. We tell our clients visiting us here to let us know at least a week ahead otherwise we won't be able to accommodate them."
The Leela Palace (www.theleela.com), widely regarded as the city's best hotel, has "rates ranging between US$350 and $450 with the average price being $400 all plus 10 per cent tax," says sales executive Amit Reddy. The Leela is building a 140-room extension but it won't be ready until April 2006. Other options for business people include the ITC Sheraton Windsor, The Taj, and Oberoi.
The room shortage has prompted some firms to build accommodation blocks for visitors and staff. Other executives have no option but to commute in from Chennai or Hyderabad some 200 or 300 miles away.
The situation should ease from 2007 when Shangri La, Marriott, Hyatt and ITC Sheraton plan to add a raft of new properties.
Report by Alex McWhirter
Brown's returns to London hotel scene
London's famous Brown's Hotel (www.brownshotel.com) is set to reopen on December 12 following an extensive refurbishment.
Since taking over the well-known Mayfair hotel in 2003, Rocco Forte Hotels has performed a £19 million makeover – which was overseen by Sir Rocco Forte's sister and hotel designer Olga Polizzi. The new Brown's will have 117 guestrooms and suites in contemporary design, six private meeting rooms, three spa treatment rooms and a 70sqm fully-equipped cardiovascular gym.
Guests will dine in The Grill under the watchful eyes of Maitre d' Angelo Maresca, previously of the Savoy Grill, while the kitchen will be at the helm of executive chef Laurence Glayzer of The Ritz and Savoy Grill.
Brown's first opened in 1837 and is enshrined in London's cultural history with a host of famous guests, including Alexander Graham Bell, who made the UK's first telephone call from the hotel in 1876, Rudyard Kipling and a procession of Roosevelts, from Theodore, Franklin and Eleanor.
Report by Sarah Maxwell
SPECIAL REPORT
Expense and sensibility
Firms may be sending employees abroad again, but the strict controls over expense claims brought in after September 11 remain, finds Tom Otley...
In every job there are tasks we grow to hate, particularly the repetitious type, and top of the list for many business travellers is filing their expenses. Travel and entertainment out of the office is part and parcel of working life, but keeping track of it can be a real headache.
Whether it's completing an Excel spreadsheet or matching receipts to the tally on your corporate card and matching both to a faulty memory, expenses are an unengaging mix of boredom and panic. Boredom because you could be doing better things. Panic, because you have to get it right. As the saying goes: "they can always get you on expenses".
And now more than ever that's true, as shown by several new surveys.
The first, by American Express found that companies are cracking down on travel and expenses (T&E) spending by introducing tighter policies for staff. In the poll, 45 per cent said that their companies' policies have become "somewhat" or "a lot" tougher over the past two or three years. And many business travellers are taking heed of the new directives. Nearly one-quarter of all respondents said that, compared to two or three years ago, they were "somewhat" or "much" more careful in adhering to their firms' T&E spending rules, while more than one-third said that in the same period their companies are "somewhat" or "much more careful" in reviewing travellers' expense reports. Yet for all this, the survey also suggests that padding corporate travel expenses is common.
Most professional investigators and risk managers would agree. Deloitte Forensic polled 125 delegates at the 2004 Asia Pacific Fraud Convention and 82 per cent said they had experienced an increase in corporate fraud in the last year, with 36 per cent saying there had been a major increase. The survey revealed that the three most common types of workplace corruption were intellectual property theft, theft of common property and employee expense fraud.
Of course, whether you think expense padding is fraud depends on whether you are the one doing the claiming, or having to settle the claim. Business Process Outsource provider GlobalExpense found that around 2.5 million employees believe it is acceptable to exaggerate their expense claims at work. Its survey also found that of the UK's 27.9 million workforce, 27 per cent believe their colleagues sometimes inflate their expense claims, and over a million people have such low regard for their workmates that they think they over-claim all of the time.
"The fact that a quarter of those who claim expenses think that exaggerating their figures is acceptable is quite disturbing," said Ashley Whittaker, CEO of GlobalExpense. "British industry must tighten up its procedures to prevent such a loss of revenue and a negative culture of petty theft in the workplace." Employers in the US might want to address this too – a book published there called How to pad your expense reports probably won't help matters.
But is padding your expenses really fraud? Some seem to think it depends on the amount that you over-claim. GlobalExpense's survey showed that while 39 per cent of those who inflate their expenses would only do so by up to 10 per cent of the amount, only 8 per cent would be happy to exaggerate by at least 50 per cent.
Ashley Whittaker added: "Taking into account the amounts that individuals claimed they would exaggerate, we can very conservatively estimate that at least £230 million is claimed in inflated expense claims in the UK each year. However, from my time working as an auditor, I suspect the figure is substantially higher."
So why do people do it? For the money would be the obvious answer, but since very few of these people steal from work in any other way, perhaps it's something a little more subtle. Steve Flatt from the Psychological Therapies Unit at Liverpool University said: "You could argue that it's possible to polarise these people into two groups; those that are too lazy to fill them in properly, and so allow inaccuracies to creep in, and those who are meticulous. Of the two, it's the second who perhaps think about the possibilities that an expense claim offers them for padding."
It's the former who make matters worse by dragging their heels when it comes to claiming, though. In the latest Barclaycard Business Travel Survey 2004/5, it was found that 46 per cent of employees take up to a month to claim expenses. What's worrying is that employers take nearly as long to process them (41 per cent take up to a month). In addition, employers appear to have a lack of control over the way their money is being spent – 63 per cent of employees say they can reclaim expenses without a receipt. Since the average value of a lost receipt is £128, the amounts soon add up.
So how should companies combat this? Said Kristine Olsen of American Express: "The important thing is to have a policy, communicate it, and then enforce it." Adrian Leng, who oversees T&E at Citigroup, agrees. He said: "The policy needs to articulate which hotels and airlines employees can use, what the approval process is for getting T&E signed off and what the submission requirements are – if the bill amount is above £25, say, a receipt has to be attached to the expense report, and the time period within which an expense claim has to be submitted. If an employer can communicate these messages, then it's the beginning of minimising fraud because employees know what is acceptable and what is not."
It's a message that Brian Provost, chief operating officer for Gelco, a business service provider specialising in T&E, agrees with. "You have to distinguish between employees who don't understand the policy, and those who are fraudulent. We've found that most employees don't understand their company's policies." Leng added: "The whole basis of having a standard out there is to avoid ambiguity and the potential misbehaviour of an employee." But he added: "The environment of the company is very important. Policies forced down people's throats might cause resentment and that in turn can cause problems."
According to the survey by GlobalExpense, the most popular reason for employees hiking up their expense claims is the fact that the company doesn't cover all their costs. Other reasons include employees thinking they are not being paid enough; the boss being too slow to pay; they don't like their job; or they don't like their boss. The younger the person, the more likely they are to believe that exaggerating their expense claim is acceptable.
GlobalExpense's Whittaker added: "The fact that over one million people don't know exactly what they can claim for is also worrying. A huge culture change is essential for British businesses to move forward. Employees need to be clearly told what is acceptable and what is not. There is no need for every employee to be treated as untrustworthy – most clearly aren't. But a sizeable minority are systematically cheating their employers."
One simple way of minimising fraud is for a company to issue corporate cards. Said Olsen: "A company credit card can take a lot of the hassle out of expenses for employees. It means they are not settling the expenses themselves and then having to look to the company for reimbursement. It stops them from providing the company's cash flow."
It also allows the frequent traveller to keep track of all his or her expenditure. "If you rely on receipts alone, there's always the chance you'll forget something, but having it all on a card stops them from missing out on being reimbursed." American Express encourages use of its cards with a rewards scheme – one for the company itself and another for individual cardholders – while Barclaycard has other benefits such as insurance and access to airport lounges through the Priority Pass programme.
The advantages for companies are clear. The cards allow a company to keep a very detailed record of the business expenditure of its employees, and to spot patterns that may help it with an expense management programme for its frequent travel employees. Said Olsen: "It automates a lot of the process and means that the spending patterns can be integrated into an expense management tool, then straight into a company's accounting tool. The rest will be cash transactions, such as taxi fares or perhaps mileage on cars. Cash is the enemy. It's hard to track, hard to measure and easy to abuse."
There will never be a 100 per cent accurate method of catching fraud, but in major cities such as New York or London certain expenditures are predictable, and Amex produces figures for companies to give them both a general and relative idea of costs. Whether companies allow employees to get cash advances on their corporate card plays a part in tracing overall expenditure, since having the card as a single point of capture for both cash advances and card transactions reduces the hassle of having to go to an exchange bureau, and allows the expenses of doing so to be captured by the card.
How employees regard the corporate card – as something which takes away the majority of administration from their expenses claims and makes them feel safe, or as a spy in their pocket – depends on both the individual and the organisation to which they belong. Mike Vallance of Business Barclaycard explained: "For many companies there's an element of recognition and status for employees to be offered these cards. Some companies positively make it so through the design of the card and the top level spending amount available."
So which card should you choose? Vallance says it is worth shopping around for the best deal, but cautions on going on price alone.
He said: "Depending on the firm's particular needs, it's worth looking closely at the value-added offers that come with a card beyond the card fee."
As an additional security against fraud, companies can make use of firms such as Concur or Gelco, a business service provider specialising in the area. Gelco's expense reporting system, ExpenseLink Intelligent Workflow, allows travel managers to identify potential cases of abuse and misuse of funds, the theory being that they can then focus on making sure people comply with expenses policy. The method is automating the expense report process, so that expenses outside company policies are immediately identified.
Gelco's Provost said: "Employees prefer it. They are paid quickly and it stops them providing the cash flow for their company." As a result, Gelco says companies see an increased percentage of T&E going on the corporate card, because employees see it as the easiest way of dealing with expenses. "Most card companies hope for 40 per cent on the card. We know they get a 22 per cent increase of spend on the card when they use additional software such as Gelco's," said Provost.
In the end, no one thing will solve expense fraud. As Geoff Cronin, vice-president of solution marketing at Gelco explained: "Fraud detection is a process, not an event. You identify possible fraud opportunities and build a whole cycle to both resolve those opportunities and verify that it isn't going to happen. An automated process alone can't do it, so you need a manual check process in there at some point.
Fraud can mean different things to different people. Is it fraud if a business lunch is actually two colleagues talking about work? And what about if they talk about work for the first 10 minutes, then go on to discuss their weekend plans? Increasingly, employees have to give a reason for the lunch and the topic and, depending on the policy, two colleagues wouldn't count as such.
"In the end, it's down to the culture of the company," said Olsen. "In one, what is considered a business meeting wouldn't be in another. Some companies use T&E as a form of reward, while for others it's strictly business."Still, it's best to know the official policy before trying to use your expenses in this way. One thing is for sure, companies are scrutinising more closely than ever.
For further information, go to:
www.americanexpress.co.uk
www.deloitte.com
www.globalexpense.com
www.barclaycardbusiness.co.uk
www.concur.com
www.gelco.com
Business travellers confess...
"We had to have a quiet word with one employee who had put in a series of claims for work-related telephone calls while he was out of the office. When we pointed out that they were all to his home number, he claimed that on each occasion he was calling his wife to ask her to get important files from his study!"
Human resources manager, Birmingham
"I've put entire 'affairs' through my expense accounts. Admittedly, he was initially a client, but it meant I could claim back for everything from hotels to meals to holidays. And I once ran a little scam where I put cigarettes and pashminas through expenses (no one could read the Indian and Thai receipts) and then I'd sell them on to friends."
Public relations executive, London
"When I used to work in Aberdeen, in Scotland, we had around 8-12 guys arrive at Dyce Airport every Monday morning and then catch a cab (normally four in a cab) from the airport to the office. But when expenses time came they all submitted separate £7 taxi fares, on blank receipts bought for a fiver from the cabbie. When the company finally sussed out that 12 guys arrived at the same time but never shared a taxi, the guys had to make up all kinds of excuses: 'I always went for breakfast first before going to the office','I went to the hotel first','I had to stop and book the return flight.' Eventually the company hired two rental cars to be used to and from the airport."
Engineer, Southampton
"On my first ever press trip, I was schooled in the ways of the expense claims by the older journalists. We were in Atlanta and went on a massive bar crawl, in a horse-drawn carriage! The final bill came to around $300 which, thanks to some friendly cab drivers, I ended up putting down as several different taxi fares."
IT journalist, Brighton
"One guy I used to work with spent a weekend in a suite at a top hotel in Hong Kong. He hired a couple of high-class prostitutes, and to cover the cost he put in a false claim for a return flight to Shanghai instead."
Marketing manager, telecommunications, London
"It's common practice to add a zero on to a taxi receipt, or to ask for a blank one and make it up. Surely everyone does that, don't they?"
Trader, London
"We used to run an industry event for premium content providers, you know, the online porn companies and so on. Some of them were into their recreational drugs and would expect us to go and score it for them. We'd end up coming back to the UK several hundred euro short and obviously with no receipts to show for it. Then, one year, we discovered these beer mats in a local bar, which had all the details of the German brewery on them, and then just enough white space on the top for us to write in an amount. We photocopied lots of these and put them through as entertainment receipts and the problem was solved."
Public relations director, London
"When you come back from the States you always end up out of pocket on receipts because of all the tipping. One company I worked for allowed you to add 10-15 per cent
on top of your total bill to cover this, so we'd just claim this but never bother tipping!"
Recruitment consultant, Winchester
"I claimed on my company's insurance for a pair of brand new designer glasses that I left in a hotel room when I was on a conference trip. When I got the money back I went and bought a new pair, which to be honest with you, weren't as expensive, but then a few weeks later I found the original pair in the boot of my car. Whoops!"
Marketing consultant, Brighton
"A guy I used to work with was a bit of a character. On overseas trips we were given a generous cash advance, and then we'd have to produce receipts or give the cash back. He came back from one trip to Bangkok having spent all of the money, but with few receipts to show for it. He claimed he'd been mugged by two 'drug-crazed prostitutes' in the hotel elevator. When management made it clear they didn't believe it, he then wrote a very detailed letter describing every detail of the incident, and also citing other people who were on the same conference who could vouch for him (obviously his mates). In the end, it was his words against theirs, so they had to let it go."
Tour operator, Sutton
"In an old job, I went in to see my boss to ask for a much-deserved pay rise. She told me that she completely agreed with my reasons but that there was no way her boss would agree to it, so instead she advised me to treat myself and my boyfriend to a nice meal each week, and put it through on expenses. I said that this wasn't going to help pay my mortgage, but did as she advised anyway. It turned out that everyone else was, so I didn't see why I should be left out."
Editor, London
"A client of mine was on a trip in the Middle East and as part of a hosted bedouin event in the desert, he took a short trip on the back of a camel. Unfortunately, halfway through, the camel (incidentally a very old one), keeled over and died. The camel owner insisted that not only did my client pay the cost of the camel 'hire' but he also paid for the dead camel, which certainly raised a few eyebrows in the accounts department!"
Civil engineer, Kingston, Surrey
Beverley Fearis
Ten tips to help your employees manage their expenses
1. Review your expenses management regularly to ensure both company and employees are getting the most out of the system
2. Introduce simple everyday processes to save money, remove stress and cut back on wasted staff resources
3. Make staff aware of the role their actions play in the expenses claiming chain
4. Institute refresher training courses or even incentives for prompt expenses submissions
5. Ensure staff include receipts with claims wherever possible — even if the expenses claim was for a bill paid using a company corporate card
6. Have clear spending guidelines and a mutual understanding between company and employees, which will make the whole travel and expenses process more effective
7. In addition, have a clear company policy on travel and entertainment to prevent overspending by employees
8. Find the right corporate card provider. Look at all the benefits that come with that card, not just the price of it
9. Use the card for payments to internet businesses — a safe way to do business, and to pay one-off suppliers. It avoids setting up a new account which can be time-consuming
10. Listen to feedback from employees. They are the ones having to comply with the policy.
Tips provided by Barclaycard Business (www.barclaycardbusiness.co.uk)
Globaliser
Oct 21, 05, 6:29 am
I saw someone mention in another PPlace that there is also confirmation from BA and QF that QF will be joining BA in T5 at LHR.
alex1948
Oct 22, 05, 5:49 pm
I saw someone mention in another PPlace that there is also confirmation from BA and QF that QF will be joining BA in T5 at LHR.
Yes, looks as though QF will be the only Oneworld carrier to join BA in T5.
There's insufficient space for the other alliance members and they're expected to relocate to T3 (the nearest LHR terminal to T5).
Globaliser
Oct 23, 05, 1:31 pm
Yes, looks as though QF will be the only Oneworld carrier to join BA in T5.
There's insufficient space for the other alliance members and they're expected to relocate to T3 (the nearest LHR terminal to T5).From various comments, it sounds like there's probably insufficient space for all of BA to start with, so that some sleight-of-bus is going to be used in a big way, but I have always thought that it would be impossible for QF to operate from a different terminal from BA in the current state that their working relationship is in.
QF WP
Oct 27, 05, 7:01 pm
Rail firms up the ante
Two of Europe's leading train companies Eurostar and Thalys are to form a marketing alliance branded Rail Team. Eurostar operates high-speed services linking London Waterloo with Brussels Midi and Paris Nord. Thalys also operates high-speed trains but these run from Paris Nord via Brussels Midi and on to Amsterdam and Cologne.
Both rail firms say they will cooperate on ticketing and scheduling. This will make it easier for passengers to switch from one train to another, especially at Brussels Midi, where both services meet. Until now, making a connection has been a hit and miss affair because Eurostar and Thalys schedules don't always match. It will also make it possible to include Eurostar journeys on Thalys tickets and vice versa. In other words, it will be possible to incorporate the popular triangular route of London-Brussels-Paris-London on one ticket. They also say they will link their loyalty schemes.
Both rail firms continue to face fierce competition from the airlines. Although Thalys has captured almost all the Brussels-Paris market, the airlines are strong on routes like London-Cologne, Paris-Cologne and Paris-Amsterdam.
Why has the arrival of Rail Team taken so long? After all, the airlines have been forging alliances for years and Eurostar and Thalys are a natural fit because they don't compete.
When Business Traveller poised these points to Eurostar, a spokesperson responded, "Yes, what you say is correct. I can say that over the years we've had so much customer feedback on this issue. The problem has been that both ourselves and Thalys use different systems. But we now have a strong commitment to proceed together, to develop services for passengers and to compete more effectively with the airlines."
Eurostar has no timescale for Rail Team. But the spokesperson said matters were proceeding "as a matter of priority." For more information go to Eurostar (www.eurostar.com) and Thalys (www.thalys.com).
Report by Alex McWhirter
All-business fares to NY plummet
All business class carrier Maxjet has slashed the price of its soon-to-be-launched transatlantic service. The US carrier launches a six times weekly service between London Stansted and New York JFK on November 2 (the eastbound flight starts on November 1). Maxjet hopes the lower price of £854 return will encourage more business people to try the flights. It will certainly appeal to the many small to medium-sized firms located within the Stansted catchment area.
Maxjet CEO Garry Rogliano told Business Traveller: "For the same price as a flexible economy ticket you can now fly business class. Our aim is to make business class more affordable and attractive to a larger market."
Rogliano believes that transatlantic business class passengers have been getting a raw deal from the big carriers. "We analysed 15 different UK-US routes and we saw that 8% of the passengers were providing 50% of the revenue."
Maxjet expects most of its passengers (60%) to come from the UK/mainland Europe with the remainder from the US.
Although some UK travellers may view Stansted as inconvenient that view may not be shared by travellers on the other side of the Atlantic. Says Rogliano: "US travellers will find they can reach the City in 45 minutes by the Stansted Express. Stansted will offer US passport holders faster clearance. The other morning [as a US national] it took me 90 minutes to clear passport control at Heathrow."
Maxjet will operate with a 102-seater wide-bodied B767. Seating layout will be six across (2-2-2) with 60 inches of legroom. Flights depart Stansted at 10.00 returning from JFK at 18.30. The carrier says it will offer Stansted passengers use of Fast Track along with the SAS lounge. Passengers leaving JFK will have access to the Korean Air lounge. When they reach Stansted they'll be able to use an arrivals' lounge at the adjacent Radisson/SAS hotel. For more information go to Maxjet web site (www.maxjet.com)
Report by Alex McWhirter
Get inches for pounds
Passengers travelling with Flybe can now pre-book a seat, including seats with extra legroom, for a charge.
The cost of pre-booking a normal seat is £5, while reserving one with extra legroom costs £15, both through Flybe (www.flybe.com). Passengers travelling in Flybe's premium economy class can pre-book their seat online at no extra charge. The seats can be pre-booked at the time of booking or up to the day of departure.
Other online improvements from Flybe include the ability to book flights through its website on the day of departure, up to two hours before scheduled take-off. previously this had to be done over the phone or at the airport.
Flybe is not the first carrier to enable passengers to secure an emergency exit seat, and the extra legroom that goes with it. Bmibaby customers can book the extra legroom seats for £10 online on a first-come-first-served basis. The £10 charge is per flight, per passenger, and with only eight emergency exit seats on the carrier's Airbus 737-300 aircraft and 12 on Airbus 737-500 aircraft, you need to be quick. Go to bmibaby (www.bmibaby.com).
Other carriers offering extra legroom seats for a fee are Monarch Scheduled and Thomsonfly, which charge £15 per flight to reserve the seats online. Both also charge £5 to book standard seats online. Go to Thomsonfly (www.thomsonfly.com) or Monarch (www.flymonarch.com).
Virgin Atlantic offers extra legroom seats for £50 per passenger, but this can only be done at airport check-in.
Report by Ginny McGrath
Brussels route saved
Domestic carrier Eastern Airways has snapped up the Southampton-Brussels route after the departure of VLM from the south coast airport.
Eastern Airways will launch flights on November 1 and says its twice-daily schedule is more convenient for business travellers than the schedule of its predecessor. Flights leave Southampton at 7.10am and 5.50pm and return from Brussels at 10.10am and 8.40pm, making a day return to the political capital of the European Union possible.
Fares start at £265 return including taxes and charges.
The Brussels route is the first international service for Eastern Airways, which currently operates from 16 UK airports. Its existing routes out of Southampton are to Leeds Bradford, Newcastle and Aberdeen. The carrier also operates out of Stansted to Manchester. For details go to Eastern Airways (www.easternairways.com).
Report by Ginny McGrath
JAL eyes Oneworld
Oneworld is set to recruit the largest carrier in Asia Pacific, the second new member to join the airline alliance this month.
Japan Airlines (JAL) would be the largest carrier in the alliance in terms of group revenue, and would join American Airlines and British Airways as the alliance's largest three airline members, according to other measures such as fleet size and route network.
Five Oneworld members already operate in Japan, but the move by JAL, which is still subject to the necessary agreements and procedures, would bring a 10 per cent expansion to the Oneworld network, adding 68 destinations including 56 in Japan and five in China.
JAL already operates to seven Oneworld hubs: London Heathrow, New York JFK, Hong Kong, Chicago O'Hare, Los Angeles, Singapore and Sydney, and has bilateral agreements in place with six alliance carriers: American Airlines, British Airways, Qantas, Iberia, Cathay Pacific and LAN.
As reported by Businesstraveller.com last week, Royal Jordanian made history as the first carrier from the Middle East region to enter a global airline alliance, and in May Hungarian carrier Malev started proceedings to join the alliance.
Other existing members of Oneworld are Finnair and Aer Lingus.
Report by Ginny McGrath
Westin comes over all W
It appears that elements of the trendy W hotel group, with its quirky extras and concepts, are rubbing off on its sister brand, Westin. As part of an overhaul of the Westin brand, Starwood Hotels and Resorts is introducing new minibars to its Westin properties.
Among the healthy gadgets, snacks and gizmos going into the minibar, which has now been renamed the "Purification Station", is a stress relieving spray, sweets that revitalise your skin, and a pure oxygen dispenser.
The first Purification Station will debut at the Westin New York at Times Square, in its Renewel Suite, a $2,000-a-night suite that features a decompression chamber, spa bath, gym and music, light and water features, all designed to soothe the weary traveller.
Among the products on sale in the Purification Station are:
- Essential oil patches called Naturopatches, including bergamot to relieve stress, and arnica to ease aches and pains
- BORBA's Skin Balance Gummi Booster Confections, which are intended to revitalise skin with an organic cultivated bio-vitamin complex
- Skyn Iceland Anti-Stress Oral Spray, which is sprayed into the mouth like a breath freshener, and should ease tension
- Dr. Hauschka Jet Set Essentials kit, which includes pampering face and body products from the popular organic brand
Despite these holistic additions, guests who head for the minibar because they're peckish will not be disappointed – alongside these products will be organic wine, beer and cookies. The new minibars, or elements of them, will eventually be rolled out across the Westin brand globally.
Even the humble bedtime mint on the pillow is being scrapped in favour of something more wholesome – instead guests will be presented with a Moondrop Homeopathic Sleep Therapy Lozenge, which contains sleep-inducing natural ingredients.
Report by Ginny McGrath
Aisle Seat H
Nov 3, 05, 1:26 pm
Some really interesting articles actually this week, espec. the SQ one (just love the bowling alley quote) and the Air NZ one (I highlighted the bit I agree with, which is my main gripe with Skybed):-
Secrecy surrounds SIA's super jumbo
3 November 2005
Singapore Airline's (SIA) plans to launch its first double-deck Airbus A380 service in November 2006 remain on track.
The carrier, which has firm orders for 10 aircraft, will be the world's first operator of the European-built "super jumbo." The first plane will be deployed on its blue riband London Heathrow-Singapore-Sydney service.
SIA remains tight-lipped regarding the A380's interior configuration but an airline spokesperson in Toulouse (where SIA's A380s are currently on the production line) told Business Traveller: "Our first and business classes will be very different to the "SkySuites" and "SpaceBeds" that are in service now.
"It's such a competitive market that we will not disclose details of the interior until mid-2006. But we will provide the next generation of cabin products and in-flight service. However what we offer must be economically viable and so passengers will not find amenities like showers and bowling alleys." The airline has held a number of customer clinics around the world to gauge reaction to its proposed seating.
All passengers will gain more space (although those in the premium classes get the most) because SIA is installing no more than 480 seats (roughly 100 more seats than the B747) in a three class (first, business and regular economy) layout whose theoretical capacity is 555. "Ticket prices will remain competitive and very relevant for our customers," claims SIA.
Meanwhile, Airbus is satisfied with sales of the giant plane to date. "We've no delivery slots left before 2010," says Charles Champion who heads up the A380 programme.
Emirates and Qantas will take delivery of the A380 in Spring 2007 followed by Malaysia Airlines. Airport authorities are busy upgrading their terminals to take the super jumbo. Says Champion: "By 2006 there will be 23 airports ready to accept it and 60 by 2010. These 60 airports handle 80 per cent of today's B747 flights so the major ones are covered. We are working on India as a priority following the order from Kingfisher [a new local airline]."
New class for ANZ (http://www.businesstraveller.com/default.asp?Page=3&PUB=67&ISS=20876&SID=595419) (with photos)
3 November 2005
This weekend sees Air New Zealand (ANZ) rolls out new premium products for its prestigious London Heathrow to Auckland service which operates via Los Angeles. First class is dropped in favour of a new three class layout with vastly improved seating in business class and the introduction of a premium economy cabin.
"We've leapfrogged our rivals in terms of the product," Rob Fyfe, ANZ's CEO told Business Traveller, "it will be at least two years before our competitors catch up."
New Zealand's national airline is going the whole hog and installing 46 fully lie-flat seats in business class. These are identical to Virgin Atlantic's Upper Class suites and adopt the four across "herringbone" layout where seats take an east-west (rather than north-south) configuration. Legroom is 79 inches and the seat is 33 inches wide at shoulder level. Pricing is similar to the old business class.
Says Rob Fyfe, "To cut development time we've licensed the seat from Virgin Atlantic. We opted for this design because we've heard a lot of negative feedback from the angled lie-flat seats used by most other airlines. Passengers have told us they feel as if they are sliding forward on these seats. Larger and taller passengers have remarked on their lack of shoulder space."
"Our new business class seats don't have these drawbacks. But they are expensive. They cost three times more than the angled seats fitted by SIA. So we need to carry a couple more passengers per flight to recoup the extra cost. But the experience from Virgin indicates that passengers are prepared to choose a flight with this seat because its design offers more privacy and comfort, especially for taller passengers."
The 23-seat premium economy cabin features more spacious seating in a five across 3-2 layout on the B747's upper deck. ANZ says that initial demand (these seats are already installed on the Auckland-San Francisco route) shows that passengers are prepared to pay for extra width plus 38-40 inches of legroom as against 34 inches. Says Rob Fyfe, "It's a compelling proposition. I can get all this extra space for a 25% premium over the normal economy class price."
The new seats will begin appearing on daily flights NZ1 and NZ2 from Heathrow on November 6. All these flights will have the new seating by December 16.
Eastern promise
3 November 2005
British Airways has almost doubled the number of flights it offers between Heathrow and India.
The carrier has taken its weekly India services from 19 to 35, and is predicting further growth for the next four years.
The new schedule, which came into affect on October 30, includes an increase in flights to Mumbai from one to two per day, a new service to Bangalore operating five time weekly, and increased flights to Chennai, up from two to six per week.
BA will continue to operate to Kolkata tree times weekly and to Delhi daily, but there are plans to boost Delhi to double daily from summer 2006.
The move by BA follows liberalisation of aviation regulations operating between the two countries has enabled the carrier to boost frequency, but has also allowed new entrants, including Virgin Atlantic, Bmi and Jet Airways, to launch flights between the UK and India.
Return fares for the India services start at the following prices, including taxes:
Air Berlin has been the unlikely candidate for the launch of two UK domestic flights.
The German low cost airline, which already operates out of Stansted to nine European destinations, plans to launch flights from the Essex airport to Glasgow and Manchester.
The UK domestic routes, a first for Air Berlin, will launch on December 16, with fares from £19 one-way including taxes, which also includes in-flight refreshments. The carrier faces stiff competition though, from Easyjet and Globespan on the Glasgow route and from Eastern Airways on the Manchester route.
Air Berlin hopes passengers will use the new domestic flights for economical travel between Germany and both Manchester and Glasgow. The carrier claims to be the first to use Stansted as a transfer hub, meaning passengers transitting through the airport on Air Berlin flights will be able to do so without retrieving bags and checking in for the new flight. It expects transfer times to be no longer than one hour.
Air Berlin is not the first non-UK and Ireland carrier to operate domestic flights. Belgian carrier VLM operates domestic flights from London City to Liverpool and Manchester, but without any geographical leaning implied in its brand name, it has had less of a marketing challenge to overcome than Air Berlin.
Air Berlin is well established in Germany and already operates flights from Stansted to Berlin, Dusseldorf, Hanover, Leipzig, Munster-Osnabruck, Nuremberg, Paderborn, Palma de Majorca and Vienna. For more information go to www.airberlin.com.
Report by Ginny McGrath
Regional airports get connected
3 November 2005
Flybe will launch a raft of new services from Exeter, Norwich, Birmingham and Southampton over the coming weeks.
The carrier will launch flights from Exeter International airport to Geneva and Chambery on December 17 and 24 respectively. It also launched flights to Murcia (one-way tickets including taxes from £30) and Faro (from £40) on November 1.
The Geneva route will start from £37 one-way including taxes and Chambery from £60.
Flights that also launched on November 1 were Norwich to Geneva, Aberdeen, Dublin, Malaga, Chambery and Alicante; Birmingham to Berne and Southampton to Berne.
Flybe hopes the mixture of winter sun, city and ski flights from UK regional airports will build on the success of last season's winter routes, which include flights from both Southampton and Birmingham to Chambery, Geneva and Salzburg, and are being reintroduced this winter.
The improved routes will be a boost for Birmingham, following the decision by British Airways to suspend flights from the airport operated by BA CitiExpress to Rome and Vienna, as part of changes made to its winter schedule.
Report by Ginny McGrath
QF WP
Nov 10, 05, 8:39 pm
Amman hotel bomb blasts
Terrorists have targeted three western hotel chains in a series of bomb attacks in Jordan.
The bombs exploded at the Grand Hyatt, Radisson SAS and Days Inn hotels in the capital city, Amman. There are 67 confirmed fatalities and at least 300 people have been injured.
The city, which is served by direct flights from the UK with Royal Jordanian and British Airways franchise partner BMed, was also the subject of a hotel bomb attack in April 2003. In a statement BMed said: "Following yesterday bomb attacks in Jordan, flights continue to operate to schedule."
A spokesman for BA added that the airline will continue to take advice from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO). Current FCO advice warns of a high threat of terrorism in Jordan, but does not advise against travel to the country.
The general manager of the 110-bedroom Days Inn in Amman, Khaled Abu Ghoush, has confirmed that four guests were hurt, three seriously, and that guests registered at the time of the attack included citizens of China, France, Spain, the UK, the US and Israel. He added: "The hotel remains open, having sustained relatively minor damage, primarily broken windows on the ground level and first floor. Two large groups decided to leave the hotel, a number of other individual guests checked out and some rooms continue to be occupied. The hotel is expected be fully operational in three or four days, and is currently protected by a significant contingent of military and police units."
Rezidor SAS Hospitality, partner of Radisson Hotels & Resorts, confirmed that an explosion took place in the banquet hall of the Radisson SAS Hotel, Amman during a wedding reception, and says no in-house guests were among the casualties. Most of the casualties of the other two bomb blasts were also Jordan nationals.
According to the Jordan Tourism Board there are no reported injuries to British tourists, with November a relatively quiet month for UK tourism to the country. In a statement the organisation said: "Amman is essentially a gateway city into Jordon, with most UK tourists passing through the city to visit tourist sites such as Petra, which is over 200km to the south of Amman."
Report by Ginny McGrath
Isle of Man flights on the up
Flights between England and the Isle of Man are to receive a major boost this month when three new airlines launch on the route.
The arrival of services from VLM (www.flyvlm.com), AlphaOne (www.flyalpha1.com), and Aer Arann (www.aerarann.com) is anticipated to spark a drop in fares to the Isle of Man, which is currently served from London only by Euromanx and British Airways.
The first to launch the new services was VLM, which launched daily flights between London City and Ronaldsway airport on the Isle of Man on November 1. The service supplements existing flights from London City to Jersey, Liverpool and Manchester with VLM. Fares start at around £190 return including tax. Flights depart London at 9am, arriving at 10.15am and leave Isle of Man at 5pm, returning 6.20pm.
Next to launch will be AlphaOne, the airline that has received extensive publicity owing to its 19-year old founder, Martin Halstead. The launch of flights between Southampton and Isle of Man has been put back to November 21, due to delays involving pilot training. When the service launches it will operate twice daily Monday to Friday. Fares are being advertised from £49 one way excluding taxes, and bookings are currently only being taken over the phone, at 08703 833 324.
The final service is being launched by Aer Arann on November 24 from Luton. The carrier already operates to the Irish Sea island from Dublin. The airline will operate two flights per day departing London Luton at 11.15am and 7.15pm, and the Isle of Man at 9.30am and 5.30pm. Fares start at £30 one-way including taxes.
Report by Ginny McGrath
Members-only airline to launch to NY
Another all-luxury flight is launching to New York, with helicopter transfers and in-flight email among the services available to passengers. Called Milano Manhattan, or Mima Club for short, the flight will operate between Milan Linate and New York JFK, and is expected to launch in February.
The service is available only to members, who pay an undisclosed annual fee. The flight will operate six days a week, using an A319 aircraft with 48 seats and a seat pitch (distance between seat cushion and the next seat back) of 58 inches, which is one inch shy of British Airways' Club World seat pitch.
Mima Club offers a 24-hour concierge service to organise flight bookings, check–in and hotel bookings, and passengers can choose from airport transfers by car or helicopter. In addition the concierge can arrange restaurant reservations, tickets for events, theatre, and exhibitions, and spa treatments in both cities.
Passengers enjoy airport "Fast Track" service, in-seat power supply, in-flight entertainment systems with SMS and email, on–demand audio and video, magazines and newspapers and in-flight meals and drinks. The announcement comes just days after the launch of transatlantic all-luxury flights operated by Maxjet and Eos from Stansted to New York.
For more information and to apply for membership, go to Mima Club (www.mimaclub.com).
Report by Ginny McGrath
Bliss in Chicago
Bliss, the spa company famed for its oxygen facials and brownie buffets has opened a sixth outlet.
The opening of Bliss Chicago in the city's W Lakeshore hotel last month follows the opening of the fifth sybaritic outlet in the W San Francisco this summer.
The spa, located on the eighth floor of the Chicago hotel, is 9,000 square feet and includes 16 treatment rooms, a beauty products boutique, four movie-while-you-manicure stations, and separate men's and women's lounges. The background music is rhythm and blues.
Guests staying at the W hotel get samples of Bliss products in their bathroom, including Bliss Spa's foaming face wash, lemon and sage shower gel, moisturising body butter and supershine shampoo in a neat amenity bag.
The Bliss brand gained notoriety in the late 1990s as its spas became celebrity haunts and for its signature offerings, which include the Triple Oxygen Treatment facial (135 for 85 minutes), and brownie and wine buffet – both of which will be on offer at the Chicago spa.
Bliss operates four other spas – one in London and three in New York. More Bliss spas are in the pipeline, with openings planned for Dallas and Los Angeles next year. These spas will be located in W hotels, the fashionable boutique brand owned by Starwood Hotels and Resorts, which bought Bliss in 2004 from luxury retailers LVMH.
For more information go to Bliss Spa (www.blissspa.com).
Report by Ginny McGrath
Airport security at Paddington
Passengers on the Heathrow Express will soon face airport-style security procedures before boarding the train. The four-week long trial at Paddington Station is expected to take place next year, as part of a bid to counter terrorism on the UK transport network.
Passengers can expect random bag searches and scanning, which may use a scanner machine, portable trace equipment or sniffer dogs. The screenings will also be extended to parts of the UK national rail network and the London Underground. It is the first time such measures have been taken on the UK rail network, and if successful could be rolled out to other stations.
Commenting on the announcement from the Department for Transport, Transport Secretary, Alistair Darling said: "Around three million people travel on the London Underground and well over two million travel on the UK railway every day. We cannot operate a closed system like we do at airports. But it is important that we reduce the risk to those passengers whilst recognising that people need to get about on the tube and railway."
The extra security measures are not expected to cause delays to the airport train service.
Report by Ginny McGrath
Paris hotel changes hands
The InterContinental Paris, one of the city's largest luxury properties, has reopened as a Westin hotel.
The hotel, which is located in Place Vendome and overlooks the Jardin des Tuileries, is well placed for the shops, attractions and businesses of central Paris, and is just a few steps from the Louvre and the Place de la Concorde.
The Westin Paris underwent a soft opening this month, but following a E12 million refurbishment, it will open officially in the first quarter of 2006, equipped with the hallmarks of the Westin brand. This includes Westin's Heavenly Beds, Heavenly Baths, and WestinWorkout Rooms, which come with exercise equipment. In the meantime rates have been slashed to E249 for bookings up to February 28.
The 438-bedroom property has 78 suites, with rooms overlooking either the Jardin des Tuileries, Place Vendome or the hotel grounds. Rooms have high-speed wireless internet access and there is internet access through the television for guests who don't bring a laptop.
The hotel has 12 meeting rooms and a ballroom of 400 square metres. The gourmet 234 Rivoli restaurant extends in the summer to encompass La Terrasse Fleurie, and there is a cocktail bar, Tuileries Bar, which is open for snacks from 10am.
The InterContinental group has maintained a foothold in Paris with the InterContinental Le Grand Hotel Paris, a nineteenth century hotel that overlooks Opéra Square.
For more information go to Westin Paris (www.westin.com/paris).
Report by Ginny McGrath
QF WP
Nov 22, 05, 7:19 pm
£'s earmarked for Club World overhaul
British Airways has announced it will be replacing its entire existing Club World product starting in 2006. The replacement is part of a £GBP100 million investment which will include a new Inflight Entertainment system for all cabins. The new seat, which has been designed by B/E Aerospace, and will be fitted on the first of the airline's fleet in mid-2006. Speaking to Business Traveller, chief executive Willie Walsh said that the 5,400 Club World seats in the fleet would be arranged in the same ying/yang configuration and would 'confirm the Club World seat as the best business class product in the world."
At the same time, a new Inflight Entertainment (IFE) System with Audio and Visual on Demand is being introduced, allowing for a greater selection of programming, and the ability to stop, start and pause programming, essential for those business travellers on long haul who find themselves falling asleep in the middle of films, only to wake up to discover it has finished and will not be running again for several hours, if at all.
Exact details about the seat and IFE system are not being announced until early next year, though wifi connectivity will not play a part, nor will the ability to make voice calls. Willie Walsh said that he believed that such enhancements will come with the next generation of aircraft such as the Boeing 787, and that he did not believe it was right to delay the introduction of the new IFE system until wifi was widely available.
British Airways has a total of 115 long haul craft (57 Boeing 747-400, 43 777 and 15 767 aircraft), all of which will be fitted with the new seat. The roll out of the present Club World seat has only just been completed with the final Boeing 767 on the Manchester New York route, but commercial director Martin George promised that the roll out of the new seat will be completed in a considerably quicker time scale.
Report by Tom Otley
Muscat could be next for Virgin
Virgin Atlantic is looking at extending its forthcoming Dubai service to cover Muscat (Oman) which is becoming an increasingly popular destination with business and leisure travellers.
But first of all Virgin will raise the stakes on the competitive London-Dubai route by offering executives the chance to bed down on its Upper Class Suites. It will also offer cost-conscious travellers a premium economy class.
Pitching it as a "first class product for a business class fare", the fully lie-flat leather seats come with a proper mattress, private onboard bar and private massage area as well as an inflight entertainment system with up to 300 hours of video and audio on demand.
Each of the 34 Upper Class Suites on board the three-section A340-300 aircraft has its own laptop power supply. A premium economy (38 inches seat pitch) and economy (31 inches) section are also on board. Virgin Atlantic will launch the route with four-a-week services from March 27 2006, rising to five-a-week from May 1. The service goes daily on A340-600 aircraft (45 Suites) from June 1.
Flights depart Heathrow from 20.10 and arrive in Dubai 06.20 the next day, returning from Dubai at 1500 and arriving Heathrow 19.30. It's unusual for airlines to leave state-of-the-art planes on the ground at overseas airports for so long between flights. Sir Richard Branson, Virgin Atlantic chairman, told Business Traveller's Middle East edition this week that he would be looking into tagging on another destination – possibly Muscat – rather than have the aircraft standing idle on the ground in Dubai. Although the priority is to establish the Dubai route, he envisaged flying into Abu Dhabi "one day" as well as Qatar.
Competition-loving Branson praised the Dubai authorities and the airport's open skies policy, which ironically sees Virgin fly head-to-head with government-owned Emirates. "I think it's best to compete hard in the daytime and be friends in the evening," he said. Branson envisages that the route will contribute around AED 560 million ($158 million) to the Dubai economy each year.
The airline is likely to share lounge access with other carriers at Dubai initially although a stand-alone facility may be built in future. Emirates isn't worried about the fact that Virgin will be offering a superior business class and the ability to book a superior economy class. Keith Longstaff, the carrier's senior VP commercial operations for Europe told Business Traveller, "We welcome this competition from Virgin. We thrive on it."
Report by Dominic Ellis
Oman opening for Shangri-La
Shangri-La will quietly open its first hotel in Muscat next month, cementing the city's reputation as a business and leisure contender to Dubai. The Shangri-La Barr Al Jissah Resort and Spa will get underway near the Oman capital at the start of December, although this is a "soft opening", which will see the hotel operating under capacity until early January, when it will officially open.
Located 40 minutes from the airport and 20 minutes out of town, the resort hotel is set in 124 acres of landscaped gardens in a private bay. The resort complex incorporates three hotels, a heritage village championing local arts and culture, and a river linking its two outdoor swimming pools. There is also a 1,000 seat amphitheatre, a business centre, free shuttle bus to shopping and business districts, and 11 meeting rooms plus a ballroom.
The hotel will also have extensive leisure facilities including an outlet of the Shangri-La spa brand, Chi Spa (like the one in Bangkok, pictured), with 12 treatment rooms, a dive school, water sports centre, gym, tennis courts, private beaches, and 19 different food and drink outlets, offering a range of formal and informal dining options.
The three hotels are geared towards different guests, with a family hotel, five star option and deluxe five star, where all guests have their own butler and the hotel has a private gym, beach and infinity swimming pool. All rooms have sea views and private terrace or balcony, plus broadband internet access, electronic safes and satellite television. Rates start at £126 at the family hotel, Al Waha, £168 at the five star property, Al Bandar, and £238 at the top hotel, Al Husn.
Other Shangri-La hotels in the pipeline include properties in Chiang Mai and Suzhou, set to open next year and an extension to the Shangri-La in Beijing, the group's first London hotel will not open until 2009. For more information go to Shangri-la website (www.shangri-la.com).
Report by Ginny McGrath
SAS website too 'sluggish'
SAS will soon launch a revamped website to capitalise on its new business model. Scandinavia's national airline recently launched new one-way pricing within Europe which has led to the cost of one-way flights from London Heathrow to Copenhagen or Stockholm falling to as little as £45.
"One-way pricing has been a tremendous success for us," Jorgen Lindegaard, SAS' president and CEO told Business Traveller, "we are now carrying 15% more international passengers out of Copenhagen."
But the SAS website lets the side down by not making it easy enough for passengers to book the cheaper tickets. Compared to the budget carriers and the likes of British Airways, Air France, Lufthansa and KLM, the SAS website (www.flysas.com) is sluggish and it complicates matters by making potential passengers select a country before selecting the destination. To his credit, Lindegaard admitted as much to business traveller.com "You are right, that is why we will be unveiling a new website in the first half of next year. It will have a four-click booking engine to speed matters up."
"Nevertheless," adds Lars-Ove Filipson GM for SAS in the UK, "despite the difficulties we find that 35% of UK passengers book online with the existing website."
SAS also revealed it will match any online booking fee which British Airways is likely to charge in the UK and that it will want to launch twice daily non-stop flights from London City to Stockholm in summer 2006.
Report by Alex McWhirter
LCY's rail link to open ahead of schedule?
Airline officials at London City are optimistic the airport's light rail DLR extension will open at the end of November, two weeks ahead of schedule.
The 4km link means that airport users will get their first rail service to Canary Wharf (14 minutes away) and the City (Bank 22 minutes away). The DLR will also feed into the Jubilee tube line at Canning Town providing faster and easier access to Westminster and the West End. Trains will run every seven to 10 minutes and London City will be within Travelcard Zone 3.
A spokesperson for DLR was more cautious, "Although all the facilities are now in place and trains are being tested we still can't provide an opening date because the system has to be signed off by the railway inspectorate." However, previous DLR lines opened ahead of time and this is expected to be the case here.
What is definite is that London City will soon get its first hotel. Budget chain Travelodge opens a new 157-room Travelodge at the airport entrance opposite the executive aviation centre (about 800 yards from the main terminal) on December 2. Rooms normally cost £60 a night but there is currently a special online rate of £26 falling to as little as £10 at slack times. Parking at the Travelodge costs upwards of £5 per night which is cheaper than the airport car parks.
For more information go to DLR website (www.tfl.gov.uk/dlr) and Travelodge website (www.travelodge.co.uk).
New early and late Air France flights to Paris Orly provide a longer working day in the French capital. The first flight of the day now departs City at 06.35 reaching Paris Orly at 0850 while the return service leaves Orly at 20.20 to reach City at 20.20. For more information go to Air France website (www.airfrance.co.uk)
Report by Alex McWhirter
Manchester to get direct UAE flight
Etihad Airways is set to launch flights from Manchester to its UAE-hub next year.
The daily flights will launch in March 2006, with Eithad hoping to carry point-to-point traffic as well as taking passengers from Manchester onto Asia, including destinations such as Bangkok, Colombo, and New Delhi.
The northern city is the third UK departure airport for Eithad, which also operates flights from Heathrow and Gatwick to Abu Dhabi.
The airline will operate the route using Airbus A330 aircraft, configured in three classes, Diamond, Pearl and Coral, which equate to business class, premium economy and economy.
The only existing flights between Manchester and Abu Dhabi are operated via other destinations by Emirates, Lufthansa and Qatar Airways. Eithad has not yet released fares for the route.
The carrier currently operates to 19 destinations but hopes to expand this to 70 by 2010. Etihad has ordered five Boeing 777ER aircraft, which it will receive in January 2006, plus 12 Airbus 330s and 12 A340s, to arrive early next year, in addition to four of the Airbus "super jumbo" A380 aircraft, which are currently being used in test flights, and will be delivered in January 2008. For more information go to Etihad website (www.etihadairways.com)
Report by Ginny McGrath
QF WP
Nov 27, 05, 6:59 pm
Krakow arrives on the aviation map
The popular business and tourist destination of Krakow receives a big boost in air service next year.
The Slovakian budget carrier Skyeurope will connect this Southern Polish city with eight new destinations including major cities in the UK and mainland Europe. The new weekly schedules, which will be phased in from the start of the summer season on March 26, include Athens (two flights), Bologna (three flights), Brussels (three flights), Naples (two flights), Stockholm (four flights) and Turin (three flights).
The two new UK destinations are Birmingham (two flights from April 12) and the Scottish capital of Edinburgh (three flights from April 13). Skyeurope wants to cash in on the growing visitor and worker traffic both from and to Krakow. Services to Birmingham. Bologna and Turin are likely to be popular with the motor industry (there's a joint Fiat/GM engine plant and Fiat vehicle factory near Krakow).
Tickets will be keenly priced. For example, in April Skyeurope is charging from £80 return from either Birmingham or Edinburgh. Existing Skyeurope services operate from London Stansted, Manchester, Dublin, Amsterdam, Barcelona (Summer season only), Milan (Bergamo), Paris (Orly) and Rome.
Other flights to Krakow from the UK are flown by British Airways and Central Wings from Gatwick, Ryanair from Stansted and Easyjet from Luton. For more information go to Skyeurope web site (www.skyeurope.com)
Report by Alex McWhirter
Eos reschedules JFK service
Eos, the US all business class airline, will put back the timing of its London Stansted to New York JFK flight starting from the beginning of next month.
Currently the westbound flight by 48-seater B757 departs London Stansted at 10.30 but from December 1 it will leave at 19.05 to reach JFK at 21.09. The inbound service will continue to run to existing timings: 19.05 from JFK arriving Stansted at 07.30.
A spokesperson for Eos told Business Traveller, "The time change has been driven by customer demand. Passengers have reported that they would rather leave London later in the day and arrive in New York in the evening rather than mid afternoon."
On the other hand it could be argued that Eos' later departure time no longer conflicts with rival Maxjet (another US all business class carrier using a 100-seat B767 whose westbound flight leaves Stansted for JFK at 10.00). Also the later departure will provide recovery time should the inbound flight be delayed.
Both Eos and Maxjet suffered delays at Stansted earlier this week owing to foggy conditions at the Essex airport. Schedules are now back to normal although Maxjet says it will not be operating any flights to or from New York over the Thanksgiving period. There was no Maxjet flight from Stansted today. Its next service resumes on Sunday November 27. Eos says it will continue to operate over Thanksgiving.
For more information go to Eos website (www.eosairlines.com) or Maxjet website (www.maxjet.com)
Report by Alex McWhirter
Emirates B777ERs to offer more premium class comfort
Emirates will begin offering UK premium ticket passengers more comfortable first and business class seating from mid-December.
Keith Longstaff, the Dubai carrier's senior VP commercial operations in Europe revealed to Business Traveller that new B777ERs will be arriving on selected routes. "They will be taking over flights currently flown by smaller A330s which will mean we will be able to offer 60% more seats overall."
Premium fare passengers benefit the most because first class passengers will get fully lie flat beds. And while Emirates still hasn't gone down the lie-flat (or even lie-flat style) route with business class, the seat pitch on the B777ERs will be increased from 50 to 60 inches. Adds Longstaff, "Glasgow-Dubai will be the first route to see the B777ERs from December 15. London will follow in the first quarter of next year. This plane will also take over one of our two daily flights from Manchester."
Emirates departs for Dubai from five UK airports: Heathrow, Gatwick, Birmingham, Manchester and Glasgow. The carrier claims that between 60% and 70% of UK passengers are making onward connections at Dubai for destinations in Asia, Africa and Australasia.
For more information go to Emirates website (www.emirates.com)
Report by Alex McWhirter
The LCY hub
Belgian airline VLM is speeding tens of thousands of business people between airports in the Benelux countries and Manchester, Liverpool, Jersey, the Isle of Man and vice versa.
VLM's commercial director Peter Kenworthy told Business Traveller, "We already serve a number of key cities from London City but now we are seeing an increasing number of passengers using our network to make connections via City. On some flights we find that 20% of passengers are making connections either to another VLM flight or to a different carrier."
The airline claims that passengers will transfer at LCY even in cases where there are direct flights because the timings can be more convenient. Says Kenworthy, "We can get a business traveller from Brussels to Manchester via City earlier than the first non-stop flight. With VLM you can depart Brussels at 07.15 and following a 50 minute transfer you would reach Manchester at 09.05. The first non-stop flight doesn't depart Brussels until 09.30 so you wouldn't reach Manchester until 09.50."
Schedules are geared for productive day trips on routes like Manchester-Rotterdam, Brussels-Isle of Man and Liverpool-Antwerp.
Benelux cities served by VLM are Amsterdam, Antwerp, Brussels, Luxembourg and Rotterdam. The carrier operates over 40 flights a day from London City and carries over 550,000 passengers a year with a fleet of F50 turbo-props.
For more information go to VLM website (www.flyvlm.com)
Rezidor SAS to launch lifestyle hotel
Rezidor SAS has announced a new partnership with Italian fashion house Missoni with a view to launching a new lifestyle hotel.
The worldwide license agreement means that Rezidor expects to open three Hotel Missonis in 2007 and have 30 completed or under development by 2010. The UK is expected to be the location for one of the first of the new hotels.
The new Hotel Missonis will reflect 'a contemporary Italian life and style'. resident and CEO of Rezidor SAS Kurt Ritter said: "It's a very unique brand, with a great heritage, a very identifiable look, and real family values. I'm sure when we launch in 2007, Hotel Missoni is going to create quite and impact on the market."
It's not the first time that Rezidor has attempted such a move. Rezidor was previously linked with Italian label Cerutti only two years ago, and launched five hotels. At the time of going to press, there was no comment as to the future of that brand.
However Rezidor is confident the Missoni partnership will develop. Gordon McKinnon, senior vice president marketing, brand and corporate communication said: "This process will be very interesting because it is a long term relationship."
Report by Felicity Cousins
Seafrance introduces fast track
Cross Channel operator Seafrance will offer a fast track facility from next week.
The ferry company, which has frequent crossings between Dover and Calais, will offer expedited boarding and disembarkation facilities for motorists prepared to pay a £5 fee in each direction. Customers wishing to use the new service can check-in as usual. They are then directed to a priority boarding lane.
Bill Laidlaw, sales director of Seafrance says, "The priority boarding and unloading means our customers can drive on to the ship quicker and disembark equally as swiftly. It also means they have more time to enjoy the onboard facilities."
The service starts on December 1 and Seafrance says it will limit the number of priority passengers to ensure integrity. It is expected to appeal to those business people who regularly take their cars to France when visiting clients within easy reach of the Channel ports.
The price (before adding £10 for priority boarding) to take an average-sized car from Dover to Calais with Seafrance is £75 return based on travelling at peak times next week and staying away one night.
For more information go to Seafrance website (www.seafrance.com)
Report by Alex McWhirter
QF WP
Dec 4, 05, 7:12 pm
Paris hotels fined for price fixing
The six luxury Parisian hotels fined this week for colluding over room rates, are planning to appeal against the fine.
The hotels were found guilty by the French Conseil de la Concurrence of fixing their room rates after managers were accused of being in regular contact over marketing strategies.
The six hotels, dubbed the "Palaces Parisiens" are Le Bristol, Le Crillon, Four Seasons George V, Le Meurice, La Plaza Athénée and Le Ritz. These iconic Parisian hotels have been given fines of between E55,000 and E248,000, the highest going to Le Crillon.
A spokesperson for the George V told Businesstraveller.com: "As this matter is under legal investigation, the hotel cannot comment on the case for now, however it does believe it is being unfairly charged and plans to appeal against the fine."
The hotels have been under investigation since December 2001. According to the Conseil de la Concurrence, the hotels have been charging upwards of E500 for their cheapest rooms, while charging up to E6,000 for superior suites. While the hotel managers say they do meet up on a regular basis, they claim not to collude over pricing.
Report by Ginny McGrath
Trains go low cost
The train companies are copying the airlines and launching low-cost alternatives with streamlined booking systems.
First off the mark was French Railways which last year launched a cut-price TGV high-speed service linking Paris with Marseilles. This iDTGV service was recently extended to cover Paris to Montpellier near the Spanish frontier. Passengers are not required to travel the whole length of the route. If you board in Paris it's possible to alight at Avignon, Toulon or Nimes. One-way tickets cost from 19 Euros in standard and Euros 39 in first class. Passengers book online with the tickets either printed out on a pc or at the station from self-service stands. The site was originally only in French but, following demand from overseas visitors, it's now also available in English.
Italy's rail system has followed suit with TrenOK. This runs on the prime business route between Rome and Milan (passengers can alight in Florence or Bologna) also between Rome and Bari in the south. One-class tickets cost upwards of Euros 19 when booked two days ahead or from Euros 9 when purchased over 12 days ahead. Bookings are ticketless but there are two drawbacks for overseas travellers: a) you must pre-register and b) the site is only in Italian.
A similar service in the UK was recently started by Southwest Trains. The Megatrain service is ticketless. It covers a number of regular but less popular trains running between London Waterloo, Portsmouth and Southampton. One-way tickets typically cost between £1 and £8. Again, passengers book online and travel is ticketless.
For more information go to IDTGV website (www.idtgv.fr), trenOK website (www.trenok.com), or Megatrain website (www.megatrain.com)
Report by Alex McWhirter
New Travelocity goes live
Travelocity.co.uk has boosted its range of content, so business travellers can now bundle low cost flights or Eurostar with an extended hotel offering, Businesstraveller.com can exclusively reveal.
Ryanair, Flybe, Germanwings and Bmibaby are among the carriers now available to book on Travelocity.co.uk, in addition to an array of charter airlines and the full service schedule carriers previously available to book.
The increased content comes as a result of the purchase of Lastminute.com by Sabre, bringing the two websites into the same stable.
Alongside the increased flights, 2,500 hotels have been added from across Europe, as well as Eurostar trains and extras such as lounge access and car parking. These various travel products can be bundled into one shopping basket and paid for in a single transaction.
Speaking to Businesstraveller.com, Lastminute.com director of holidays and flights, John Bevan said: "Travelocity had great strength in the US, but now with added Lastminute.com it's got significant European presence as well." The new website has undergone a soft launch today, but will be officially launched in a few weeks when any glitches have been sorted out.
Report by Ginny McGrath and Alex McWhirter
Airport rail links latest
The light rail link to London City Airport will open ahead of schedule, plus rail links to Stansted Airport are set to improve.
London City Airport officials will quietly open the light rail DLR extension to the airport on Friday December 2, but the official launch date is December 6. This is at least a week ahead of schedule, as predicted by Businesstraveller.com last month.
A spokesperson for DLR told Businesstraveller.com: "The railway inspectorate is checking the new London City link this afternoon (Thursday). If it gives the green light then the service will start tomorrow with the first through train being the 09.57 from Bank station in central London."
On following days services will begin running over the 4km link to London City to a normal timetable. Trains will operate from very early in the morning to late at night every seven to 10 minutes. Services will run to Canning Town (for connections to the Jubilee Underground line for Westminster and the West End), Canary Wharf (14 minutes away) and Bank (for the City, 22 minutes away). London City is located within Travelcard zone 3.
A single journey to anywhere in Central London zone 1 by DLR or Underground (or a combination of both) costs £2.80. Travellers on daytrips will qualify for a day Travelcard (covering unlimited travel within central London) and this costs £7 peak or £5.20 off-peak.
Passengers bound for Stansted Airport will benefit from a 15-minute service throughout the day from Liverpool Street Station. Currently the Stansted Express runs every 15 minutes only between 8am and 4.30pm, but under a new timetable being introduced on December 11, trains will run every 15 minutes until 11pm. This brings the service in line with the frequency of departures of the Heathrow and Gatwick services.
For more information go to Stansted Express website (www.stanstedexpress.com), TFL website (www.tfl.gov.uk/dlr) and LCY airport website (www.londoncityairport.com)
Report by Alex McWhirter and Ginny McGrath
Low cost penetrates Germany
Nuremberg airport is seeking to become a centre for low-cost flights from southern Germany. The Bavarian city has a wide catchment area and even Munich, some 160 kms to the south will only be 55 minutes away by high-speed train from next May.
The city is an important trade fair centre with its main industries being food, toys and pencils. It's also famous for a Christmas Market which runs until December 24. Traditionally the airport, which handles four million passengers a year, has depended on the major carriers to develop scheduled air services. But the latter are threatened with decline because the major carriers now prefer to serve only their major hubs.
Says a spokesperson, "Our national carrier Lufthansa is focused on serving its main hubs of Munich, Frankfurt and Zurich. In common with the other big conventional carriers it shows little interest in developing new routes. If we want to develop as a business airport we must get more non-stop flights to other major cities."
So the airport authority is wooing the likes of German budget carriers Air Berlin and Dba. Air Berlin already serves London Stansted but from December 16 it will offer connections on to Manchester and Glasgow. Last month Air Berlin began flying to Leipzig, Dresden, Berlin Tegel, Dusseldorf along with Paris CDG, Milan Bergamo, Rome, Vienna and Budapest. Dba has opened routes to Hamburg, Dusseldorf and Berlin Tegel.
Nuremberg airport is bright, clean and modern. It's user-friendly being 7 kms from downtown and connected by U-Bahn train to the city centre for a fare of Euros 2.20.
For more information go to Nuremburg Airport website (www.airport-nuernberg.de), Air Berlin (www.airberlin.com), or Fly Dba website (www.flydba.com)
Report by Alex McWhirter
Free beer back on KLM
KLM is reintroducing free alcoholic drinks and food on its short-haul flights under pressure from passengers.
The carrier has once again started serving wine and beer on board and has improved its range of sandwiches, partnering with well-known Dutch cheese brands such as Old Amsterdam and Maaslander.
For European flights over 170 minutes passengers can expect a more substantial snack. KLM will offer a cereal bar, fruit juice, warm croissant and jam to passengers on flights departing before 10am and after that passengers will receive a cold pasta salad with cheese and a warm slice of focaccia bread.
The airline claims it is making the changes to come into line with the in-flight service of partner carrier, Air France. It follows the decision by KLM last month to introduce a second class of service on flights over 65 minutes. The Europe Select class offers passengers improved in-flight service such as newspapers and better catering, but seats are the same as standard economy class.
It mirrors a similar move by Swiss, shortly after it was taken over by Lufthansa, to reintroduce free catering onboard. Swiss scrapped free food in summer 2003 but made a u-turn on the decision in April 2005, and now offers free food and wine for economy class passengers on flights over one hour.
For more information got to KLM website (www.klm.com) and Swiss website (www.swiss.com).
Report by Ginny McGrath
alex1948
Dec 5, 05, 5:22 am
The light rail link to London City Airport will open ahead of schedule.
London City Airport officials will quietly open the light rail DLR extension to the airport on Friday December 2, but the official launch date is December 6. This is at least a week ahead of schedule, as predicted by Businesstraveller.com last month.
A spokesperson for DLR told Businesstraveller.com: "The railway inspectorate is checking the new London City link this afternoon (Thursday). If it gives the green light then the service will start tomorrow with the first through train being the 09.57 from Bank station in central London."
---------------------------------------------------------------
The DLR (Docklands Light Railway) link to LCY (London City airport) is now open with the official unveilling being tomorrow morning (Dec 6).
Full details on this link:
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/dlr/lca/index.shtml
It means that LCY passengers have the cheapest, fastest and most comprehensive public transport links into Central London.
As I'm sure you know, there are no long-haul flights serving LCY because of its short runway. So London's close-in airport (located in the former London docks to the east of the capital) is aimed at travellers bound for a selected number of domestic and mainland European destinations who value convenience.
QF WP
Dec 8, 05, 7:08 pm
Cathay Pacific announces Manchester to Hong Kong flight
After months of secrecy Cathay Pacific has announced the introduction of direct flights between Manchester and Hong Kong, starting March 27 next year.
Unusually, Cathay's flight will make a stopover en route at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport. The carrier has secured traffic rights both for Manchester-Moscow and Moscow-Hong Kong allowing passengers to travel just on one leg of the route.
This could be lucrative for Cathay. It's expected to prove popular not just with UK travellers flying to Hong Kong and beyond, but also to those based in the Midlands and the North seeking a non-stop service to Moscow. Currently, UK passengers must travel from London if they want to take a direct flight.
A further bonus is the fact that Cathay will be offering a long-haul business class product with lie-flat style seating which is superior to British Airways' short-haul Club Europe product between Heathrow and Moscow.
With limited direct flights between Moscow and Asia, Cathay's new service will appeal to Russian business people forging closer ties within the Pearl River Delta and who may have plans to travel further afield within the Asia-Pacific region.
Flights will operate three times a week (Monday, Thursday and Saturday) in either direction on an Airbus A340-300 configured for business and economy class. Departures from Hong Kong will be at 00.15 arriving in Manchester at 08.55 the same day. The return service from Manchester departs at 10.00 arriving Hong Kong at 08.10 the following day.
For more information go to CX website (www.cathaypacific.com).
Report by Alex McWhirter
BA adopts cheaper one-way pricing
British Airways passengers can now book one-way and open-jaw tickets at low prices.
In the past, if a BA passenger wanted a one-way flight (for example, if he or she was getting a lift back or taking the train) there was no option but to pay the costly flexible ticket price.
This meant that a single ticket from London to, say, Amsterdam, Paris or Frankfurt would cost three or four times more than the excursion return. Passengers seeking a good deal had to use tactics such as buying a return ticket and then throwing away the return portion once the outward flight was completed.
One-way pricing removes the need for such under-the-counter activities. BA says it has been gradually rolling out one-way pricing since last May and now all short-haul routes (both international and domestic) are covered. A BA spokesperson said: "We've introduced one-way pricing because we recognise that some short-haul passengers were requiring extra flexibility. A passenger might only wish to book a one-way ticket because he or she was returning overland and our new booking system allows this."
It also means passengers can now book "open-jaw" arrangements online – something not possible before (which was a regular source of complaint from Business Traveller readers). For example, you can book a ticket from London to Amsterdam and return from Brussels to London. Bear in mind, though, that you must make two separate bookings.
This brings BA into line with the likes of Easyjet and Ryanair, which have offered one-way pricing from the start, and it's good news for travellers seeking flexibility at a budget price.
In more BA news, the airline is cutting flights to Germany next summer. The carrier says it is suspending three routes from March 26 because they are no longer profitable. The services in question are Heathrow-Cologne and Gatwick to both Hanover and Munich.
For further information go to BA website (www.ba.com)
Report by Alex McWhirter
Hamburg's flurry of new flights
Hamburg is seeing a major revival in its air services. For several years the number of air routes from Germany's largest port city has stagnated as national airline Lufthansa concentrated on developing its twin hubs of Frankfurt and Munich.
But it's all changing this autumn and winter as both existing and new carriers are adding new services.
First off the mark was national airline Lufthansa, which has positioned four extra B737s to operate new services to Hamburg from Budapest, Gothenburg, Madrid, Nice, Prague and Rome.
German Wings, a budget carrier backed by Lufthansa, has followed suit with the introduction of nine new routes, namely: Dresden, Istanbul, London Gatwick, Krakow, Munich, Oslo, Stockholm, Toulouse and Zagreb.
In the last few weeks Easyjet has launched flights to Hamburg from Bristol in the UK and Basel in Switzerland, while another German carrier, Bremen-based OLT, has also begun a service from Bristol.
This means three new routes from the UK to Hamburg, which will provide more choice and better prices for business people heading for the German city.
For more information go to Hamburg Airport website (www.ham.airport.de)
Report by Alex McWhirter
Official opening for London City Airport's DLR link
London City Airport's DLR rail link opened officially on Tuesday (December 6) giving London City the cheapest, fastest and most comprehensive public transport links from any of the capital's airports to the city centre.
Besides offering a faster ride, the airport station adjoins the arrivals area, allowing passengers to reach the platform within a couple of minutes. This contrasts with the long distances involved in reaching the rail links at Heathrow, Gatwick, Luton or Stansted.
Trains run every seven to 10 minutes on elevated tracks, affording a bird's eye view of the Thames, the Thames Barrier and the Millennium Dome. Services operate direct to Bank in the City (22 minutes away) and Canning Town (six minutes away, where you change for the Jubilee tube line). But passengers bound for Canary Wharf (14 minutes away) must change at Poplar.
London City Airport is in Travelcard zone 3 with one-way tickets into central London costing £2.80 (or £2.50 with a prepaid Oyster card). Travellers visiting London for the day can buy a one-day Travelcard priced at £7 peak or £5.20 off-peak, which offers unlimited transport within the capital.
Now that the DLR is open, the airport bus services are being rescheduled. The shuttle to Canning Town will cease on December 11 but the other links to Canary Wharf and Liverpool Street will continue for the moment.
The main carriers using London City Airport include Air France, KLM, Lufthansa, Scot Airways, Swiss and VLM.
For more information go to DLR website (www.dlr.co.uk) or LCY website (www.londoncityairport.com).
Report by Alex McWhirter
"Cabin" hotels to open at Heathrow and Gatwick
The company behind the Yo! Sushi brand has unveiled a prototype of its new "cabin" hotels at Heathrow and Gatwick where weary travellers have the option of hiring a room for four-hour stretches.
Yotel hopes its tiny rooms, measuring 10 square metres, will appeal to delayed and transfer passengers as well as those needing an overnight stay before an early check-in or arriving on red-eye flights.
Due to open in summer 2006, the cabins will have a rotating double bed, en suite bathroom with monsoon showerhead, free broadband internet access (wired and wifi), satellite TV and movie channels, and an iPod plug-in point. The cabins have been designed by Priestman Goode, which has worked on the new Airbus A380.
Travellers will be able to book through www.yotel.com and can opt for four hours at £40 or overnight for £80. Yotel also plans to incorporate an even smaller "economy" option, which will cost £40 for an overnight stay or £25 for four hours.
Simon Woodroffe, founder of Yo!, says the aim is to provide the luxurious touches of five-star hotels but at an affordable price and convenient location: "People want to find ways to get the same luxury but for less cost."
Rooms will have a monitor displaying flight details, but Woodroffe says soundproofing will ensure that airport announcements don't penetrate the walls. There will be no minibar or room service, and checking in and out will be done automatically, with staff on hand to help things run smoothly.
The company plans to build 50 cabins at Gatwick's South Terminal and 40 at Heathrow Terminal 4 on the level between the arrivals and departures areas.
Yotel's rates are substantially lower than the nearest hotel competitor to Terminal 4 (Hilton). Five-star hotels on the Bath Road offer rates closer to those of Yotel, but they are more difficult to access for T4 passengers.
Report by Sarah Maxwell
Fly your way into space with Virgin
Passengers with Virgin Atlantic could find their loyalty miles take them a lot further than ever before – the airline is offering frequent flyers the chance to travel into outer space.
The carrier has joined forces with Virgin Galactic to offer Flying Club members the opportunity to sample life as an astronaut.
Members can convert their earthly miles into space miles to earn themselves a space trip – but if you're thinking of using up some spare miles you'll need a lot of them. It takes two million Flying Club miles earned on Virgin flights to qualify – equivalent to $200,000.
The first flights won't take place until 2008. The experience includes "g" acclimatisation and a flight in the White Knight and will take place at the Virgin Galactic Spaceport in the US.
Sir Richard Branson, chairman of Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Galactic said: "A journey into space seems like a distant dream for many, but this deal makes it even more achievable for our frequent travellers to become astronauts."
In other Virgin news, the airline is increasing flight frequency on three routes from Heathrow. Services to Mumbai have just been boosted from three a week to daily. There are now daily flights to Shanghai (up from six a week) while a daily service to Cape Town resumes from January 29 to March 25.
For more information go to VS website (www.virgin-atlantic.com) or Virgin galactic website (www.virgin-galactic.com).
Report by Alex McWhirter
QF WP
Dec 15, 05, 5:27 pm
Festive discounts with all-business Eos
Business class airline Eos is slashing £1,000 from its cheapest transatlantic tickets during the festive period.
In a bid to fill empty seats over the quiet time for business travel, the US airline is offering London Stansted to New York JFK return fares for £1,500.
The deal is subject to availability and is valid for passengers booking return tickets to fly before January 3. At the same time, selected Eos flights will let you take along a companion free of charge. The airline is also extending its £2,500 return introductory offer until April 30 provided you book by January 3.
Eos operates once daily with 48-seater B757 twin jets. They feature some of the most luxurious business class seats on the market with fully flat beds and 21 square feet of personal space. By contrast, its US rival Maxjet competes with a 102-seater B767 twin jet with conventional business class seating offering 60 inches of legroom. Maxjet's fares are lower, starting at £854 return.
Both carriers have announced their Christmas and New Year schedules. Eos says it will not fly from Stansted on December 24, 25 and January 1 or from JFK on December 24, 25 and 31. Maxjet will not fly from Stansted between December 24 and 27 inclusive plus December 31. It will not operate from JFK between December 24 and 26 inclusive along with December 31. Visit EOS Airlines website (www.eosairlines.com) and MaxJet website (www.maxjet.com).
Report by Alex McWhirter
Maxjet to serve Washington DC
Business class fares to Washington DC are about to tumble as Maxjet announces flights from London Stansted starting in late February.
Timings have yet to be finalised but the American all-business class airline says it will fly five times a week. It also plans to add a Saturday frequency to its existing Stansted-New York service.
Fares are expected to be similar to New York prices (these cost around £860 return), which is far less than British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and United charge from Heathrow. For example, BA's return price for a short-notice booking to Washington is £4,416. BA offers a lower £2,504 deal but you must book weeks ahead.
According to CEO Gary Rogliano, air travellers already recognise the enormous value that Maxjet offers. "Our load factor and customer reaction has been overwhelmingly positive and encouraging. People are thanking me every day, by email or in person, for creating an airline that finally makes sense for consumers."
In common with other carriers Maxjet suffers the odd hiccup. But unlike the big ones, Maxjet currently has only one plane and so any problems can impact on schedules. Its flight on Tuesday from Stansted had to be cancelled while today (December 14) the inbound service from JFK is delayed by over six hours. These hitches should ease now that Maxjet is set to acquire additional aircraft this month.
The carrier says it will launch a loyalty scheme on February 1 allowing families and small businesses to tag up to five names on one account and to jointly earn free tickets. Unusually, the airline will allow members to claim retrospectively for flights taken since November. Visit MaxJet website (www.maxjet.com).
Report by Alex McWhirter
Radisson SAS continues rapid expansion
Radisson SAS has announced three significant new properties, including one in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev which marks the city's first international standard property.
The 225-room hotel is located in a historic building in Kiev's city centre, within walking distance of government offices, churches and shops lining the nearby main Khreschatyk Street.
Online weekday rates start at Euros 242 for a standard room and Euros 283 for a business class room, with the latter including breakfast and other amenities. Online weekend rates range from Euros 167 to Euros 250 with some including breakfast. All rates are subject to 20 per cent tax.
Two further properties open on January 16, including a 149-room hotel in Brussels, which is ideally located for Eurocrats being behind the European Parliament and 3km from the city centre. Online rates start at Euros 170 on weekdays and just Euros 77 at weekends (both including breakfast).
The second property is the first Radisson to open in Birmingham, with 211 rooms spread over the first 18 floors of the 39-storey Beetham Tower in the city centre. Online rates range from £119 to £154 on weekdays and £79 to £114 at weekends with some including breakfast.
Free wireless broadband is offered throughout the properties. All offer a range of food and beverage and fitness outlets. Visit Radisson website (www.radisson.com).
Report by Alex McWhirter
UK domestic flights: Air Berlin's well-kept secret
New flights leaving up to twice daily from London Stansted to both Manchester and Glasgow will begin on December 16 courtesy of a surprising source: Air Berlin.
The German airline is not the first carrier that springs to most passengers' minds when booking UK domestic flights and this is good news for cost-conscious UK travellers. Most services over the coming weeks and months (excluding some dates over the festive period) are still priced at £19 one way or £38 return. Not only are these prices cheaper than many rail fares, they also undercut rival carriers which ply these two routes from Stansted: Easyjet, Ryanair and Eastern Airlines.
The new flights are timed for London travellers planning a day trip and will enable passengers starting from Manchester and Glasgow to connect at Stansted (Air Berlin provides through-checking) for the carrier's destinations in Germany and Austria.
Air Berlin is also expanding its services between Stansted and Germany. From December 16, flights to the east German city of Leipzig move from four to six a week with more consistent timings. Weekday flights now depart Stansted at 2020 with the inbound service from Leipzig leaving at 0610. Air Berlin offers the only direct link between the UK and Leipzig's main airport.
Flights to Hanover are being upgraded with a twice daily frequency and better timings (these allow a full working day in either Hanover or London) from March 3. The new schedules coincide with Hanover's CeBit computer fair taking place between March 9 and 15.
Other destinations served by Air Berlin from Stansted are Berlin Tegel, Dusseldorf, Munster, Nuremberg, Paderborn and Vienna. Visit Air Berlin website (www.airberlin.com).
Report by Alex McWhirter
New Bmi long-haul flights
Bmi is expanding its long-haul network next spring with additional flights to Mumbai and new routes to Jeddah and Doha. On March 23, subject to government approval, Bmi will start flying from London Heathrow to Doha in the Gulf state of Qatar.
On April 22 the airline will boost its London Heathrow to Mumbai flights from four times a week to daily. The following day, Bmi will launch a three times weekly service to the Red Sea port of Jeddah. This will complement the airline's existing three times weekly link to the Saudi capital of Riyadh.
Bmi is short of long-distance planes so it plans to charter aircraft for the new routes. Jeddah and Riyadh will be flown by a Dutch-registered B767 on a damp lease (meaning that the registered airline provides the plane and the cockpit crew) in a 42-seater business and 150-seater economy class layout. Qatar Airways will operate the London-Doha service on Bmi's behalf with the plane type and seating configuration yet to be decided.
Bmi's premium economy product will be withdrawn from the Saudi routes once the B767 arrives. As Business Traveller has already reported, there is a lack of demand for this product in the Saudi market.
However, Bmi will not be offering first class and nor will it have fully lie-flat seating in business class, both of which are popular with wealthy Saudis who continue to miss what British Airways used to provide (BA pulled out of Saudi earlier this year).
"We especially liked BA's flat bed seats in first and business class," a member of the Saudi Royal family told Business Traveller. "We simply want to sleep, not to eat, on the overnight flight to London." Visit bmi website (www.flybmi.com).
Report by Alex McWhirter
Improved links between India and Singapore
As more airlines take advantage of India's liberalised aviation market, several Asian carriers are developing links from secondary airports in India to Singapore. As well as being a destination in its own right, Singapore is a major hub both for the region itself and Australasia.
This autumn, Singapore Airlines (SIA) began a four times weekly service using wide-bodied B777s between Hyderabad and Singapore, while carrier Jetstar Asia – a budget airline backed by Qantas – began a three times weekly link using A320s between Kolkata (Calcutta) and Singapore.
On December 7, India's Jet Airways started a daily Chennai (Madras) to Singapore service with a B737-800 while Jetstar Asia has announced it will begin flying five times a week between the hi-tech city of Bangalore and Singapore with A320s on January 23.
This is all good news for travellers. Previously passengers on some of these routes would have had to make a plane change in Mumbai or Delhi. Now they can fly direct to a major Asian hub. Visit SQ website (www.singaporeair.com), Jet Airways website (www.jetairways.com) and Jetstar Asia website (www.jetstarasia.com).
Report by Alex McWhirter
QF WP
Dec 22, 05, 6:20 pm
LHR fuel rationing
Fuel rationing continues to disrupt certain long-haul flights departing from London Heathrow. As a result of the recent fire at the Buncefield oil depot (a major supplier of aviation fuel to Heathrow) airlines continue to be restricted in the amount of kerosene they can uplift. It means some flights must touch down en route to refuel with a consequent delay to schedules, which could impact on connections.
Worst affected are foreign carriers such as Qantas, Cathay Pacific, Thai Airways, Singapore Airlines, JAL and South African Airlines (SAA), which operate very long routes. Some of these carriers' flights are making a refuelling stop in mainland Europe.
Cathay Pacific says one of its four daily flights to Hong Kong (CX250 at 18.05) is stopping in Amsterdam and it means that "it will now be arriving in Hong Kong between 70 and 150 minutes behind schedule. So we are delaying onward connections where possible and contacting passengers to advise them of the situation".
Other major services affected include Qantas flight QF2 for Sydney at 21.45, which is touching down at Stansted; SIA's flight SQ319, which is routed via Frankfurt; Thai Airways' flight TG917 to Bangkok at 21.35 which goes via Copenhagen; and SAA's flight SA237 at 21.05 for Johannesburg which is refuelling in Milan.
JAL says it has rerouted some Osaka flights and it has cancelled Tokyo flight JL404 at 21.00 over the Christmas period.
But not all carriers are affected. A Virgin Atlantic spokesperson says that its services were unaffected as home carriers were "higher up the priority list for supplies". British Airways, too, says there were no changes to its long-haul services because it was taking less Heathrow fuel for short-haul routes. Nobody knows how long the situation will last. In the meantime travellers flying with any airline on a very long distance flight should keep an eye on the situation and contact their agent, airline or airline website for further information.
Report by Alex McWhirter
Flybe charges for checked luggage
Flybe has become the first UK budget airline to charge passengers for checked luggage.
Starting next February (the exact date has yet to be confirmed) the Exeter-based airline will charge passengers £4 for every piece of checked luggage up to 25kg, or £2 for passengers who book in their bags in advance at flybe.com. At the same time it will soften the blow by doubling the cabin baggage allowance to 10kg so that passengers intending to take light luggage have an alternative.
What Flybe is doing shouldn't come as a surprise. Former US no-frills carrier People Express (which served domestic and transatlantic routes) instigated charges for checked baggage over 20 years ago. The system worked well even in the days of handwritten tickets and less automated check-in.
People Express is no longer in business, but with all airlines looking at cost-saving opportunities it seems that baggage is the next "free" service to be scrutinised.
Recently Jorgen Lindegaard, the president and CEO of Scandinavia's SAS, told Business Traveller: "We are looking at whether we can unbundle benefits like fast-track and baggage handling and charge extra for them."
Meanwhile airlines are making baggage economies in other areas. Since last summer the major US carriers have cut their free international baggage allowance from 32kg to 23kg although passengers are still allowed to check two pieces. American Airlines says: "The main reason is health and safety. We have to put special handling in place when bags weigh 32kg so the lower limit helps us to recover our costs."
Report by Alex McWhirter
Christmas disruption to London airport links
Rail links to the main London airports are being disrupted over the Christmas period. Travellers during this period should bear in mind that all train operators have revised schedules while others are providing replacement bus transfers.
Trains run until late on December 24, but Heathrow Express (which is funded by airport operator BAA) is the only rail service to operate on Christmas Day. It will run three trains an hour from Paddington between 05.15 and 14.15. After that replacement buses will operate every 20 minutes for the remainder of the day. Normal rail service will resume on December 26.
Gatwick Express will have no trains on December 25 or 26 from Victoria. Replacement buses on the 25th will operate every 30 minutes from 06.30 to 16.45. Buses operate more frequently on December 26 and normal trains resume on December 27.
Stansted Express will have no service at all from Liverpool Street on December 25. Then buses will replace trains on December 26, 27 and 28 but they will not serve Tottenham Hale. Trains resume on December 29.
All rail operators advise travellers to allow longer to reach the airport if taking a replacement bus. Heathrow Express says its buses will take 70 minutes to reach Heathrow as against 20 minutes by train.
For more information go to LHR Express (www.heathrowexpress.com), LGW Express (www.gatwickexpress.com), and STD Express (www.stanstedexpress.com)
Report by Alex McWhirter
Passenger perks to Paris Orly
Air France is offering passengers a package of valuable benefits from London City Airport.
Passengers who fly Air France from the UK capital's own airport into Paris Orly or Charles de Gaulle (CDG) are being offered short check-in deadlines, better timings, free car parking and upmarket catering.
The car parking offer is available to both economy and business class passengers and is worth almost £20 a day. Along with the new timings to Orly – with the addition of an earlier 06.35 departure and a later 20.20 return – this allows business people a long working day in the French capital.
Air France's general manager for the UK and Ireland, Christine Ourmières, says the airline is carrying over 80,000 passengers a year on the Orly route and that the business is growing. There are six flights a day on weekdays (a single flight operates to CDG) timed for business people.
Orly is closer to the centre of Paris than CDG (14km compared with 26km) and is competitive with the Gare du Nord (the arrival point for Eurostar) if you have appointments to the south of the city.
The easiest public transport links to downtown are the Air France bus (which stops at Montparnasse and Invalides) for Euros 8 one way, or the Orly Val light transit connecting to the RER suburban network (for stations in the Paris area and downtown) costing Euros 9.05.
Orly is a popular airport for domestic flights, so passengers arriving from London City and wishing to travel onwards have a wide choice including 80 daily Navette (shuttle) links to Bordeaux, Marseilles, Nice or Toulouse.
Flights are operated by Air France subsidiary City Jet using BAe146s. Tickets cost from £89 return although a typical day return using the early and late flights could cost upwards of £209 depending on demand.
For more information go to Air France website (www.airfrance.co.uk).
Report by Alex McWhirter
Marriott openings in Europe
Marriott is expanding its Courtyard brand in Europe. The US chain has just opened its first mid-range Courtyard property in Moscow and intends to add a further five properties in Europe next year followed by an additional two in 2007.
The 218-room Courtyard by Marriott Moscow City is located at Voznesenskiy Pereulok 7, which is a 10-minute walk from the Kremlin. It's 30km from the city's main Sheremetyevo airport and convenient for Red Square, the GUM department store and the Bolshoi Theatre.
In keeping with the quasi-four star standards now seen in the brand's newer properties, Courtyard's Moscow property features two restaurants, a business centre, health club, 24-hour room service and same day laundry and dry cleaning.
But this particular Courtyard doesn't have the economical rates you would usually find elsewhere. A room shortage in the Russian capital means that Moscow hotels are among the world's priciest. Until January 14, room rates at the Courtyard range between $225 and $345 but from then on you will pay $350 to $400. All rates are subject to 18 per cent tax.
The additional Courtyards planned for next year are in: Prague, Vienna, Munich, Paris (Colombes) and Gelsenkirchen (Germany). Following in 2007 will be two properties in the Czech Republic: Prague and Plzen.
For more information go to Marriott website (www.marriott.com)
Report by Alex McWhirter
Hot competition on Australian routes
British Airways has announced it will no longer directly serve Melbourne from March 26 next year.
Instead the carrier will terminate its current Melbourne service in Singapore and transfer passengers onto alliance partner Qantas. Alternatively, BA passengers will be offered bookings for a new direct Qantas service to Melbourne via Hong Kong.
BA says its decision to withdraw from the Melbourne route is a cost-saving measure as "the route hasn't been performing as well as expected". The airline says the planes that would have been used to serve Melbourne can be more profitably employed on new routes and services that BA is simultaneously launching to China and India.
The move comes at a time of ferocious competition on the "kangaroo route" both from the Asian carriers and the newly emerging Gulf-based airlines. These carriers' strategically placed hubs allow myriad connections to cities all over Australasia. By contrast, the economics of operating such a long route restrict point-to-point carriers like BA and Qantas into the number of cities they can serve.
For more information go to BA website (www.ba.com) and QF website (www.qantas.com)
Report by Alex McWhirter
alstern
Dec 23, 05, 6:28 pm
Consider this scenario...
Thanks to FT I know how to find the cheapest J deals while maximising FF status ;) .
.
I'm a newbie; can you point me in the right direction ??
QF WP
Jan 26, 06, 8:55 pm
Apologies for the delay in posting theses last couple of weeks updates...I know Aisle Seat H has been extremely busy and hasn't been able to do it...
Air Canada revolutionises airline pricing
Air Canada's recently announced transatlantic pricing model might well be the future for airline travel. In effect it creates an a la carte menu, with travellers able to choose what they are prepared to pay for, and what they can do without.
The simplified pricing structure for flights to and from the UK classifies its business and economy class offerings into five brands: Executive First, Air Canada Club, Latitude Plus, Leisure and Tourist.
Irrespective of whether you intend to take business or economy (despite the name, Executive First is business class), everyone booking online is now quoted a range of qualifying fares when booking, say, a London-Toronto return. This is in contrast to most airlines which have rigid tariffs and do not explain what each fare type represents (ie: what you get for your money).
In terms of price, Air Canada's prices are similar to those of rival British Airways but where they differ is that the website displays every benefit alongside each tariff. Passengers are then encouraged to upgrade or downgrade according to what they need and how much they are prepared to pay.
As Sean Menke, the carrier's Executive VP and CEO told Business Traveller, "What we are doing here is providing a la carte air travel. Different travellers want different things. Our experience on the North American market (where simplified pricing is already available) suggests that travellers are keen to buy up to secure more perks."
But Sean Menke admits that Air Canada now has the machinery in place to convert today's free benefits like baggage handling and meal service into "paid for" options on all its routes.
All airlines are anxious to cut costs wherever they can and some of Air Canada's economy class passengers already pay for meals when flying within North America. Here in Europe, Scandinavia's SAS is looking to unbundle benefits and get passengers to pay extra for them (see Upfront in Business Traveller Magazine, December-January issue).
"All we're trying to do," says Sean Menke, "is to help passengers put together the package they want." He stresses there are no immediate plans to start charging for such extras on international routes.
For more information go to www.aircanada.com
Report by Alex McWhirter
New LH Seating
Throughout the summer Lufthansa will totally renew its European business and economy class seating.
The mammoth German airline is throwing away tens of thousands of existing seats across its short-haul mainline fleet in favour of new generation seating from manufacturers Recaro and B/E Aerospace.
Says Thierry Antinori, Lufthansa's executive VP for marketing and sales, "This is part of the quality offensive we launched last year. It will offer passengers within Germany and Europe even more comfort."
Passengers in business class benefit most. They will get a proper four across (2-2) layout on Airbus A320 and B737 flights with a fold down table ensuring a degree of privacy between the aisle and window seats. This resembles the dedicated layout offered by Air France mainline within Europe but is more generous than the five across (2-3) configuration offered by some rivals including British Airways.
New seat side coat hooks enable jackets to be hung even when the centre table is folded down. Seat width is increased slightly to 48 cms and, because the seat back is slimmer, there's an extra 4 cms of legroom.
There's no change to the economy configuration but the new seats are said to be more comfortable thanks to the absence of metal or carbon structures in the seat back. Some economy class rows will gain an extra 4 cms of legroom depending on where you sit on the plane.
However, because of space constraints the new seats will not be available on Lufthansa's commuter subsidiary Cityline's smaller BAe146 and Canadair jets on less busy routes.
Lufthansa points out that the new seats weigh less so annual fuel consumption will be cut by five million litres.
The seating will be progressively installed between April and October this year.
For more information go to www.lufthansa.com
Report by Alex McWhirter
BA refutes safety questions
Business travellers will no doubt have seen the front page report in this week's Sunday Times detailing several safety lapses with British Airways.
Despite the millions spent by airlines on marketing their product it is safety which determines how favourably an airline is perceived by travellers.
BA has refuted the article in question which it describes as "unbalanced." According to a BA spokesperson, "The newspaper cited three safety incidents which took place between June 2003 and June 2004 but failed to mention that we carry over 36 million passengers annually with over 360,000 flights.
According to the Sunday Times a report from the government's AAIB (Air Accident Investigation Board) concluded that a flight from Heathrow to Paris, where a B757 took off minus two wing panels (the flight was aborted with the plane having to return to Heathrow) "seems not to have been an isolated case but more symptomatic of the existing culture". [There was] "ineffective supervision of maintenance staff which had compromised the level of airworthiness control and had become accepted as the 'norm'".
Says BA's safety chief Captain Rod Young, "We have accepted and implemented all recommendations outlined in the government's report. Safety is paramount to British Airways. These factors were immediately rectified by February 2004 following the airline's own investigation which was carried out in cooperation with the AAIB."
"We pride ourselves on our safety and recognise that we are always ready to learn from incidents and encourage open transparent reporting," says Captain Young.
Report by Alex McWhirter
NYC hotel rates continue to rise
Business class transatlantic flights to New York may be cheaper than ever before, but savings made in the air are increasingly being swallowed up by hotel costs on the ground.
Not only did a recent survey by global agency group BTI reveal that the Big Apple's hotels were the world's most expensive but room rates continue to forge ahead.
Industry analysis firm PKF Consulting claims that the average price of a Manhattan room stood at US $292 in November as rates recover from the downturn seen after the September 11 terrorist attack in 2001.
Hoteliers say the high rates are a reflection of supply over demand. Visitor numbers have increased at the same time as the room count has fallen seeing as some property companies have found it more lucrative to convert older hotels into luxury condominions with the prime example being the famous 805-room Palace Hotel near Central Park. At the same time, New York's accommodation taxes (13.37% plus $3.50 per room) push the total bill even higher.
Despite January being a slack month the following room rates (before taxes) for a midweek stay next week are currently being quoted:
The value for money Novotel near Times Square was priced between $179 and $239, the four star Marriott Marquis was $309 to $329, and the W Times Square $365. At the top end, the St Regis Sheraton was on offer at $695 to $745 while the Mandarin was priced at $499 to $829.
With no major hotels scheduled to open anytime soon, visitors have little option but to pay up.
Report by Alex McWhirter
Eos passengers benefit from loyalty scheme
Eos, the all business class transatlantic airline reviewed in the November 2005 edition of Business Traveller 2005, has launched a loyalty scheme offering passengers valuable benefits.
Branded Club 48, the new loyalty programme is a simple one which awards 75 points per flight sector. Passengers who fly 10 times or more during a 12 month period earn an extra 250 bonus points. As an introductory offer Eos is awarding double points for travel taken before March 31. It is also providing 500 trial bonus points.
What makes the loyalty scheme worth shouting about is the value of the rewards available in exchange for the points. Each point is worth at least US$1 depending on the chosen award.
Available awards include spa treatments, gourmet dining, exclusive goods, free accommodation and flights.
For instance, a new member of Club 48 booking a return flight from Stansted to New York JFK or vice versa automatically earns $850 worth of rewards. Going through the rewards on offer, this would entitle you to an iPod with Bose sound dock, a dinner party for four at Nobu or Fredericks in New York or even a selection of Thomas Pink shirts and ties or a set of Tumi luggage. Incredibly, you could also opt for a free companion ticket potentially worth over US$6,000.
Eos flies once daily between Stansted and New York using a B757 configured for 48 seats which are amongst the most luxurious of their type. But the carrier has decided to postpone its second daily flight, which was supposed to start this month, until the second quarter of this year.
Rival carrier Maxjet will bring in a loyalty scheme from February 1 (see Online news, December 14).
For more information go to www.eosairlines.com
Report by Alex McWhirter
New Easyjet routes announced
Easyjet continues to expand with a number of new routes both from the UK and within mainland Europe. In particular Easyjet's decision to serve to Lisbon is good news for business people visiting the Portuguese capital.
Few budget airlines serve Lisbon (one exception being Monarch from Gatwick) and fares can be costly. Easyjet will also enter the Italian domestic market for the first time and compete head to head with local carriers Alitalia and Meridiana.
The new services start on various dates in March and April. From the UK they include Luton to Lisbon commencing March 1 with two other key routes from Liverpool heading for Krakow on April 10 and Marseille on April 11.
Significant routes within mainland Europe include Lisbon to Milan Malpensa from April 21 and Lisbon to Paris CDG starting March 1.
Italian domestic services include routes from Milan Malpensa to Naples on March 2 along with Palermo and Olbia (Sardinia) both on April 21.
Fares start from around £45 return and tickets go on sale from January 6.
For more information go to www.easyjet.com
Report by Alex McWhirter
QF WP
Jan 26, 06, 9:05 pm
New competitor for London-Delhi route
Air Sahara is the latest entrant on the busy London-Delhi route. The privately-owned Indian carrier launched a six flights a week service into Heathrow's Terminal One last Friday. Services are operated by 193-seater B767s configured for 42 business and 151-economy class seats.
Unusually the carrier is operating a two-tier business class product with a number of seats branded as Business Premier - five across with 64 inches of pitch - with the others configured six across with 55 inches of pitch.
Business Premier seating is lie-flat style rather than the fully lie-flat seat offered by rivals British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and Jet Airways. (Air India, the other competitor, offers older version seating).
Slot constraints at Heathrow mean that inbound flights arrive at different times in the late afternoon (they depart Delhi at lunchtime) although all departing services leave Heathrow at 21.00 and reach Delhi the next morning at 11.10.
Strangely it is not easy here in the UK to book tickets with Air Sahara. The carrier's website will only accept bookings from Indian residents located in India while ticketing is handled by Travelpack which is a general sales agent.
Of five major online agencies contacted by Business Traveller (Ebookers, Expedia, Travelocity, Opodo and Airline Network) only one of these firms, namely Travelocity, could offer Air Sahara flights. Travelocity quotes return prices of £437 for economy and £1,669 for business class.
At the time of writing rumours are circulating, and are currently being denied, that Bombay-based Jet Airways is in discussions to take over Air Sahara.
For further information go to www.airsahara.net, www.travelpack.com
Report by Alex McWhirter
Marriott hotel for Cologne
Cologne has a new first class hotel. US chain Marriott will open a new 282-room property next Sunday (January 15) just in time for this year's trade fair season along with the Football World Cup in June.
Rooms feature Marriott's "new look" which, claims the chain, provides guests with more comfort, luxury and style.
There's high-speed internet access, a business centre and a health club with sauna and solarium. The main food and beverage outlet, The Crazy Brasserie, features French and Asian cuisine.
This hotel's biggest asset, however, is its location. It's along Johannisstrasse, near the world famous Dom (Cathedral) and commercial area, yet just 200 yards from the city's main station (Hauptbahnhof).
Cologne is a major rail hub with trains running to the airport, cities throughout Germany and further afield to Amsterdam, Paris and Brussels. Train connections mean the city is a useful place to stay when Dusseldorf (20 mins away) or Frankfurt (75 mins away) are booked out with trade fairs.
The hotel has keen introductory rates. Outside trade fairs the weekday rate for a regular room starts at Euros 139 including internet access and breakfast. Executive floor accommodation costs from Euros 189. Weekend rates cost from Euros 119 (room only) or Euros 139 (including breakfast).
For further information go to www.marriott.com
Report by Alex McWhirter
BA rebrands Citiexpress
British Airways' Citiexpress division is adopting a budget airline formula. The loss-making regional division, which serves both domestic and international routes, is being rebranded as one-class BA Connect from March 26. Business class is scrapped and so too are existing perks like free food and drinks.
BA says the move is in response to customer demand and that it has carried out extensive research through the UK regions before coming to this decision.
The upside is that ticket costs will tumble by an average of 40% with seats being priced on a two-tier basis. Connect tickets will cost from £25 one-way with Connect Plus tickets (these allow lounge access and penalty free changes) priced from £110 one-way. Both tariffs grant FFP mileage.
Snacks and drinks will now be available on a "paid for" basis and the cheaper Connect fares still allow changes but at £30 a time. BA says that it will be placing two million Connect fares on sale over the coming year so there will be availability on all routes.
Exceptions are BA's services from London City to Edinburgh, Frankfurt and Geneva which are operated by Citiexpress. These continue to offer a traditional two-class service with free catering albeit with today's pricing. Says BA Connect commercial director Steve Cassidy, "That's appropriate and relevant for the London City routes. We've taken that decision for the sake of consistency as we've found BA passengers flying to and from London may arrive at Gatwick or Heathrow and depart from City or vice versa."
BA Connect operates mainly from Birmingham, Manchester, Bristol and Edinburgh to a variety of cities in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Austria, Norway, Belgium and Switzerland.
It's not clear whether this new strategy will succeed. BA Connect's fleet consists of smaller 49 to 110-seater planes whereas successful budget carriers like Easyjet and Ryanair operate larger jets holding 150-180 seats. Steve Cassidy denied this would be a problem, "We had nine different plane types in 2001 and now we have three. We think it's a good blend of aircraft for the type of routes we fly. It allows us to offer business people six flights a day on regional links like Manchester-Belfast City."
Bookings for BA Connect open on February 1. For further information go to www.ba.com
Report by Alex McWhirter
Thai Airways introduces new premium seating
Thai Airways is finally introducing up-to-date premium products to the busy London-Bangkok route. In recent times the carrier has been lagging behind rivals British Airways, Qantas and Eva Air (who all offer the latest lie-flat products in first and business class). But Thai's B747s used on the route are now being fitted with fully lie-flat seats in first class with passengers in business class getting lie-flat style versions.
The number of first class seats is cut from 14 to 10. Passengers sit three across (1-1-1) on seats with cushions which are almost 22 inches wide and where the legroom is boosted to 76 inches. Seating reclines 180 degrees. Business class seating goes down from 50 to 40. Seats are 20 inches wide with 60 inches of legroom. Passengers sit four across (2-2) on the B747's upper deck or downstairs on the left-hand side of the cabin. The recline is 170 degrees.
But economy class remains unchanged with entertainment buffs still having to manage without seat back screens, video on demand and so on.Thai operates twice a day from Heathrow. Most likely you'll experience the new first and business classes when taking Thai's long standing flight TG911 at 11.50 or inbound flight TG910 from Bangkok at 00.35. Most B747s operating these services have been retrofitted.