alex1948

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

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

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

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

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 '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

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 ! (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 !

Hope you enjoyed the Bris. weather... not quite as nice here in London !!! (Never is !) Horrible weather on the way soon...

Aisle Seat H

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

[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

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 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 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 and Lufthansa, 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 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 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 will launch five times a week direct flights from London Heathrow and Paris CDG respectively. At the same time Northwest and KLM 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, 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 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

Globaliser

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

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

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

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 and Thalys.

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

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. 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.

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 or Monarch.

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.

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

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 (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:

Heathrow-Bangalore £455
Heathrow-Chennai £399
Heathrow-Delhi £455
Heathrow-Kolkata £505
Heathrow-Mumbai £399

For more information go to www.ba.com.

Report by Ginny McGrath


Air Berlin takes on Easyjet

3 November 2005

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

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, AlphaOne, and Aer Arann 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.

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.

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.

Report by Ginny McGrath

QF WP

£'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.

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 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 and Travelodge website.

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

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

Report by Ginny McGrath