Business Travel

In todays Wall Street Journal, reporter Joann S. Lublin provides us with a piece titled Claiborne’s CEO Crams Into Coach to Cut Costs. Seems quite appropriate for a blog titled InFlighHQ. Lublin describes how in these times of financial distress, more and more CEOs are flying coach.

Twenty-eight U.S. companies, from Altria Group Inc. to Universal Corp., divulged their sale or planned disposal of corporate aircraft in the past two years, says Equilar Inc., which tracks executive compensation and benefits. Several others, including Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. and Citigroup Inc., say they are seeking buyers for company planes.

Company aircraft are a flying office and “a day extender for me,” says James E. Rogers, CEO of Duke Energy Corp., a Charlotte, N.C., utility that owns two jets and a helicopter. After flying to White Plains, N.Y., for a business dinner this month, “I got back on the [Duke] plane and I was home by 10:30 p.m.,” Mr. Rogers recalls.

But public anger and tough times mean more CEOs may soon be joining Mr. McComb on commercial flights. The heads of the Big Three car makers provoked a firestorm of criticism from lawmakers by traveling to Washington on private jets in November to plead for federal help.

The Wall Street Journal crew recently did some research into the actual value of several Hotel Loyalty Plans that seem to be adding perks all over place, often generously enough to be valuable for even the infrequent traveler who can’t rack up sufficient night stays.

It turns out that in most cases, the free membership offer perks that are well worth the hassle of signing up. Their experience at Omni Berkshire Place, for example, caught my attention:

During our Saturday night stay, the free membership let us dodge the hotel’s wireless Internet charge of $9.95 a day and entitled us to free coffee or tea with juice in our room in the morning.

Speaking as someone who is hopelessly addicted to the internet but who does not yet have a traveling internet card from Verizon, Clearwire, Sprint, or whoever else is selling them (I’m waiting for the $29.99 price point – I may have to wait a while), free hotel wi-fi is a great benefit.

You can find run-down of all the hotel programs they checked, which include benefits like check-cashing services and free champagne, over at the Wall Street Journal article.

When the economy is slowing and oil prices are rising and consumers are flying less and businesses are starting to replace travel with video conferencing, what’s an airline to do?

If you’re United, you go after the ever-growing luxury market. Successfully.

According to the Wall Street Journal, United has taken some of its more popular routes and made the right much more comfortable in exchange for a more expensive ticket:

Take a Boeing 757, remove 40% of the seats and give customers lots more room, better food and flat beds. Does that sound like a typical recipe at a U.S. airline these days?

Hardly, but that’s exactly what UAL Corp.’s United Airlines did with two of its busiest, most-important routes, and last year they were the best routes financially for the airline in the country.

Not a bad strategy. I can’t say I’ve never wished for more legroom on a flight.

More out of curiosity than anything else, I’m interested to know if any of you have started holding more virtual meetings compared to your usual travel schedules?

The New York Times ran a story yesterday about how rising travel costs are forcing more businesses to adopt virtual meetings in place of good old fashioned I-flew-halfway-across-the-world meetings.

As just one example:

Accenture figures its consultants used virtual meetings to avoid 240 international trips and 120 domestic flights in May alone, for an annual saving of millions of dollars and countless hours of wearying travel for its workers.

So virtual meetings are definitely cheaper, not to mention if you’ve got a really good setup it can make you feel like you’re in Minority Report. Do you think that virtual meetings are going to start supplanting the travel in your schedule anytime soon?

Welcome to “premium economy.”

As business-class seats have consistently moved towards the luxury originally set aside for first class seats, European airlines have started phasing in a new level of ticket, often called premium economy.

The idea is to appeal to business travelers “on a budget” and people who are taking vacations but can spend a little bit extra on the tickets:

“It’s a smart business move because there’s been what I call class creep on an airplane,” said Henry Harteveldt, a travel analyst with Forrester Research. “What’s now called business class is almost what first class used to be. So premium economy is more like what business class used to be back in the 1980s, akin in many ways to U.S. domestic first class in terms of legroom.”

I’m sure it will change over time, but I’ve made my list of what I need to keep me happy on an airplane. Super cushy seats and high-class cutlery are not on the list.

For now, it looks like I’ll stick to the main cabin. Of course, if premium economy came with free wi-fi…

The Wall Street Journal decided to test out some of the luggage services that have been gaining traction recently.

What luggage services? (you ask)

According to the Journal there are companies that offer to pick your bags up at your door and deliver them to your destination—the door, again—so that you don’t have to deal with airline surcharges, hassles of luggage claim, security, or anything else the FAA might invent between now and next Tuesday.

How did the tests go? Are the services worth it?

The good news: No service failed the point-A-to-point-B test. The bad: Prices were so steep, from $122.19 to $198.23, the services can’t really be considered practical for frequent fliers or families with lots of luggage. (Procrastinators should also take note: Even if you opt for the higher-priced overnight service, you’re still stuck with the issue of having to pack and ship your bags ahead of going to the airport.)

And the real surprise: Four out of the five companies sent Federal Express or UPS to pick up our bags. Which begs another question: Why not just call the carriers on your own instead of paying for a third party to handle the task? For example, for that same $198.23 fee that our priciest shipper charged for a suitcase weighing up to 55 pounds (and insured for up to $1,500), FedEx quoted us a rate of $38.58, and UPS, $70.08.

So if you’re thinking about skipping the $15 luggage surcharge, try a different airline first

Apple’s announcement of the upcoming 3G iPhone (to be on sale July 11th) has me wondering: will Apple be able to take a bite out of the business market.

The new iPhone firmware is clearly aimed at co-opting a big chunk of the BlackBerry user base, with full ActiveSync and enterprise support that integrates with both Microsoft and Apple programs on Macs and PCs.

Essentially, Apple wants you to ditch the Blackberry and start carrying their phone instead.

I use an iPhone instead of a a blackberry or a Windows Mobile smartphone because of the web browsing. Most of the e-mail I send on my phone is short – the longer responses can usually wait until I’m back at my laptop and I can spit out a full response on a regular keyboard. And the iPhone is great for reading e-mail and checking out attachments.

But I know I’m in the minority here.

So here’s my question to you Blackberry touting road warriors – will faster network speed and full enterprise integration cause you to jump ship? Or are you sticking around for the keyboard?

Savvy business travelers should expect ticket prices to start jumping upwards soon as airlines start to conclude that charging $15 for checked luggage and selling in-flight snacks is not going to make up for the losses incurred from high oil costs and inadequate flight traffic systems.

I actually didn’t know, until I read in the New York Times today, that air traffic delays account for such a huge drain on the industry:

Last year, “air traffic delays raised airlines’ operating costs by $19 billion,” counting fuel, crew, maintenance and other costs incurred by planes circling and waiting to land or sitting at gates or on tarmacs beyond departure times, the report said.

Officially, about a quarter of all flights arrived late last year. But airlines routinely build extra time into the schedule for many flights, which “significantly underestimates the problem,” the report said.

Have you ever glanced at the screen when your ticket is scanned at the gate? It looks like a program running in Windows 95.

Upgrading the systems might be an expensive one-time cost, but if airlines could stop writing down a few billion dollars a year in red ink they might be able to better cope with the high oil prices and, coincidentally, stop asking us to pay these silly baggage fees.

Everyone knows that flights get delayed, canceled, moved, and now, airlines may also go bankrupt at a moment’s notice.

What’s the best way to make sure you aren’t caught with your pants down? Apparently the answer is to make sure you buy your tickets with a credit card.

What makes this different than a debit card, according to the New York Times, is that you can actually claim your money from the credit card company instead of from the airline:

Under the federal Fair Credit Billing Act, a credit card company is required to return your money for a service not supplied, like an airplane trip. Debit payment agencies are not.

In other words, by law, the credit card company can’t make you foot the bill for a canceled flight. This way they deal with the airline, and you keep your money and your time.

The New York Times has a recent story about how Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International airport is starting to roll out “enhanced customer service” to handle the massive numbers of travelers that stream through their hallways every year.

As more business travelers are getting stuck spending more time in airports, I think we’ll see a lot of American airports start to resemble the European “mallports” that seem to be all over the place.

Traditional fast food spots and magazine stands will probably continue to be supplemented with full service restaurants and clothing or accessories stores.

Enhanced customer service, like that practiced by Ms. Ellis, goes only so far. Airports have been adding amenities, too: more spas, massage centers, walk-in medical clinics, wine bars, lounges with showers, pet centers, art exhibitions, performances and free Wi-Fi. At Hartsfield, there are even places to buy stamps, mail a package and rent a cellphone.

As you know, free Wi-Fi sounds particularly interesting to me

When I fly, I usually show up to the airport REALLY early, so that I can get through security at whatever pace the line is moving on that particular day, and then spend the bulk of my time (hopefully) working at the gate. But I know a lot of people who are far less zen about their travel.

I was reading this piece in the New York Times about, roughly, how safe air travel really is.

The price of that safety is of course a combination of regulations (which have apparently been slack, lately) and travel security. I’m curious, as frequent business travelers, do you feel safer flying than you do traveling by other means? Do you think it’s worth the hassle of security?

Had a chance to sit down with airport guru Harriet Baskas today, and learned a lot about how airports are (or are not) catering to the needs of business travelers. One of the topics I wanted to get into with her about was the dearth of power outlets in most airports. I wanted to ask if any facilities have caught a clue and have installed ample power sources. Regrettably, we ran out of time.

Lo and behold in her current column in USA today she answers my question:

Travelers passing through Austin-Bergstrom International Airport have access to 900 electric outlets along the 24 gate concourse. In Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport there are currently 2,100 free power outlets, including those inside eight airline-club-inspired Samsung travel centers. More power is on its way.

According to the Telegraph.

The European Commission has apparently decided to approve the use of mobile phones and mobile phone equipment on planes in Europe, but most everything else is up to the airlines and the mobile phone carriers:

The final decision will be left to individual airlines, with Bmi, Ryanair and Portugal’s TAP planning to offer the service. Emirates and Air France have already launched trails [sic] on some routes.

However, not all airlines support the plans – Lufthansa have announced that it will not introduce the service. Surveys had shown that a large majority of customers were against it, said a spokesman for the German airline.

It’s not really a surprise to me that customers are unhappy with the addition of mobile phones to plane flights. Nobody wants to sit next to “that guy.”

Last week there was an article in the New York Times about business travelers who found inspiration for their current work while on business trips. The idea is simple: who gets ideas when they sit in a drab little cubicle? People need external stimulation:

Creative inspiration often strikes at the most unexpected times — in the shower, while out for a walk or lying on the sofa — and with depressingly less frequency at the office when workers are actually paid to generate it. But business travel can be fertile ground for discovering creative ideas for work or even a new business, many travelers say.

While I don’t spend most of my time sitting in a cubicle, and while I do find a lot of airport architecture to be pretty amazing, business travel is not usually creative time for me.

Is it creative time for you?

Business 2.0 has an awesome piece up about how to mitigate, deal with, or beat various snags that will inevitably turn up in the schedule of any seasoned traveler.

Some of the tips are more obvious than others (like traveling with a wi-fi card instead of relying on hotspots), but some of the services, numbers, and tips are pretty original. For example:

There are no federal regulations governing how airlines should help passengers affected by delayed flights, so take matters into your own hands. Dial the airline’s customer service number while you’re in line to change your ticket; you might find an open seat before you reach the counter. Another option is to head to the frequent-flier lounge. Even if you’re not a member, you can buy a one-day pass and make use of the less harried lounge staff to rebook your trip.

Go poke through the whole article for the complete set of tricks.

Remember when I told you about the TSA experiment to split the security lines by level of experience?

Peter Kim tweets about the practical result:

New Logan TSA expert line = full. Family line = empty. The real “experts” drop their ego and go through the faster line.

David Willaims, at least, calls it “flight induced brain drain,” and when he says it he means something slightly different than the definition listed in Wikipedia.

The New York Times briefly chronicled his mental meanderings the other day, where he wonders what has happened to the brains of normally intelligent, frequently lonely people:

Recently, while I was waiting to board a flight to Los Angeles, I noticed a young professional man stealing glances at a young professional woman every time he could peel his eyes away from his BlackBerry.

As luck would have it, the woman, also an avid BlackBerry user, was seated next to me on the plane. So I stepped in, hoping to save the day, by offering my seat to this fellow. He accepted my offer, but then was too scared to mumble a “hello” during the entire three-hour flight.

It was unbelievable. I gave up my seat, gave him a shot and he didn’t make the most of it. What was he thinking? He could have at least said, “Nice BlackBerry.”

I guess the lesson here is: productivity on a flight doesn’t always mean hitting the keys. Spare your brain some grueling work-work, and spend some time talking to the people around you, or at least paying attention to what’s going on.

Maybe you’ll end up a little bit sharper at the end of the flight.

But only to the really, really important people.

According to Business Traveller, the German airline Lufthansa is offering PAs to it’s primo customers for assistance through security on departure, and through customs, etc. on arrival—assuming you depart or arrive in London. The site says:

The service – which is available to eligible passengers departing, arriving or connecting at the London airports – has been trialing for three months at Heathrow’s Terminal 2, where an average of 50 passengers per day have been using it.

How do you become eligible for such service? Either fly First Class, or become a HON member on the airline, which requires more than 600,000 miles in a two year period. It’s a snap.

I happen to think this is a pretty cool idea.

There are all different types of travelers, and they all go through security at different rates. There’s the woman who somehow simultaneously empties her pockets, removes her shoes, and places her laptop in a separate bin.

Then there’s the bumbling but kind-looking man who can’t seem to figure out that he’s still wearing sunglasses, two watches, and has a chain linking his wallet to his pants (actually, I don’t think I’ve ever seen this guy).

The TSA is experimented with segmenting lines based on how “experienced” a traveler thinks they are at getting through security. From BTOnline:

TSA last month introduced the lanes at Salt Lake City International Airport and Denver International Airport, with three separate checkpoint options for families and people requiring special assistance, casual travelers and expert travelers. Screening levels and procedures are identical across all lane types. Passengers are not required to go into a specific lane, TSA spokesperson Carrie Harmon said.

Cool!

The New York Times wrote yesterday about the air shuttles that have traditionally run on the hour (or half hour, depending on the airline) from New York to Boston and Washington.

The two carries that run the air shuttles, US Airways and Delta, have both decided to start offering certain perks to justify the high ticket price and to bring customers back from the trains that travelers have recently defected to:

US Airways now offers a first-class compartment, a change partly born of necessity, since the airline wanted the flexibility to move aircraft between the shuttle and its mainline operation. On the day of departure the airline allows fliers to upgrade from coach for $50.

US Airways also allows fliers to reserve seats in advance, while Delta has an open-seating policy in its cabins. Both offer free wine, beer, coffee and snacks, more generous legroom and dispense free newspapers and magazines in their boarding lounges.

Any which way you slice it, the travel industry has been hurting in various places ever since 2001. Business travel has traditionally remained strong, which may explain why they’re betting that high prices and perks is a better choice than cutting options and ticket costs.