Business Travel

The Department of Homeland Security has yet again proposed new rules for travel in the Western Hemisphere. Its original plan was to require a passport for all travel into the US. It relaxed these rules after it failed to keep up with the passport application surge. Here are the new rules.

Expedia.com debuted its Business Travel Page today. The new service is designed for business travelers who book their flights independently rather than through a corporate service or human resources department. The marquee feature is MileageManager, which streamlines frequent flier points and miles. The site also plans on offering regularly updated deals and fares exclusively for business travelers, as well as business travel advice. As an independent contractor, I intend on using the site the next time I fly.

Personally, I have never flown first class. I sleep on every flight I fly on from the time I stow my bags until the person next to me drops their luggage on my head. But if I couldn’t sleep, I would do pretty much anything I could to get out of the cramped coach and into the roomy first class, especially since at this point you can pretty much expect at least an hour’s delay on your next flight.

Firstclassflyer.com can help those of you who desire first class on a coach budget, explaining in its monthly newsletter how to maximize miles, points, and promotions for free flights and first class upgrades. And just in case they can’t get you out of 39F and into 2A, you should also check out insideflyer.com and webflyer.com. Unless you are flying out the country, in which case you should check out globalflight.net.

A while back the State Department decided that US passports would be required for air travel to and from Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Bermuda. Unfortunately, the backlog involved in processing all the additional requests has become frustrating to many people hoping to travel this summer who applied for passports three months ago and still have not received one.

Because of this backlog, passport requirements will be suspended until September. Passengers without a passports will have to show a receipt from the State Department showing that they had applied for a passport and government-issued identification, such as a driver’s license. They will also have to undergo additional screening, including extra questioning and bag checks.

Skybus launched its first flight yesterday, and tickets are now available. For 10 dollars. For cross-country flights. You heard right. 10 dollars from Columbus to Los Angeles. Of course, the ticket fare doesn’t cover the cost of baggage, snacks, and or any frills or service of any kind. And you have to pay more if you want a good seat. Or if you don’t buy the tickets way in advance. Plus Skybus mostly flies out of second-tier hubs.

Still, 10 dollars for a flight is insanely cheap and I usually sleep through most flights. For 10 bucks, I’ll fly over to Utah to watch the Jazz win the NBA Finals and bring only my toothbrush, crammed into the worst seat on the plane.

Virgin Group, the owner of the very sucessful Virgin Atlantic Airlines, announced today that its new Virgin America Airlines has been approved by the Department of Transportation and will begin flying from San Francisco International Airport to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York this summer.

The airline also plans to serve San Diego, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.’s Dulles International Airport by the end of the year.

Global trade keeps increasing and more US companies are going national at an astounding rate. Great news for businesses, stock holders, and consumers; bad news for business travelers.

International travel costs increased $180 dollars this year and are expected to keep increasing exponentially. Airline flights are becoming more compacted, delayed, and stressful. This summer overall travel is expected to be especially high. A recent study found that half of regular business travelers had “maintenance-related travel delays or cancellations” within the previous six months.

To help combat these delays and cancellations, Kate Hanni has founded The Coalition for an Airline Passengers’ Bill of Rights, and is fighting to get her bill through Congress. Until then, build in some extra time for delays, cancelations, and a stress-relieving massage when you get home.

OAG’s 2007 Best Low Cost Carrier Award went to JetBlue for the second straight year. Among JetBlue’s top qualities:

JetBlue has the most legroom in coach, based on average fleet-wide seat pitch for U.S. airlines.

JetBlue is the first airline to offer a passenger’s Bill of Rights.

Fox InFlight(tm) is offered complimentary on most flights.

The OAG Airline of the Year Awards are based on votes from a world-wide base of business travelers.

I recently posted on American Airlines attempt to attract more female business travelers with their new website, www.aa.com/women. Apparently, they botched a few things. The New York Times recently blasted the website with quotes from high-powered female executives calling the site “stereotyped and occasional downright insulting content.”

It seems some of the advice the site offered was about 60 years out of date. For example, “Always bring a little black dress to wear with these heels,” which many high-powered business women did not feel belonged in the ‘Tips From Our Road Warriors’ section.

AA.com/women also offered advice on social networking, which was ironically blasted on the top flying social networking site for women, Flyertalk.com, whose users called the site a “condescending marketing ploy.” The lavender-coloring of the site was also viewed as old-school sexism.

However, even with all this bad press, American Airlines may not have dropped the ball on this one. They are paying attention to what’s being said about them, and have already changed the color of their site and some of the content. Additionally, some of their ideas, such as lie-flat seats and privacy screens, have been very well received.

A lot of criticism has been levied at the major online travel engines, Expedia, Orbitz, and Travelocity, for doing a great job of providing travel assistance and software for major companies, but ignoring the smaller companies.

Robert Kost of TripSynch is planning on launching a new tool for small business travel with a lot of very cool features. For example:

An Admin user can book flights for multiple employees, hold them free for 24 hours, and allows employees to update a central calendar. It also has excellent tools for itemizing expenses during that trip and billing for them.

Is flying all that different for females? Particulary, for female business travelers?

American Airlines hopes the answer to that question is yes, as it launches a new program to cater to women. It has recently started a website dedicated to female fliers, and is looking for ways to make their airline more desirable for women. For example, AA plans on offering lower storage bins (average height for women is five inches below that of men). Its website asks fliers to offer other suggestions that it may implement.

American hopes to see a bump in sales from this venture. If they do, except to see many other airlines launching similar programs.

After several months of intense compeition, United Airlines is becoming the first airline to offer non-stop flights from the US to China. The new route’s maiden flight will left Washington Dulles International Airport yesterday at 12:33pm, EST, and arrived today in Beijing Capital Internation Airport at 1:55, local time. The trip currently takes significantly less time than any other mutli-stop flights, and offers significant cabin space and service on the 347-seat B74.

The 550 passenger Airbus A380 Jumbojet made its first voyage into the US today, flying into JFK and LAX. The 239-foot plane is expected to hit the international markets in large numbers next year.

US airlines, however, have yet to order a single one of the new planes which Airbus claims can significantly decrease wait times and increase efficiency at major airports.

England’s Tory party has announced plans to add a “conservation tax” to replaced duties on flights with new per flight taxes based on the flight’s carbon emissions.

The new taxes are not supposed to increase costs for the occasional flier, but rather to put pressure on frequent travelers to fly less. Particularly those who flier overseas several times a year for vacations. The more one flies, the more the new taxes will come into effect.

This is potentially good news for environmentalist, bad news for business travelers in the US. If the measure gains support in the UK, it is likely to gain support in the US.

Airbus has scheduled trips for its new jumbojet A380 to JFK and LAX on March 19. This will be the American debut of the new planes, which are expected to decrease congestion at major airports because of the large number of passengers they can seat.

Out of fear of back to back PR disasters, JetBlue canceled 40 percent of today’s JFK flights a day in advance, as well as 32 flights to and from Dulles International Airport. The airline encouraged all passengers on canceled flights to rebook and waived all rebooking fee’s and fare differences.

Hmmm. Maybe flying in and out of Amsterdam is now the way to go…

The Wall Street Journal reports that:

Thanks to a new British ticket tax that took effect February 1, passengers who fly into or through London airports will pay new taxes and fees that can add as much as $154 to the cost of a ticket….The new tax comes on the heels of other highly publicized problems at Heathrow, including a breakdown in the baggage handling system and security delays. Consumeraffairs.com reports that one consequence is that more and more travelers are investigating Amsterdam as an alternative hub for discount flights in and out of Europe.

Silverjet is yet another business class only airline entering the fray to capture a slice of the lucrative upper-end business travel market. They offer one flight per day service between London’s Luton airport and Newark in New York. According to CNN, Silverjet offers:

“Thirty-minute check-in times at a dedicated terminal and onboard services including wireless Internet and plasma TV screens. Each Silverjet aircraft has 100 business class flat beds, with individual food service, personal in-flight entertainment systems and a separate ladies toilet.”

Regarding the “Green” aspect, CNN reports that Silverjet “is also playing the green card, highlighting the mandatory offset contribution included in its ticket prices.”

On Monday, a woman started lighting matches on a plane in order to cover up her flatulence.

Passengers reported the odor of burnt matches, and the embarassed woman tried to pretend as though she hadn’t done anything. As a result, the plane took an emergency landing, all the passengers were removed and searched, all the luggage was searched, and canine teams scoured the plane. The whole ordeal took over three hours.

The woman was not charged with anything, although I’m guessing the other passengers were not very happy with her.

Airbus’s jumbo A380 finally launched its maiden voyage, from Bangkok, Thailand, to Toulouse, France. The 555-passenger plane has received 166 orders from 15 airlines, so it is likely you may find yourself on one in the near future.