Gulliver

THE InterContinental Hotels Group has launched a new brand, EVEN, aimed at travellers who want something a little healthier than the average hotel. The group hopes that mid-market properties taking a holistic approach to guests' "wellness" will appeal to the large swathe of people who are concerned to maintain their health while on the road (see previous post), be they business travellers or tourists. Companies seeking healthier lifestyles for their employees (reduced absenteeism, anyone?) should be similarly interested.

The emphasis at EVEN hotels will be on things like gyms, menus, showers and beds; don't expect glamorous lobbies or extensive meeting spaces.

Continue reading "IHG gets EVEN" »

ON A FLIGHT back from Mexico earlier this year, your correspondent witnessed at first hand the slow process of merging two giant airlines. As I waited for over an hour to check in for a United flight, the Continental desk next to the United check-in was almost totally empty, with two or three employees attending to a handful of customers. Eventually, we asked the Continental employees why they didn't just start checking in United passengers. The two airlines were technically one entity in America, the Continental employees explained, but in Mexico the merger wasn't complete, and the computer systems hadn't been merged yet, either. Their computers wouldn't let them check us in so we had to wait. (We made our flight.

Continue reading "United's computer chaos" »

LONDON should not suffer a drop in visitor numbers during the Olympics, as some have predicted. According to figures released by Amadeus, a company that provides technology to the travel industry, 31% more people will come to the city between July 23rd (three days before the games start) and August 12th (the day they end) than in the same period last year. The projections and comparisons are based on confirmed air bookings made via all online and traditional travel agencies before February 22nd. They do not include bookings made directly through airline websites.

The biggest contingents of visitors, making up 17% and 11% of the total, are expected to be American and German.

Continue reading "Build it and they will, actually, come" »

THE VERY best way to ensure your suits aren't wrinkled after you travel is to have them dry-cleaned when you arrive. (Given unlimited funds and time, of course, you simply buy a new one.) But many business travellers don't have that kind of budget and can't afford to wait for a dry-cleaner, either. Thankfully, there are some smart ways you can fold your suits so that they don't look quite so bad when you arrive. Alexis Ohanian, the co-founder of the social link-sharing site Reddit, shared this video on the "social pinboard" Pinterest earlier this month:

I have tried this myself and I can ensure readers that, when done correctly, it works most of the time. You have to start with a pretty wrinkle-free suit, of course—this isn't magic.

Continue reading "Wrinkle treatment" »

THE DUTCH airline KLM is testing a new programme that allows passengers to pick their in-air neighbours by evaluating Facebook and LinkedIn profiles before take-off. The New York Times reports:

With Facebook alone claiming nearly 500 million daily active users — more than 60 times the eight million people who fly each day — KLM and others are betting that many of them would be willing to share their profiles in exchange, say, for a chance to meet someone with a common interest or who might be going to the same event.

[...]

KLM’s service is available only to travelers with confirmed reservations who are willing to connect their social profiles to their booking. After selecting the amount of personal information they wish to share, passengers are presented with seat maps that show where others who have also shared their profiles are seated. You can then reserve the seat next to anyone who seems interesting — provided it is available — and that person will receive a message with your profile details.

Continue reading "How to get a better seatmate" »

THE EU's transport and climate-action bigwigs will not, I suspect, have been too concerned by the outcome of the meeting that finished in Moscow yesterday of 26 countries disaffected by the inclusion of aviation in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS).

Eight potential retaliatory measures were outlined, including objecting (formally, you understand) to the UN, imposing levies on European airlines, ending talks with the EU on new routes and forbidding non-EU airlines to participate in the ETS, as China has already done. But it seems that the countries have not united behind a particular course.

Continue reading "No punches thrown in aviation's emissions battle" »

AMERICA'S Transportation Security Administration is expanding its programme to pre-screen certain passengers and speed them through airport security a bit faster. The TSA has been working to make airports easier for certain pre-screened passengers for years now. But this latest expansion suggests that the programme could finally attain real scale and have an impact on the lives and commutes of a significant number of business travellers.

Over the course of 2012, the agency plans to extend its "Pre-Check" programme to 28 of America's busiest airports, including all three of Washington, DC's major airports, Dulles, BWI, and Reagan; New York City's LaGuardia and JFK airports; Philadelphia, San Francisco, and even Chicago's giant O'Hare.

Continue reading "TSA expands pre-check programme" »