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Surprise, surprise! 70% of business travelers prefer to travel by train, according to a survey conducted by the British Guild of Travel Management Companies (GTMC) for their latest business travel manifesto; while 66% says they would rather take the train than fly to a destination for a meeting or conference, if the journey time and cost were lower.

Not realizing, perhaps, that high-speed trains are often the fastest way to travel between city centers beating short-haul flights for journeys of up to about 350 miles (560 kilometers) in Europe. At speeds of up to 350 kph (220 mph) the train certainly takes the strain; and compared to airports (what I have called the slowest common denominator of air travel) high-speed trains are stress-free citadels of peace.

Trains score well on that shifting equation of comfort, convenience and cost. (On short-haul flights, flying time can be as little as 20 percent of total journey time.) What counts most with rail travel is the quality of uninterrupted time from the moment you board (10-minute check-in times for business travelers, includes going through security) to the time you arrive. Take the Blackberry and laptop along (power-points are provided) and do a pile of work in peace.

Guillaume Pepy, chairman of Eurostar and chief executive of SNCF (French Railways), has a research-based rule of thumb that business travelers are willing to travel up to four hours on a high-speed train because of ‘increased productivity,’ compared with airline travel, while the limit for leisure travelers is trips of up to six hours.

‘No contest’ then for travel between scores of city-pairs across Europe. The simultaneous opening of Eurostar’s new London terminal at St. Pancras International and the 67-mile ‘High Speed 1’ rail link in Britain, shaved 20 minutes from timetables, cutting the non-stop journey time between London and Paris to two hours and 15 minutes, and Brussels, one hour, 51 minutes. London and Lille, in Northern France, are just one hour, 10 minutes apart. Journey times between London and Cologne (via Brussels) were cut from 4 hours 38 minutes to 3 hours 36 minutes; to Amsterdam from 4 hours 46 minutes to 3 hours 36 minutes; and from London (via Paris) to Strasbourg, from 6 hours 32 minutes to 4 hours and 33 minutes. Who wants to fly? Unless you’re ‘interlining’ to somewhere else.

Since the first TGV Sud Est entered service between Paris and Lyon in 1981, cutting the journey time by half to just over 2 hours, high-speed trains have been getting even faster. with constant improvements in locomotives and dedicated track.

SNCF’s TGV Est European service which started in June 2007, links Paris with more than 20 destinations in France, such as Reims, Strasbourg, Nancy, Metz; and 10 destinations in Germany, Switzerland and Luxembourg, such as Frankfurt, Karlsruhe, Stuttgart, Mannheim and Zurich.

Trains travel at 199 mph (320 kph), which have cut previous high-speed journey times by one third to one half.

The double-decker train is a version of the modified V150 TGV train (named for traveling at 150 meters per second) which broke the world speed record on April 3, 2007 by traveling at 357 mph (575 kph) on a special section of track between Paris and Strasbourg – faster than some light airplanes.

(This is the record for ‘wheel-on-steel’ trains: Japan’s ‘maglev’ (magnetic levitation) train set a world record for ‘non-contact’ trains in 2003 at 361 mph.) China expects to have 12,000 kilometers of high-speed network by 2012, plus intercity lines like Beijing-Tianjin and Guangzhou-Zhuhai, with speeds of 350 kph (220 mph).

Journey times are Paris-Reims, 45 min; Paris-Nancy, 1hr. 30min; Paris-Luxembourg, 2hr, 5min; Paris-Zurich, 4hr, 32min; Paris-Frankfurt, 3hr, 50min.

While high-speed trains challenge airlines on short routes, there are synergies between the two modes of transport. Air-rail links through high-speed train stations at major airports, such as Paris Charles-de-Gaulle, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Brussels, Lyon, that enable travelers to connect between a long-haul flight and a train, assuming the role of a regional airline.

Some airlines are even thinking about direct involvement in high-speed rail – an open-rail policy in Europe allows rail companies to compete with each other on certain routes. Thus Deutsche Bahn and Virgin Atlantic would be free to compete with Eurostar on services between London and Brussels and Paris

Paul Charles, former director of communications at Virgin, and a former chief spokesman for Eurostar, said: ‘Short-haul travel will definitely gravitate around trains in Europe.’

Useful sites: www.railteam.eu; www.eurostar.com; www.tgv-europe.com; www.sncf.com; www.raileurope.co.uk.    

I offer no prescient predictions about business travel in the downturn. Or in the upturn as travel rebounds, as it always does.   Like economic forecasters, I can only react to events with sapient hindsight and reflect on the past mistakes of others.

But it’s an ill wind as they say… And indeed, the economic downturn has been good for business, according to an American Express survey of senior UK finance executives over half (58 percent) of whom reveal that decisions made during the downturn have actually improved their firms’ long term prospects.

‘Business travel spending increases are planned in those areas of travel that are linked to revenue growth,’ the survey quotes. And I am betting that these increases are focused on such areas as winning new business; protecting and developing client/customer or partner relationships; and networking at industry conferences and events. At the expense (no pun intended) of corporate get-togethers; internal wheel-spinning (‘I must visit Jean-Pierre in Paris to discuss his marketing plan’): And forgoing (just this year anyway) on lubricating that ‘essential’ economic forum in Monte Carlo. (Let the pundits wallow in the trough of their own confusion.) 

Even during these months of tough trading, owners of growing businesses understand the need to travel, not only within their own region, but farther afield.    When the going gets tough (especially for small entrepreneurial businesses), the tough get going!   Let the bad times roll.   My credo has always been … ‘what is bad for the travel trade is good for the traveler; and vice versa: Although I’m happy to discuss caveats and corollaries.

‘Zero-base’ planning (aka ‘navel-gazing’ or sitting on a sharp stone) is a salutary exercise in these lean times.

Road warriors have made travel decisions on a shifting equation of cost, convenience and comfort, depending on where they are headed, and purpose of the trip. But tighter budgets and the sheer hassle of travel today have thrown into sharper focus the need to assess the ‘productivity’ of a business trip, taking into account the cost of management time rather than cost of travel alone. 

So whenever a business interaction is needed, instead of automatically thinking of a trip, even inveterate road warriors now think of other alternatives first, such as videoconferencing in every form – from state-of-the-art virtual reality with eye contact and wrap-around sound to desk-top teleconferencing; and an old-fashioned telephone call (a ‘hot’ medium as Canadian media guru Marshall McLuhan once famously said, making one focus entirely on the voice, the spoken word, which makes the phone as confessional as the psychoanalyst’s couch; making it easier to deal with intimate or difficult subjects.)

Travel is no longer the first resort to the need for a business meeting.  Videoconferencing can be an essential complement to travel.    Fly to New York and hold a videoconference with the troops in various cities instead of traipsing around the country to visit them.

‘Travel management’ has evolved from being essentially a bookkeeping function – travel policy, traveling in the most efficient way, getting the best deals – to ‘management’ in the management sense.   ‘Why are we making this trip? What are we going to achieve?   Can we do business some other way?    How can we achieve better productivity by cutting out unnecessary travel and achieve better productivity for trips that we do make?  Companies are reshaping the pattern of their travel.     Management productivity has become the new byword for business travel.  

Consider a spectrum from what you might call ‘hard-core’ business travel (a sales trip, or clinching a deal) and internal meetings with associates and partners to ‘soft-core’ travel (association conferences, exhibitions, seminars and incentive trips).

Videoconferencing has substituted some internal company travel, such as visiting other plants and offices, especially global companies with people having regional responsibilities and large time differences. Not all the troops need to travel to the same place for a monthly update.  There is a need to build relationships, but not to meet every time.

Videoconferencing is best used for getting things done rather than building relationships. It can help to accelerate decision-making by letting people interact more often and move things along.   It allows for informal and impromptu meetings that would not happen otherwise.

There is also the ‘opportunity cost’ of traveling somewhere when it might be more productive, going somewhere else, or having somebody fly in to meet you in the office, where you can call other people in when you need them. Or else do you fly to New York and convene a video-conference instead of making a whistle-stop tour around the country. Or do you send Joe? There is always an opportunity to do something else. One has to ask, what’s the trade off?  It is fairly easy to quantify travel productivity for sales people and line managers; harder for staff people. But that’s another challenge.

The ‘bottom-line’ in travel management is getting other people to visit you.

We have all been there: Stuck in a windowless meeting room, fighting to keep awake, surreptitiously checking our e-mails,  letting the imagination roam behind half-closed eyes and lips  tightly pursed to judiciously steepled hands, or even thinking about lunch, or plans for the evening, or making mental lists.

So I was intrigued to read the other day that two in five bored business travelers spend meetings daydreaming about holidays; one third fall asleep during ‘especially dreary meetings,’ with 35 percent often ‘catching themselves on the brink of dropping off;’ while 83 percent treat meetings ‘like a long telephone call with a relative – only paying attention for the first half, when they can expect to hear ‘all the bits worth knowing.’

These are the ‘shocking’ conclusions of a poll of 1,207 British business travelers by Crowne Plaza Hotels & Resorts.

Tactics for staying awake include doodling (59 percent) and ‘fiddling’ (52 percent); and ‘playing with a pen when the mind wanders off the topic’ (33 percent).  More than half the respondents said that ‘looking out of window is their biggest distraction;’ 73 percent admitted ‘they’ll pay no attention if a person conducting the meeting has a monotonous voice.’

Crowne Plaza promises an end to boring meetings with  the ‘Think Box’ designed by Roger von Oech, a  California-based ‘creativity consultant,’ known for his book, ‘A Whack on the Side of the Head.’

The Think Box (of brushed aluminum about 18 inches by 14 inches by 8 inches)  is the latest gimmick in Crowne Plaza’s ‘Think Tank’ campaign to stimulate business guests with tools and tips from ‘innovators and visionary thinkers.’ Boxes will be distributed in hotels across Europe and Middle East.

Think Boxes contain three items designed to overcome  three key hurdles that Von Oech claims beset meetings. They are: Loss of focus; lack of creativity; and achieving meeting goals.

-The Inspire Boards use brain teasers to help get people focused at the start of meetings and stimulate creative energy activity.

-The Ball of Whacks, a rhombic triacontahedron puzzle made up of 30 detachable magnetic blocks, is a ‘tactile tool to release nervous energy, prevent distraction and to reinvigorate creativity during a meeting.’

‘The Ball can be taken apart and manipulated into a lot of different shapes,’ von Oech says.   ‘Using your hands and eyes together stimulates the brain.’ (Squeezing the Ball in your hand and showering your neighbors with magnetic shards is certainly a great way to break the ice!)

-The Think Cards contain 32 of von Oech’s strategies for creative thinking and to get a new perspective on an issue.  One card says, ‘Avoid arrogance;’ others say, ‘Laugh at it;’ ‘Drop an assumption;’ ‘Slay a sacred cow.’  ‘Picking cards at random can get you off thinking in other directions,’ von Oech says.   What you might call, thinking outside the box.

‘Meeting planners typically look at the technical needs for the meeting, such as space, catering and audiovisual needs,’ von Oech says. ‘But not enough attention has been given to how you energize the thinking of people in the meeting, and to spark their creativity.’

The Think Box might be great for brainstorming; but I can think of meetings where using it would be unthinkable. Surely it depends on the type of meeting? 

‘Absolutely not,’ Von Oech says.   ‘There are three or four different types of meeting; some where you’re just disseminating information; others where you trying to come to a consensus; making a decision; then some where you’re trying to come up with ideas – to the extreme of a brainstorming session.  Some of the products can be used for a stepping-off point, or as an ice-breaker.  People are more engaged, participatory, rather than being lectured at, or power-pointed to death.’   

After a short meeting with myself I’ve decided to go on thinking without the box.

Ralph Waldo Emerson’s counsel 150 years ago that ‘No man should travel until he has learned the language of the country he visits’ is reflected in the boom in language learning for business travelers. The key to success, we are told, is to do business in the other person’s language.

But unless you can really cope in that language, it’s usually best to save it for social chat. A little learning is a dangerous thing (although a few gracious phrases in, say, Chinese, Arabic and Russian, are always appreciated.) English, of course, is now accepted as a lingua franca for business travelers in most parts of the world. But forcing people to speak it when they’re not completely fluent can lead to serious misunderstanding.

There was the case of a former German chancellor who was presented to the Queen during a visit to London. He had brushed up his English for the occasion. But when he was introduced to her he said, ‘Who are you?’ instead of, ‘How are you?’ She replied, ‘I am the Queen of England.’ That’s supposed to be a true story.

A good compromise is for both parties to speak their own language, which may bring a dialectical if not an entirely cultural, meeting of minds. Although it may be worth remembering the old German adage that you should sell in the other language and buy in your own. A variation, perhaps, of the maxim ‘Dress British, think Yiddish.’

For most people this means speaking through interpreters.  But the ability to work well with one is a technique, a skill in itself. You have to make sure that your message is received in a cultural as well as a linguistic sense.

You have to be very careful about using humor on formal occasions. If you make an after-dinner speech in the UK, you’re heavily criticized if you don’t make a joke; in France you’ll be criticized if you do. They’ll say, he’s a clown, he’s a lightweight. The British self-mocking humor is not understood.

It can be quite disconcerting with simultaneous interpretation. You make a witty remark and those people listening in English laugh; then the French and Italians laugh; then there’s a pause because the Dutch and Germans are waiting for the verb at the end of the sentence before they get it. Meanwhile, you’re saying, ‘yes, but to be serious I must make an important point.’ At which point the Germans and Dutch burst out laughing.

The Japanese seem to have found a face-saving solution to this contingency. The story goes of the Japanese interpreter who said: ‘The British gentleman has now started telling a joke. When he stops speaking, please laugh and clap loudly – or I’ll be in trouble.’

Another solution when faced with strange English from a non-native speaker is to tune in to the French translation – or tune in to space music on your iPod.

Alas, this is not always possible in face-to-face meetings. Everything depends on the skill of the interpreter. Confusion generated by faulty translation is less hilarious. Experts recommend that both parties in a negotiation bring their own people to interpret for important discussions. It’s convenient, but dangerous, to rely on the home side’s interpreter, who may unconsciously represent the interest of his or her employer.

Keep sentences short and simple but avoid oversimplifying – which may give an impression that you’re condescending – and pause frequently. Avoid vague and imprecise expressions; use visual aids when you can; and look at the person with whom you’re dealing – not the interpreter; look for signs of confusion; keep eye contact when culturally appropriate (in the Far East it’s sometimes interpreted as aggressive or challenging behavior – only the occasional glance into another person’s face is considered polite).

When it comes to the Far East, it’s not so much ‘read my lips’ as ‘read my mind.’ The silences between utterances are just as meaningful as what is spoken. The Japanese method of listening comprises a repertoire of smiles, nods, and polite noises. The idea is to keep you talking, usually misinterpreted by Westerners as agreement.

If the Japanese have a reputation for inscrutability, it is because they have developed ambiguity of expression to an art form. They have delicate ways of voicing personal opinions. The British may have invented circumlocution (not to mention elocution) but the Japanese have made it an art form. It’s not that they’re hypocritical. But they manifest quintessential politeness , which can mean they say ‘yes’ when they really mean ‘no.’

The Japanese are concerned with saving face and have developed a set of rules to prevent things going wrong. So try to avoid saying no or asking questions when he answer might be no. If you do hear a no in Japan, it is likely to be expressed as a sucking of breath through the teeth. The closest anyone will get to articulating the word no is, ‘It is very difficult,’ or ‘We will need to give this further study.’ The real message is likely to be, ‘Let’s forget the whole business.’

Closer to home, there are defective cognates between languages like English and French. The entente cordiale was in jeopardy when the French head office of its recently acquired subsidiary in Britain faxed: ‘We demand your latest profit figures…’ Demander in French means to ask, not to demand.

Much more important than language, the psychologists, say, is your ‘non-verbal behavior,’ your awareness of different ‘business modes’ and ‘nonverbal behavior’ or body language. This must take into account different notions of politeness, manners and social rituals. Actions speak louder than words. Saying the wrong things – eye contact, hand gestures, touching, bowing, using first names, how to eat and drink can be a minefield for the unwary. The snappily-dressed young Chinese in Hong Kong with the portable phone may seem to talk the same business language, but if you unintentionally offend him, you may lose his trust – and his business.

You first need to know whether you are dealing with people from so-called ‘low context’ cultures (North America, Britain, Sweden, Switzerland, Germany), who spell things out verbally, or ‘high context’ cultures (France, Japan, Spain, Greece, Saudi Arabia, China and Korea) who communicate more by nuance and implication and are less dependent on the spoken word.

For example, the Swiss and the Germans like to lay their cards on the table. Talking to a Frenchman or a Spaniard, what is unsaid is often most important. Low context folk need to attune their listening skills; high context folk should try to be more explicit. ‘Your context or mine?’ is the dialectical ideal.

The handshake is probably the most common form of greeting in the world (except in Japan). But even this simple gesture is fraught with complications. The British handshake is firm but used sparingly; in Italy and France – where handshaking is something of a national pastime (the French are said to spend 30 minutes a day shaking and re-shaking hands) –a gentler, kinder grip may stand you in good stead.

In Germany and Denmark, you nod your head when you shake hands as a gesture of respect. Somebody who does not know this may interpret it as aggression (which it may well be). People in Mediterranean countries sometimes tilt the head back when they shake hands. Northerners may interpret this for arrogance (which it may well be). Anglo-Saxons learn to look people in the eye. This is sometimes interpreted as aggressive or challenging behavior, especially by Orientals, for whom only an occasional glance into the other person’s face is considered polite.

Unless you really know what you’re doing, close bodily greetings are best avoided. Kissing has many pitfalls – unless you are fortunate enough to have been coached by a French general. You need to know which cheek to start with. The British start with the right cheek. In Belgium you start with the left cheek; left, right, left. The French generally kiss twice; left, right. In some Middle East countries they kiss three or even four times – men kiss men, women kiss women. (In Saudi Arabia, greetings are particularly elaborate: after shaking hands a Saudi is likely to kiss you on both cheeks then take your hand in his as a gesture of kinship.)

Should you ever summon the nerve to kiss a lady’s hand (a French aristocrat says it takes three generations to learn how to do it properly), your lips must never actually make contact. In Spain, men who are close friends often give a bear hug, or abrazo. The story goes that a British businessman so shocked the Americans he was with when he greeted a Spaniard with a hug, that he almost lost the contract he was negotiating. Look out now for the Slavonic bear hug.

One area where handshakes, kissing and (heaven forbid) bear hugs have not become established is Japan where such bodily contact is considered impolite. On the other hand, the Japanese custom of bowing can be daunting to a Western businessperson. (Let your hand slide down towards your knees, back and neck stiff with eyes averted.) The act has crucial social implications, depending on title. It is essential for Japanese to know the ranking order within any group because rank is applied to all circumstances – whether business or social.

The way other cultures like to put people at their ease can be confusing. The American use of first names as an instant form of friendship does not go down well in countries like Germany, even England. (Germans like to be addressed by their last name with full academic titles, like Professor Dr. Schmidt, rather than Willy or Ilse. In Austria, you have to contend with Dr. Dr. Schmidt. In Italy, address anybody over 40 wearing a suit as Dottore.)

The British and Americans share at least one thing: they like to break the ice with a joke, which means sometimes being thought flippant. We in turn may think the Japanese are amused if they giggle: but they may sometimes do this when they are perplexed. In Japan, Korea and China, laughter is often a sign of embarrassment. In the Philippines it can mean, ‘Take note! I’m about to say something important!’ And Thais laugh at tragic news to cheer you up. (Something we are all getting used to now!)

The classic Anglo-Saxon ‘time is money’ approach to negotiations is unlikely to go down well in Asian societies, which are based on personal relationships and building reciprocal trust before agreeing to clinch a deal. The cold call often brings the cold response.

The Japanese in particular set great store by long term relationships and human value. They need to know the sort of person they are dealing with. An evening’s karaoke or a day’s golf isn’t enough. One must submit to an exhausting spiritual inquisition. ‘What are your first impressions of Japan?’ Four pairs of liquid black eyes are hanging on my reply. I venture something about the felicitous co-existence of tradition and the modern industrial state. ‘What impresses me,’ I hear myself say, ‘is that traditional values seem to be an integral part of the business and social fabric. And that tradition is more than ever relevant in these protean times…’

I seem to have passed the test. My host smiles. ‘It is important for the Japanese to explore the heart of the person he does business with.’ And refills my cup from his own sake flask, a gesture of friendship.

Consequently, the Japanese take much longer than business people in the West to make a decision. They are more committed to group consensus.  But once everyone is on board, implementation can be swift. The getting-to-know-you process often takes weeks or months instead of hours and days. Reaching an agreement takes five times longer than it does in the west. But it’s usually time well invested.

If you’re late for a meeting or dinner in the Philippines nobody cares. But elsewhere in Asia it’s a fatal faux pas. But don’t be surprised at constant interruptions during meetings in India, Africa and the Middle East, especially with ministry officials. People rarely instruct the secretary to hold calls or tell unscheduled visitors to wait. This would be inexcusably rude to legions of friends and relatives who are likely to drop by unannounced at any time.

Meetings themselves can drive Anglo-Saxons to distraction. The French style of working is often incomprehensible to us. For example, in America or northern Europe, the point of having a meeting is to get decisions made or to allocate projects. The French meeting (which can go on for three or four hours, even longer than the business lunch) may not have a particular agenda. People simply talk and talk, with the idea of putting themselves in context – as the sociologists say – with other people. It’s a form of jockeying for position and networking. Consequently, the French work long hours. You often find French managers in the office at seven in the evening. They manage to get things done, although not always to deadlines, which don’t have the same awesome imperative as they do chez nous.

People set great store by details of etiquette. Gestures need not be extravagant or deliberate to be considered offensive. For example, in the Middle East, never give or receive anything with the left hand (which was traditionally used for cleaning up after bodily functions) or sit showing the sole of your shoes. And it’s often considered impolite to refuse refreshments.

Even a classic Anglo-Saxon OK sign – a thumb-finger circle – can get you into trouble. In Brazil, Russia and Greece it is considered vulgar, even obscene. In Japan it signifies money and in France zero or worthless. In Finland, folded arms are a sign of arrogance, while in Fiji, the gesture shows disrespect. In Java, placing your hands on hips means you are looking for a fight. So place your hands on the table out of trouble.

Except at an English dinner party, of course, when they should be placed on your knees, when you’re not actually eating. (In France, place them by the side of your plate.) And in Japan remember not to speak when you’re eating (not to be confused with speaking with your mouth full). And, of course, Americans have this curious habit of cutting a piece of something, putting the knife down then switching the fork to their right hand. No wonder they invented fast food.

People do business with those whom they feel comfortable. It comes down to sincerity and spontaneous good manners.

If you’re not sure how to behave in someone else’s culture, then at least be polite in your own. Unless, of course, you are into power behavior.

But that’s another story.

Congratulations! You’ve decided that life is too short to endure the squalor and indignity of ‘cattle class’ and will join the ‘premium classes’ and shop around for the best prices in the front of the cabin. (That’s where you turn left instead of right at the door to the plane.)

But with first class costing around twice the price of business class; which in turn can cost twice the price of a flexible economy ticket and 20 times more than the cheapest ticket in the back of the plane, reconciling comfort, cost and convenience is a dialectical dilemma – it’s easy to pay a lot more for a lot less.

Premium economy can be a successful compromise.  Taiwan carrier Eva Air was the first airline to introduce a premium economy cabin in 1991, the year it started flying, with Evergreen Deluxe (renamed Elite Class on Boeing 777s), that rewarded economy passengers paying the full (Y) fare with a separate cabin, and better seating and service, followed in turn by Virgin Atlantic a year later, British Airways’ World Traveler Plus, and United Airlines Economy Plus and a growing number of carriers. Premium economy typically offers 38 to 42 inches of leg room – five to 7 inches more than regular cattle class at about one third of the price of a business class seat.

It attracts leisure travelers (especially the girth-stricken or those of normal height) and business travelers whose budgets do not stretch to business class. According to British Airways’ research, typical premium economy passengers tend to be self-employed or work for small to medium sized companies; or honeymooners. Savvy travelers often mix classes, flying out in business class, and back in premium economy, or vice versa, depending on the need to work or sleep.

The cheapest distance between two points is often flying with a carrier through its home hub rather than traveling direct, saving up to 50 percent on the price of a nonstop business class ticket – as strategy that I call ‘cross-border hubbing.’ 

Traveling from London to Bangkok last year, I forwent the chance to shell out a daunting £3,168 for a round-trip business-class ticket with British Airways, or Singapore Airlines, by paying £1,332 with Austrian Airlines and a seamless connection in Vienna. Traveling to the East Coast of the United States, consider Icelandair (fresh fish and malt whiskies in business class) – and an easy change of plane in Reykjavik makes a pleasant break. Finnair goes out of its way (no pun intended) to attract travelers from Britain to go via Helsinki to destinations in Asia and the Far East.

Many travel agents, such as long-haul specialists Trailfinders.com, offer so-called ‘negotiated’ fares with certain carriers.

For example, planning a hypothetical round-trip from London to Sydney for travel in April, Trailfinders.com offered me premium economy with Virgin Atlantic (via Hong Kong) for £1,665 (60-day advance booking); business class with China Airlines (via Amsterdam and Taipei) for £1.849; and Thai International (via Hong Kong) for £2,339.

Virgin Atlantic.com came up with premium economy for £2,600-£3,000; Upper Class (business) for £4,300 (restricted) and £6,700 (flexible) – compared with the lowest economy price of £1,083. British Airways.com offered premium economy for £918 and £1,189, and business class for £5,055. Opodo.com had the lowest economy fare (£727) with Emirates; premium economy, British Airways, £1,858; Qantas, £2498; and Japan Airlines, £5,832. Business class offers ranged from £2,564 with Etihad Airways, and £3,700 with Singapore Airlines and Cathay Pacific, to £4,040 with Qantas.

The lesson to learn from these prices is that not every airline or online travel agent can offer the best deal with every carrier.

If you’re traveling at least half way round the world, it may make sense to go all the way round (either east or west) by buying a round-the-world (RTW) ticket in business or premium economy. They are often cheaper and more flexible than a round-trip fare.

All three alliances (Oneworld, Star Alliance and Skyteam) offer a raft of prices and routings, usually with just two airlines; such as British Airways from Europe to Sydney, Qantas across the Pacific, and thence, via a variety of gateways, BA back to Europe. Star Alliance partners Air France and Lufthansa offer a similar around the world duo.

With such a wide world of choice out there, what is the best way to look before you book? Unless you know what flights you want, the strategy I recommend is first to go to OAGflights.com, or Amadeus.net, that allow you to check flight schedules and seat availability (though not prices) between any city pair, wherever you are in the world, and then shop around for the best prices.

Skytrax Research (www.airlinequality.com) can help you figure out the best, and worst, seats in premium cabins, along with seat dimensions and seating tips, on long-haul flights, for more than 325 airlines around the world. Seat plans at www.seatguru.com (part of TripAdvisor.com) show you which seats to ask for, and which to avoid, on nearly 100 airlines, including Air France, British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and Qantas.  Select an airline and an aircraft type, move your mouse over the seating plan, and seat descriptions will appear (green designates a ‘very good seat,’ yellow, ‘be aware!’ and red, a ‘bad seat.’)

Airborne between Paris and Hong Kong on a Global Airlines Boeing 2000ER, John and Jane Harbinger are lingering over lunch in the gourmet restaurant on the top deck (not much point in fast food on a 16-hour flight) figuring how they’re going to spend the rest of the afternoon. Jane decides on a soothing séance in the beauty parlor: John will make a few calls from the business center and polish his presentation.  They’ll meet for drinks at six in the suite before dinner. ‘Would sushi hit the spot? I’ll book a table downstairs.’    John asks a passing ‘skycop’ for directions. ‘Head down the main corridor towards the tail and take the elevator down to the bottom deck.’

            Planes such as this three-deck 1,000-seat Goliath – which entered service in 2015 – are derived from the 600-seat super jumbos promised (or threatened) by Airbus and Boeing in 1999.  They are flying villages, allowing infinite scope for social congress, with half a dozen restaurant concessions – from classical French to McDonalds’ junk food – casinos, shops, cyber-cafes with Internet access, and health clubs. About the only things missing are a pool and an outside jogging track. But you never know!

            There is no such thing these days as first, business or economy class. The price you pay depends on your choice of seating, cuisine and entertainment along with the kind of service you want on the ground. Accommodation ranges from standard cattle class and ergonomic sleeper seats with more personal space to air-conditioned cabins with beds, bathroom and butler service, that convert to a daytime lounge. For an extra charge, the airline will deliver a container to your home or office, transport you through the airport and load you onto the plan. Some tycoons have converted their offices into flight containers, re-creating the private railroad cars of a century ago – the ultimate in seamless travel.

            Many people travel ‘a la carte.’ You book a seat or cabin and pay extra for meals and in-flight facilities and lounges, limos and other trimmings on the ground. Traveling cattle class is no longer much of an ordeal. You only have to stay in your seat for take-off and landing; the rest of the time you can move around freely. Skycops patrol the crowded aisles ready to deal with unruly or abusive passengers who can threaten not only the well being of other passengers but the safety of the aircraft. After all, on a long-haul flight you can be in the air for up to 18 hours – almost long enough to get married, start a family and get divorced, although not necessarily in that order. Some enterprising agents are using reservations computers to help people choose in-flight companions. They punch in your high-altitude likes and dislikes and match you up with a suitable seatmate.

            Global Airlines is one of three mega-carriers that together share 80 percent of the world air travel market – the culmination of the giant airline alliances and code-sharing deals that carved up the skies in the late 1990s. These compete with consortia of regional airlines in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific, along with half a dozen long-haul carriers mainly serving the business market.    

            Code sharing, whereby two or more airlines operate the same flight, and ‘block seat’ arrangements, whereby one airline sells seats on another airline’s flights, became commonplace by 2000. The abundance of space on the superjumbos allowed several airlines to share the same plane with their own fares, flight attendants, in-flight cuisine and service.

This led to the concept of the ‘virtual’ airline. You don’t need to own aircraft and infrastructure when you can ‘brand’ your own cabin in a superjumbo. Travel agents can buy blocks of seats (and hotel rooms) and market them under their own brands to corporate customers.

Since 1999, superjumbos – along with advanced technology for better control of the airways with new satellite navigation systems and new airports and terminals – have diminished the specter of gridlock in the skies by quadrupling air traffic capacity since 1999. But the challenge was daunting. Since 1999, air traffic has been growing at around 10 percent a year.

Thus the number of passengers has doubled every seven years, reaching a staggering 20 billion in 2020. Where are all these people going? And, more to the point, why do they all seem to be going with me?

The growth of tourism in China has been phenomenal. The Chinese government set the ball rolling when it cut the working week to five days, giving the nation’s workers an extra half-day off a week.

This was even better news for the travel trade, because – assuming a workforce of 750 million from a total population of 1.2 billion – it meant an extra 15 billion days’ leisure time coming on stream. And with more disposable income and the liberalization of passports, the Chinese have become international travelers.

According to the World Tourism Organization, China now generates more out-bound tourism than any country in the world apart from Japan, Germany and the United States. China has also become the world’s top tourist destination with 137 million visitors in 2020.

The world’s top 30 airports will handle more than 16 billion passengers this year. The traditional mega-hubs such as Chicago O’Hare, Los Angeles International, Atlanta, London Heathrow, Hong Kong’s Chek Lap Kok and Singapore’s Changi are bursting at the seams, each handling around 200 million passengers a year.  But an airport building boom, especially in Asia, has added capacity. China has built more than 50 new airports since 1999.

Meanwhile, the creation of ‘wayports,’ or new hubs, in remote parts of Norway and Siberia has siphoned off a large amount of connecting traffic. More than 30 percent of the people milling around Heathrow, for example, were simply trying to get somewhere else.

Supersonic travel has become space age with Orbitol, a 50-passenger space plane that travels in low earth orbit enabling it to fly from London to Sydney in 45 minutes. Unlike the old space shuttles, Orbitol takes off and lands under its own power. After accelerating through Mach 5 to 80, 000 feet, the plane leaves the atmosphere, continues to accelerate and becomes a satellite itself after reaching 250,000 feet – around four times the cruising altitude of Concorde – with an orbital velocity of Mach 25 to 30.

More down to earth, high-speed maglev (magnetically levitated) trains traveling at 300 miles per hour have replaced air travel on journeys of up to 500 miles, releasing slots at major airports, most of which have train stations, for long-haul traffic.

Regional airlines serve ‘thinner routes,’ enabling business travelers to avoid mega-hubs. Thus ‘regional long-haul’ services allow travelers to fly point-to-point between cities such as Manchester and Osaka, Seattle and Perth, Stuttgart and San Francisco.

Mega-hubs, with a larger daily population than many major cities, are no longer a means to an end but an end in itself, destinations in their own right. They form a worldwide network of alternative cities – what you might call the terrestrial equivalent of space stations – with their own business communities and civic amenities, hotels and conference centers. Who needs to go downtown when you are already there? Many people don’t travel to cities any more, just to airports.

John Harbinger, on-line to his office in Broken Springs, Colorado, asks himself a routine question: whether he really needed to make this trip.

Technology enables (and requires) him to be totally wired at all times.  The No. 1 rule for business travelers is wherever you are, always to be on the phone to somewhere else. So why travel? John rationalizes that this is a working vacation – a chance to bring Jane along. He’s looking    forward to a round of golf with his Chinese associates. And he and Jane plan to take off for a five-day airship cruise among the Hong Kong islands.

Modern airships are safe, comfortable, and environmentally friendly, as they sail and hover less than 100 feet above the ground.  An airship cruise is a spectacular way to see many wonders of the world, such as the Amazon and what’s left of  the rain forests in Brazil and Peru, chateaux of the Loire, fly along the Nile to see the pyramids, explore Venice or make an air safari in Kenya.

‘Virtual conferencing,’ has done away with the need for many business trips. A 100-inch (256 centimeter) illuminated high-resolution screen with ‘wrap-around’ sound makes everyone seem life-like and gives the illusion that you’re in the same room. This means that you can participate normally in the discussion; using the same body language.

Travel was in danger of becoming an end in itself. I am therefore I travel: I travel therefore I am. Travel is about human interaction, hands-on experience. Getting the best return on your ‘interaction expense’ is a trade-off between cost in terms of time, money and hassle and the opportunity of staying doing something more productive somewhere else.

Of course, there’s sometimes a need to be somewhere in person – the eye contact, the real, compared to the cybernetic, handshake, the impromptu meeting and, of course, the social dimension can be pure gold. It is not something you can quantify; it’s intuitive, gut feeling. Who goes to a conference to listen to the speakers? You can pick up a transcript or receive it live in your office. It’s real-time networking that counts.

In the words of Alfred Lord Tennyson’s Homeric hero, Ulysses, back in 1842:

‘I am a part of all that I have met;

Yet all experience is an arch where thro’

Gleams that untravelled world, whose margin fades

For ever and for ever when I move.’

But business travel is less poetic and a good deal less sentimental. Which is why John Harbinger makes fewer trips these days. This excursion with Jane is a fairly rare experience in real-time reality. Like most other road warriors, John embraces the new ‘travel avoidance’ technology, such as virtual conferencing and virtual meetings in real or ‘displaced’ time, with chiliastic zeal.

            The technology is rooted in voice recognition software developed back in the late 90s that enabled you to call a computer from anywhere in the world, check your e-mail your voice-mail and faxes, either by computer or through the telephone. You could convert them from voice to text, or vice versa, and re-direct them by any medium.

            Recent advances in artificial intelligence make it possible to hold an open-ended discussion through a computer. The machine not only understands the meaning of what you say but replies to you in a normal voice – which might be the digitalized voice of a real person. 

John Millennium, along with his colleagues, has had his voice ‘digitalized’ and stored on-line. Early computer-generated voices sounded robotic because words were mechanically strung together into sentences, thereby losing the rhythm of the dialogue; whereas digitalized voices are produced by recording entire sentences, then shoehorning in numbers and letters of the alphabet.

Voices are recorded in three ways. If you say the number nine, for instance, at the beginning of a word, it sounds different from if you say it in the middle or the end. The same applies to words and phrases.   

It’s hard to detect a digitalized voice in displaced time from a real voice in real time. Meetings can thus be conducted in real or displaced time. You program your responses, to say, a budget meeting, in advance and your digitalized voice conducts a dialogue on your behalf. Cognitive programs are being designed whereby John can participate vicariously at several meetings while he is away. It beats the old way of having answering machines talk to one another, or batting e-mails back and forth, communication lost in fruitless volleys of non sequiturs.

Back in their suite, the Harbingers are mentally packing their bags for an ‘out of this world’ space vacation. They have been armchair astronauts for years and are looking forward to five days in a Disney Space Resort 300 miles above Earth. They will take off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, in a NASA space shuttle adapted to carry 40 tourists, experiencing weightless for about 15 minutes.

The resort accommodates 300 people in cruise-ship luxury. It takes an hour and a half to make a complete orbit of the Earth, spinning like a roulette wheel at about one revolution a minute, thus developing artificial gravity.

You stay in an outer ring, where you experience about half of normal gravity – just about half your normal weight – so you can use bathroom facilities and such at practically normal conditions. A central column section has zero gravity. This is the entertainment and recreation center, which guests can visit for an hour or so at a time. There are windows in the central column to view the Earth.

There are lots of entertainment possibilities at zero gravity, including a gym with padded walls. Astronauts have found that blood that is normally drawn down to your legs is released and drifts upwards. You become thinner, your chest expands by two to three inches, your face fills out and wrinkles disappear.

While Jane muses about a second honeymoon in space, John is thinking about the final frontier in space travel – to experience Einstein’s paradox of relativity, that if you travel faster than the speed of light, you are younger when you get back than when you left. Daunting implications for a career in international business.

If you’re feeling under the weather on your next business trip, don’t blame it all on jet lag, travel fatigue, the recalcitrance of your sparring partners or a subliminal hangover. Put it down to the quality of the air you breathe. There’s junk air as well as junk food. You may be suffering from a deficiency of negative ions.

            Ions are naturally occurring air molecules that carry a positive or negative charge. The outdoor air concentration varies with the weather, altitude, pollution, time of day and season, but normally consists of 1,000 negative ions and 1,200 positive ions per cubic centimeter. If the air is abnormally high in positive ions, or low in ions of another polarity – which is often the case in aircraft cabins, cars, trains and air-conditioned buildings – you may be prone to headaches, nausea and irritability. On the other hand, air which is rich in negative ions – such as you find in the mountains, besides flowing water and after a thunderstorm – can make you feel good. This is why a growing number of travelers are taking ionizers with them to charge the depleted in cars and hotel rooms with negative ions.

            Weren’t ionizers discredited back in the 1950s when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration prohibited their sale for anything other than air-cleaning applications? They were indeed, and for good cause. The notion that ions could influence health and behavior lost credence as a result of dubious research reports and extravagant claims by manufacturers. But recent ion research in the United States, Israel and England is helping to make ionizers scientifically respectable.

            At any rate, sales of ionizers are taking off. A British firm, Mountain Breeze, claims to be selling an average of 1,000 ionizers a week. Says marketing director Stephen Cross: ‘There’s a massive reawakening of interest in ionizers. You should see the testimonials we get; we’re doubling our sales every year. In the U.S. you still can’t say anything more than that they clean the air. There is empirical evidence that people feel better in an environment which is high in negative ions. We still don’t know why, but we’re still gradually building up the research base.’

            An ionizer is nothing more than a high-voltage circuit which creates a high potential at the tip of a sharp needle, thereby discharging a stream of electrons which collide with air molecules to form negative ions. These then impart a negative charge to dust, pollen, water droplets and cigarette smoke suspended in the air which precipitate out to the nearest grounded surface, such as the floor and walls, by electrolytic action. You can easily test this by placing an ionizer on your desk in a smoke-filled room. The smoke rapidly clears and the ionizer is surrounded by a corona of dust which is easily swept up. If you put your hand close to an ionizer, you can actually feel the stream of   electrons on the skin as a slight breeze. And it’s sometimes visible in the dark as a faint blue glow. One thing to check if you’re buying an ionizer is that it doesn’t emit ozone as a byproduct (which many early models did) as this is highly toxic in concentrations of more than a few parts per million.

            Few people seriously dispute the air cleaning capacity of ionizers – they are routinely used in offices and some hospitals are installing them to help reduce cross-infection by airborne bacteria and viruses.

Studies carried out in the 1970s at the University of California and at the University of Jerusalem have demonstrated that high levels of positive ions cause the body to react as if it were under stress by stimulating the production of neuro-hormones, such as serotonin – which affects sleep and mood – and adrenalin, as well as histamine, which is associated with hay fever and other allergic reactions; whereas a preponderance of negative ions seems to contribute to a feeling of well-being.

The Jerusalem study examined the effects of the Sharav, a hot, dry wind in Israel which causes up to two thirds of the population to complain of headaches, respiratory discomfort and depression. The Sharav and similar winds, such as the Fohn in Switzerland, southern Germany and Austria and the Santa Ana in California, have a high positive ion content which may indeed cause behavioral and clinical symptoms. It has been reported that when the Fohn blows, hospitals postpone operations and the traffic accident rate soars. Joan Didion writes of the morbid effects of the Santa Ana when ‘every voice seems a scream. It is the season of suicide and divorce and prickly dread, wherever the wind blows.’ Raymond Chandler described the hot dry Santa Anas ‘that come down through the mountain passes and curl your hair and make your nerves jump and your skin itch.’

More recently, work by Dr Leslie Hawkins, head of the Robens Institute at the University of Surrey in England, has demonstrated that in air-conditioned buildings, where the ion count is low, the incidence of headaches, nausea and lethargy – the ‘sick building syndrome’ – suffered by occupants is significantly reduced by installing an air ionizer.

Hawkins conducted extensive double-blind occupational studies to determine if positive or negative atmospheric ion levels could influence actual performance levels as well as attitudes among computer operators. He demonstrated that a majority reported feeling more comfortable and alert when the de-ionized environment in which they had been working was replenished with a natural level of negative ions. His studies also revealed that this replenished air increased work efficiency and productivity with a concurrent reduction in reported symptoms of nausea, stress, fatigue and dizziness.

If you fancy doing some research of your own, there’s a wide choice of ionizers on the market, including portable ones on the market, including portable ones for hotel rooms and car models that plug into lighter sockets.

Whether or not it makes you feel better, snorting the right sort of ions could be a great way to break the ice at your next meeting.

Roger Collis 1986 International Herald Tribune 

 [Another ‘blast from the past;’ an archive story from my forthcoming collection, ‘Management Man.’ www.rogercollis.co.uk]   

Air France flight 795 from Copenhagen to Paris is full; and it’s been a long day. Martin Simon, European marketing director for the consumer products division of Mistral Laboratories, is wedged between a hirsute Swede and a disconcertingly attractive blonde. He balances a Scotch and Perrier on his open briefcase; and is in the familiar state of shifting mental gears between markets.

Martin’s thoughts right now are hovering somewhere between the pleasant meeting he has just left (after all Danish sales are on plan and the smoked eel was delicious) and the somewhat more combative session he expects to face tomorrow.  The French company has a sales problem and is recommending that they trim their TV schedule to protect their operating profit. Martin is opposed to this; feeling that they are already spending close to minimum viable ‘reach and frequency.’ And to risk losing share of advertising at this stage of the market development might be disastrous for the brand.

Martin knows that from an overall European point of view he can easily compensate for a French profit shortfall by moving notional funds from the German market without hurting that business. (He suspects that the Germans have quite a bit more money ‘sandbagged’ in their budget.) But of course he has local sensibilities to contend with; there are few general managers willing to forgo a good end of year result for their country profit centers in the interests of the European area – especially to the consumer products division for which Martin is responsible. It is only too easy to cut ‘discretionary’ marketing expenses to the detriment of future sales and profits.

Of course, Martin is no stranger to this kind of scene. During more than fifteen years of multi-national marketing he has mastered some of the diplomatic arts; how to get results unobtrusively by letting others think that his ideas originated with them; he knows how to get inside the thought processes of the local people – much more demanding than simply speaking the language; an ability to project oneself into the wiles and wherefores and mores of the society. Culture shock is an endemic hazard for the international man.

Martin must also judge which battles are critical for him to win, and those which can be gracefully conceded to local amour propre.  He has to know when and how to refer disputes to a higher court of appeal. In this case, he must judge whether the French really have a sound business case, or whether they are just ‘being difficult,’ interpreted as ‘siege mentality,’ or the ‘not invented here’ syndrome. He knows how crucial it is to be able to evaluate local recommendations in the light of other market priorities throughout Europe. Because, for Martin Simon, international marketing is not just marketing across frontiers; it means having an overview mentality – the ability to match resources with opportunities on a global scale. Local markets are competing all the time for funds, and for Martin’s limited time. He needs to judge the priority and the quality of plans that are submitted to him – to reconcile each country’s profit exigencies with those for the whole of Europe.

This is not easy. Mistral operates a ‘matrix organization’ in which Martin shares responsibility with the local general managers for his product division within their legal entities. Martin’s divisional marketing managers only report to him on a ‘functional’ or a dotted-line basis; but to the country general managers on a line basis. Martin report to the president, consumer products division; whereas each general manager reports to the president, international operations, both at the corporate Kremlin in Broken Springs, Colorado. It is a structure which exacerbates the inherent conflict between the European area and local management. ‘Kinetic equilibrium,’ is how Mistral’s chairman described it. (The doctrine was later enshrined in a Harvard Business School case study: Chameleon Corporation.)

Martin believes it is better off trying to persuade than to legislate. The knack is to know whether a problem or issue requires a ‘strategic’ decision taken by himself or can be left to a ‘routine’ decision by his local people. The key to an effective relationship is personal credibility and trust. Martin’s effectiveness derives in part from the dialectical tension between his role as a ‘supervisor’ and his role as ‘consultant.’ The reconciliation is particularly onerous in times of serious contention.

Striking the right balance will be the key to the French meeting. He will need to draw upon all his reserves of credibility.

The plane is on time at Paris Charles-de-Gaulle Airport, but the autoroute from Roissy is closed part of the way for one-lane traffic. It is half past eleven by the time Martin reaches his hotel – too late, perhaps, to call his wife in Brussels. He chats for a few minutes with Nicolas, the night porter; then takes a bottle of Perrier up to his room and goes through the French budgets once again. He knows that a conflict is inevitable.

Tomorrow morning he is on his own.

Roger Collis 1973 Werbung/Publicite

[Another ‘blast from the past;’ aan archive story from my forthcoming collection,  ‘Management Man.] www.rogercollis.co.uk      

The latest return to the future comes in the form of the patented ‘Flex-Seat’ from Boston-based Jacob-Innovations – a ‘two-storey pod-like design for business-class seating which can be converted to an economy-class set-up on demand’ for airlines ‘that might want to alter a plane’s configuration depending on how many tickets of each class it has sold; and at the same time, ‘increasing the density of a conventional business class cabin by 50 per cent while providing full reclining’ – whatever that means.

The Flex-Seat was presented at the ‘Aircraft Interiors Expo in Hamburg – ‘launchpad for cabin programmes that showcase tomorrow’s designs. Check it out at http://jacob-innovations.com/FLEX-SEAT.html.  Flex-Seat looks to me like Lego re-invented by the Japanese – pods for bods. Think of it as an accountant’s dream for raising the ergonomic stakes of ‘cattle-class’, or maximising the return on investment of ‘premium’ passengers – responsible, according to IATA, for 25-30 percent of passenger revenues but only 7-10 percent of numbers.’

Whatever the merits of Flex-Seat, airlines need a deus ex machina to extricate them from a dire dilemma: how to reconfigure the expensive real estate of aircraft cabins to conform to a new reality: that all-important premium traffic is declining; and that the class system,  as it has evolved over the years, needs to be re-invented.   

The statistics are appalling: premium ticket sales continue to fall – they were off 21.3 percent off in June 2009 compared with June 2008, according to the International Air Transport Association Premium Travel Monitor, which should have most airlines in a catatonic tailspin. Premium travel numbers have been in decline for 12 consecutive months.

Even the business travelers that are staying in the front of the plane during the down-turn are doing so at cheaper rates; revenues from premium travel fell even more – 41 percent in the second quarter as airlines slash prices in a frantic attempt to maintain demand.
 
The effect on the bottom line has been catastrophic. Consider this: according to IATA, ‘Premium passengers are responsible for 25-30 percent of passenger revenues but only 7-10 percent of numbers.’ Every percentage loss of travelers in the premium cabins reflects on the yield like a shadow on the wall.

And yet airlines have only themselves to blame. They failed to learn the lessons of the 9/11 crisis, which exquisitely coincided with the cusp of a recession, and sent travel into free fall – precipitating a sea change in the way people view business travel, and view their lives, sharpening their priorities.   And they failed to understand that their ‘branding,’ their class system as it had evolved over the past 40 years had got out of sync with the changing needs of the business traveler.  What is more, they have ‘debased’ the value of their brands through indiscriminate upgrades and cut prices.

Even I am too young to go back to the 1930’s with bunk beds on the flying boats and the trans-continental flights between New York (La Guardia and California (Birkbank L.A.) taking two or three days. The opening chapter in Scott Fitzgerald’s unfinished novel ‘The last tycoon’ has an opening chapter on such a flight.  My only surrogate recollection is a photo of a woman fastening her stockings on a bunk bed on a United Airlines flight in the 1930’s.

Lillian Hellman wrote about the time on a flight from Los Angeles to New York in the 1950s when Hollywood producer Harry Cohn sent back an invitation for her to join him for lunch, saying that it was much healthier than the “dreck on the plane.”

“Two of his younger employees hauled down the largest picnic hamper I have ever seen,” Hellman wrote. “It was filled with forty or fifty fine, thin chicken sandwiches, cold white wine, prosciutto wrapped around perfect ripe melon, homemade pickles, large peaches, wonderful walnut cookies.”

So what else is new?

When I started traveling on business in the mid-1960s, there were only two classes on the old narrow-body planes and the early jumbos – first and economy. And only three types of fare: first; full (flexible) economy; and ‘excursion.’

First class was a golden ghetto for chief honchos and the seriously rich. Everyone else flew economy – which wasn’t nearly as grand as business class is today: you had to pay for drinks and headsets (with those little plugs that used to bore into your brain) but the food was okay and you had enough space to stretch your legs. Cattle class it was not. And it was democratic. You might find yourself chatting to a lieutenant if not a captain of industry, a diplomat, an aircraft salesman, a honeymoon couple, or perhaps an ambiguous lady of uncertain provenance. There was much scope for social congress.

My fondest memory of those days is of flying back from Chicago to Europe. Staff at the row of airline check-in desks behaved like barkers at a fairground. As most flights left more or less at the same time in the evening, I would up and down with my flexible ticket and bestow my custom on the airline that would ‘guarantee’ me four seats across,  ideally behind the bulkhead  in the non-movie section of the cabin, where I could stretch out and sleep. More creative souls would invoke a last-moment client meeting and upgrade to first class using their Air Travel Cards, swearing blind that there were no seats left in economy.
 
Life became more complicated when business class emerged as a third cabin in the late 1970s. The idea, you may remember, was to ‘reward’ business travelers paying the full economy (Y) fare on the new wide-bodied planes with their own exclusive cabin, sequestrating them from backpackers and savvy leisure travelers who might have paid two-thirds or less for their tickets. Comfort and service in most long-haul business class cabins is arguably more comfortable than the old first class, with lie-flat all-singing-all-dancing sleeper seats, and a galaxy of perks and gizmos; but a lot less exclusive.
 
Piling on frills inevitably piled on the price of the ticket. First class can cost twice the price of business class, which in turn costs up to four times more than a fully flexible economy ticket and 20 times more than the cheapest excursion ticket.

Faced with a blizzard of discounted or ‘gray’ fares, upgrades, special promotions, such as two-for-one fares, and a maze of frequent flier awards, it’s easy to pay a lot more for a lot less – or vice versa.

Virgin Atlantic re-invented the two-class (first/economy) system in 1985 with its Upper Class – billed as first class service and comfort at business-class prices. Upper Class became the concept for the early 1990s as several airlines abandoned first class for a more spacious business class (business class had become a tough act to follow; though there are always people prepared to pay serious money for serious in-flight real estate.)
 
Continental Airlines was the first carrier to create a combined first/business class, followed by Delta Air Lines, Air Canada, KLM, and many others. Even airlines that have kept first class cabins, only offer them on certain routes.

Premium economy is a successful compromise between the ever-increasing cost of business class and the squalor of cattle class. It attracts and business travelers whose budgets, or corporate travel policies, do not permit them to fly business class; and many leisure, especially older people.  The idea is to ‘reward’ economy passengers paying the full fare, and passengers who could no longer afford business class, with a separate cabin – echoing the rationale for business class 40 years ago.

Perhaps it is time to re-invent the wheel.

Do I sincerely want to take the office with me when I travel? It is a rhetorical question for most travelers these days in the face of growing pressure to spend as little time as possible getting where they’re going, while being as productive as possible on the way.  Thanks to space-age  communications – in-flight phones, e-mail, voice-mail, palm-top computers that pack the punch of desk-top PCs, and the new generation of mobile broadband  – we are faced with the opportunity (and obligation) of staying in touch with anyone anywhere in the world at any time; and  perhaps more ominously, for anyone to keep in touch with you.

It is quite a challenge to anyone’s management style to go convincingly missing, although I have been known to check out of my hotel with the bedside message light still blinking. Even if you think you are safely cocooned in chill-out mode in a first class cabin halfway across the Pacific.

But if you’re going to do all your business by phone and e-mail, there doesn’t seem much point in traveling. Travel is about hands-on experience and face-to-face relationships. What we need is a strategy for keeping out of touch – or rather, keeping in touch on our own terms.

            Back in the old days (and I go back a long way) life on the road was fairly simple: ‘Is there a number where we can reach you?’ Or, ‘Please call when you arrive,’ my boss would say when I popped my head round his door to say I was leaving for the airport. Those were the days… before direct dialing, when you sometimes had to book an international call. The worst that could happen when you got to the hotel was a garbled telex (remember the telex?), which you then decided whether or not you had received. You could go missing for days on the strength of a fugitive telex back home.

            In-flight options were simple too. There was the in- flight movie and elevator music on the sound channels and earphones with those little plugs that used to bore their way into your brain. So as a back-of-the-envelope man, I would wine and dine and lip read the movie while drafting the corporate long-range plan – which ensured me a good night’s sleep.

            Nowadays, you have to make the agonizing management decision whether to watch the seat-back video or chat with the corporate Kremlin by telephone, fax or on-line with your laptop (although this is mostly done in the airline ads). You lift the handset from beneath the armrest or the seatback in front and swipe your credit card to be in touch anywhere in the world via terrestrial cellular systems or satellite. You are now expected to stay completely wired at all times, providing you with several more hours in which to work, drain laptop batteries and forget to call your loved ones.

            Back-seat telephones have become a familiar sight. The latest digital systems offer fax transmission and reception (via a keypad and seatback screen) along with news, weather and real-time stock market reports.

            There is now the promise (or threat) of ground-to-air telephone calls.

            Fortunately, you are able to reject an incoming call when the caller’s number appears on the screen. If you’re not at your seat when the phone rings, the incoming number will be stored as a message. So you may want to ask to change seats.

            Unfortunately, it’s harder to find excuses not to check your e-mail back at the office. Soon there’ll be no place left to hide.

            The secret of Management by Absence is to convince people that it’s their fault that they cannot get hold of you. And that you’d get hold of them if only you could. But it’s important to keep the initiative. There’s nothing like firing off electronic messages from a moving target to keep people on their toes. This allows you to pre-empt calls to you. Exploit time-zones by leaving voice-mail messages when there’s nobody in the office. Never do business in the country you’re visiting, but always contrive to be on the phone to somewhere else. Experts leave a trail of unrequited requests to call back (‘Ah, he’s just left for the airport. Have you got his mobile?’).

            A major problem (and opportunity) with faxes and e-mail is that few people believe that they’ve arrived. This has led to ‘bundling’ whereby people send an e-mail, then a fax to check the e-mail got there, and then phone the recipient to tell them about the e-mail. Some people connect the fax to the paper-shredder, on the principle we applied to top-secret documents in the army: ‘Destroy before reading.’

Or use the scrambler. The latest fax machines have a special control which randomly squeezes lines to illegibility or else expands them into a sort of supermarket bar-code.

            The best approach, if you really want to get your message through, is to scatter  e-mails to several mail boxes.    

            Thanks to the marvels of ‘broadband wireless internet telephony’ anyone calling your office number can reach you with out needing to know whether you are actually at your desk, a couple of rows in front of you in the same aircraft cabin, or on the other side of the world – possibly at the next table in some chic eatery in Shanghai.

Airlines are starting to install broadband internet access so that you can use your laptop as a telephone. You may not be able to use your mobile on the plane, but you can use your laptop to send e-mails. If someone dials your direct line at the office while you are sitting on the plane, your laptop will ring. Switch it to voice-mail and relax.

State-of-the-art travel means never having to say you’re sorry.

You may not have heard the story of the salesman who is summoned by his boss to explain an egregious item in his expense account. ‘Now see here, Joe. I know you’ve had a tough month chasing the Fingelstein order up in Niagara Falls. But $2,000 for an overcoat! You know there’s no way I can approve that. You’d better go away and re-work these expenses.’

            The next day, Joe’s boss is apoplectic. ‘Joe, these expenses of yours come to exactly the same amount as before. How come; what about that overcoat?’

Joe is unchastened. ‘Ah, yes, Mel, I know it’s the same total. But you find the overcoat!’

Had Joe’s company given him a fixed daily allowance for meals and entertainment expenses, he could perhaps have bought the overcoat with a fairly clear conscience by skipping a few lunches or dinners – or getting himself invited. Or, by making a pre-emptive call to his boss. ‘Mel, I’ve landed the Fingelstein order. And he has invited me up to his place in Yellowknife for the weekend… Mel, listen, it’s cold up there; I’m going to have to buy an overcoat.’

The moral: Travel expenses – however outrageous – should be transparent, or seemingly so. The best place to hide something is out in the open; you can get away with (almost) anything if you can show that you are (1) saving the company money and (2) getting results beyond the call of duty. Always make the most of your moral mileage – not to be confused with frequent flier mileage.

Traditionally, ‘Travel Management’ in most organizations is mainly about accounting control of ‘travel and entertainment’ – who gets to travel first, or business class, stay in certain categories of hotel, how many signatures are needed to sign off on expenses. Nobody bothers much about whether a trip is necessary as long as the company gets the best value for money and the correct procedures are followed. Look after the expenses and the trip will look after itself.

The converse of travel management is Management by Expenses, which can range from creative exploitation of the rules (enshrined in the corporate travel policy) to grand larceny. It’s rather like the legal difference between ‘tax avoidance’ and ‘tax evasion’ – between being smart and being dishonest.

Expense account aficionados swear by corporate plastic. A corporate credit card helps no end with personal cash-flow. But it can lead to hassles with the bean counters when you’re trying to sort out who owes whom at the end of the month. This is fairly clear cut when you’re ‘extending’ a business trip from say, Hong Kong, to a long weekend in a Thai resort with your loved one by getting the travel agency to ‘pro  rata’ the difference to your account. Trying to get a hotel cashier to let you pay for personal items on the bill with cash or your own plastic can be a nightmare. Checking out is bad enough at the best of times.

In my corporate days, I preferred to use my own plastic in felicitous conjunction with a cash advance (better you owing them than them owing you) and then ostentatiously deducting personal expenses, like personal phone calls, drinks in the disco, or the cost of a friend joining me for breakfast. There’s no point in being virtuous unless you are seen to be virtuous.

Make the most of full-fare business tickets by exploiting two-for-one promotions or free or half-price companion fares. Some airlines offer a free 24-hour stopover package as an incentive to fly through their home hub. Or combine a money-saving point-to-point fare on the way out with a fare that allows stopovers on the way back. And, of course, traveling full fare allows you to earn more expense-account miles to buy yourself upgrades or free tickets.

‘Planning business trips can be more daunting than doing business when you arrive – assuming you still know what you’re supposed to do there – says Stanley Zilch, director of Blue Skies Research Institute in Broken Springs, Colorado. ‘We’ve developed a kind of “yield management” system for the expense-account traveler called Expenses Monitor which flips the whole expenses reporting system upside down.

‘Let’s say your boss wants you to visit customers in Hong Kong, Bangkok and Tokyo. But you could also visit customers in Sydney, Chicago and New York. And yes, it would be nice to spend a weekend in Bermuda. Expenses Monitor allows you to “model” these factors, along with how you can maximize your earning of frequent flier miles, and come up with an optimum travel solution – such as a first-class round-the-world ticket.

‘You might even get your boss to believe that it’s his idea.’

Then you could say you have arrived – expenses-wise.

Will the successful no-frills, or budget airline, model work for long-haul, trans-continental flights? That is the question – especially in such dire economic times, when many airlines are cutting services and reducing capacity.  

One airline that is bucking the trend is AirAsia X, the low-cost, long-haul affiliate of AirAsia (www.airasia.com), which has announced plans to fly five-times weekly non-stop (a 12-hour flight) between London Stansted and Kuala Lumpur, starting March 11, 2009.  One-way fares start at £99 (RM49) for a 31-inch pitch seat, and from £549 (RM1,999) including airport taxes. 

(Currently AirAsia X flies 4 times weekly to Gold Coast, Australia, and 5 times weekly to Hangzhou, China. AirAsia X aims to cover destinations which are more than four hours away from Kuala Lumpur, complementing the existing AirAsia network and offering daily point-to-point frequencies to popular destinations in Australia, North Asia, India, the Middle East and Europe.)   

[No-frills carriers are modeled on Southwest Airlines in the United States. They are characterized by point-to-point services, high utilization of aircraft, low distribution costs, achieved with on-line booking, and variable one-way fares that reflect demand for flights at different dates and times of the day. Such has been the success of carriers such as EasyJet, Ryanair, Air Berlin, and German Wings, that ‘full-service’ airlines, like Air France, SAS, Swiss and British Airways, have adopted similar low-cost, one-way pricing in order to compete on short-haul routes in Europe.  It is often hard to tell the difference these days between no-frills and the full-service, or ‘legacy,’ carriers in Europe, as they both raise the stakes in competing with one another.

Analysts have long debated whether the ‘no-frills’ formula can work with long-haul services, if only because quick aircraft turnarounds can be frustrated by issues of safety and time-zone constraints, and crew schedules.   And of course, the discomfort span: will passengers tolerate being jammed for eight hours into a knee-crunching seat that they might just about put up with for a short flight? And one has to offer some creature comforts on a long flight.

Craig Jenks, president of Airline/Aircraft Projects Inc. in New York, says, ‘You are asking, can one become the other and vice versa?   The answer is that the high-cost full-service carriers are doing their best to reduce costs.  And the low-cost carriers over here are going progressively longer haul. JetBlue and Southwest both fly from Coast to Coast, one hour less than the North Atlantic.     You might say, if they can do that, why can’t they just cross the Atlantic? It so happens that that one hour time difference is the difference between operating a narrow body plane like the Boeing 757 and a wide body like the 767. Simplicity of equipment is absolutely paramount.   And when you go long haul, you have to have better food, service and entertainment. And probably a premium cabin of some kind.’

‘Pay-per-frill,’ such as charging for priority boarding, and disembarking, in-flight use of mobile phones, extra legroom and baggage allowance, and gourmet meals, might be the answer for both airlines and passengers. Look out for hybrid premium seats or cabins, not as fancy (or pricey) as the all-singing-all-dancing ergonomic lie-flat sleeper seats in first and business-class cabins  of the big name carriers, but at least as comfortable as those old  first class seats in the narrow body Boeing 707s and DC 8s back in the late 1960s, before business class was invented. Following perhaps in the tradition of the much lamented Canadian carrier, Ward Air (long since subsumed by Air Canada) that had a ‘Big Seat’ option on long-haul routes between Canada and Europe.   Everyone got the same service, but you could opt to pay extra for a larger, more comfortable, seat. ]

I spoke first with Azran Osman-Rani, CEO of Air Asia X:, and then Tony Fernandes, AirAsia group CEO.

R.C: There are various business models for ‘no-frills,’ ‘low-cost’  and ‘budget’ that are sometimes hard to define; then you get so-called ‘hybrid’ carries – a sort of segmentation within the low-cost category.   What sort of model is Air Asia on this particular route?

A.O-R: I joined AirAsia a year and a half ago to start AirAsia X – a separate company  that does long-haul services – operationally, we’re one and the same and we have one consumer brand which is Air Asia,  but Tony has kept us as a separate entity because he did not want to expose AirAsia’s public shareholders to the different risk profile of  long haul, which at that time was unproven compared to short haul – he wanted to use  public shareholder funds to underpin the financing of AirAsia short haul operations.

As we started AirAsia X as a separate company, we were able to raise our own funding,  buy our own planes, but we take advantage of the strength Air Asia has in terms of the brand and the network; we share the same pilots and crew, and ground handling… now, here’s Tony.

R.C: Successful no-frills carriers, such as Ryanair and EasyJet, have been based on the Southwest Airlines model, which is essentially point-to-point;  single equipment;   low overhead;  low distribution costs – they pioneered on-line booking, and one-way pricing, which legacy carriers have been following; high aircraft turnaround and high  utilization of capital; no interlining… Now  this works for short haul, but can it work for long haul? Can you give me a rationale for the long haul? and how you are going to make it work?

T.F: Right now I think we are the only airline that is using our present model  how does it work?   Since we started everyone has said the long haul model doesn’t work for the all the reasons you have said. Now where we buck the trend is we take AirAsia and we put it on steroids  and it becomes AirAsia X and it becomes high capacity,  high utilization;  we still do quick turnarounds, we’re not slaves to a timetable; so if you look at our London flight, we arrive at different times during the day so we maximize utilization. But the key is really the point-to-point; we’re not really point-to-point, though we operate as point-to-point. What does that mean?  It means that when I fly from London to Kula Lumpur, the point-to-point  traffic in KL may not be that large, but you now have a short haul network that’s second to none. You can go from KL to scores of destinations, like Bali, Phuket, Bangkok, Singapore and so on… So we marry the long haul with the short haul in what we think is a winning formula.

R.C: So you can interline?

T.F:  We don’t actually practice the interlining policy; we have all the advantages   without the costs…

R.C. Interlining is costly?

T.F:  Correct. We’re like EasyJet; if you want to fly on you, have to have a separate ticket. We make it easy. For example, in our new terminal were building in KL, we have for the first time put in a transfer desk; and people coming off Azan’s planes  can go to this desk and recheck in for their next flight. We will make it a form of interlining, but we’ll make it self-liquidating; i.e. if you say I don’t want to deal with my bags, can you put them on the next flight? then we will charge you for that service. So it’s still a menu of services, that are priced, so that you can virtually get a full service product. But you pay for it.

R.C: This a la carte  pricing is now happening with the full service airlines; it started with baggage. I see it working for the consumer  because if you just want a basic  fare  you get it; you think you’re getting free food or interline, but you’re not; it’s in the cost structure. I prefer to pay for my own champagne if I want it.

T.F: Correct. It’s inequitable;  because the guy in front of you may drink three bottles;   the guy behind you may be a teetotaler…

R.C: But tell me how it works.

T.F: You buy a  base fare, a seat; change your ticket? No, you want to change anything,  there are change fees and so on. We ask for discipline. Why? Because  a lot of people will book a seat and then they don’t turn up. It’s a perishable product; when you don’t turn up we have very little time to sell it again, so we say, to maintain our low fares,  our efficiency, we ask a little bit of discipline  from you. One base fare,   dynamically priced,  based on demand. Our yield management is exactly like Ryanair or EasyJet. The best passenger  in the crude sense, according to [Michael] O’Leary, is someone going to a funeral. Why? Because he has to get there. So you open a newspaper (you had no intention of going to KL), you see £99, you say, I’m going to go; that’s the discretionary market that we fill up using our low fares; then the middle market people, who had planned to take a trip; then the last minute travelers. We charge a bit more for them because we know they’re time sensitive.

So that’s how we work; maybe I’m a little bit biased. It’s been in my mind since I was a 13-year-old plane spotter at Heathrow.  I’ve looked at how could we get people cheaper across from Europe to Asia;  and I think that for £99 pounds,  people will say,  I was going to Spain, but now I’ll go to Bali. The same for people in Southeast Asia, who only dreamed of seeing Big Ben. There are three things people in Asia people are dying to see: the Queen, Big Ben, and a football match. It’s now a reality.

You buy your basic fare and get a 31-inch pitch; it’s a shell-back seat that slides down – we think it’s irritating when someone puts their seat back on you. We have a  wonderful in flight system that costs you about £5; you pay for that and order from a choice of food on a touch screen; the order goes straight to the galley and crew will bring it out  with drinks; it’s all there, comfort kits,  extra blankets, order what you want, just swipe your card. I reckon you’d spend another £20  more on a 12-hour flight; one meal and a snack in between. You’re talking about £10 for food; maybe £5 for luggage.

You can also pay extra for a better seat; this could be an aisle seat, one by the emergency exit  or  by the bulkhead – allows you to stretch a bit more. Or it could be a completely better seat, the XL seat we call it, leather, fully reclining with more leg-room. It’s not a class. You see, that’s where complexity comes in; if I put in a class, then I have to have a separate check-in;  people’s expectations are different,  and your costs start creeping up. We have 30 XL seats on the Airbus A340 we’re leasing initially from Air Canada. Our load factor on those seats is about 65 percent.

Eventually, our configuration will be about 50 flat beds.  Again, as a traveler  I don’t care too much about the food; it is space and getting a good night’s sleep with really flat beds. One thing airlines screw up on is the duvet; they cut costs and put polyester and tiny pillows. We give you a really decent pillow and a decent blanket; that’s all inclusive in the seat cost – about £1,000 return.         

So I keep the tradition;  I’m not changing my model – I have high utilization;  point-to-point, I don’t interline, don’t have a separate class; but we manage to tweak it without spoiling the operational efficiency, by giving customers a choice, so they can supplement it. 

R.C. Would you call it a hybrid?

T.F:  I’d like to say it isn’t actually, because I do think we’re in the traditions of Southwest Airlines; but I’d like to say we’ve been innovative, in being very religious to the model  but finding ways to preserve the model. I sit down with Herb Kelleher of Southwest and he thinks what I’m saying is complete sacrilege. O’Leary would crucify me on the stake of low cost for abandoning the model. But I think one of the dangers of those guys is they don’t look at different ways of doing it. Jet Blue took out rows of seats, and put in live TV and all that, and putting in lounges. Or Air Tran having a business class; I don’t agree with that. But I think if you’re just stuck in your way for 40 years, then you  do miss opportunities; one has to be evolving. But the core principles of the model are still there, although you can add value to that model.    

R.C: How can you get fast turnaround on long haul?

T.F: We’re doing it. We’ve got 18 hours utilization; we’re turning around a 340 in about an hour right now; our 330 with 383 passengers we’re doing it in 55 minutes. An hour versus 25 minutes isn’t going to get you an extra flight to London. But let me tell you how we get it, how we differ from a traditional long-haul airline. One is if you look at our timetable. Everyone is flying at the same time  every day; if I took a Malaysian Airlines flight, it would leave KL at 12 o’clock at night, arrive in London at six in the morning. Because of its integrity to its schedule, it would leave London  about 11 o’clock in the morning and arrive back at KL  at five; and then it wouldn’t leave again till 12. So in two days you lose 12 hours,  because it doesn’t want its business class passengers getting up at six in the morning.

We’ll start off with five flights a week. But  I’m going to look at London to KL as  being a shuttle route. It sounds bizarre, but I really think I can get five, even seven flights a day. But I don’t want to scare the hell out of anyone. I’d say to them five times, but I really think we could do seven times a day; every three hours. Now why do I think that? Because I’m not just serving the UK market in Stansted; all my low cost brethren are there: Ryanair, EasyJet, Air Berlin, and whoever else survives this mess. So someone from Paris or Prague can fly over to Stansted, and take us to KL; and equally, someone from Malaysia can get over to Stansted with us, and travel on to Paris or wherever.

R.C: Will you do deals with them, with other low-cost carriers? 

T.F: Well, I think eventually. Mind you, doing a deal with Michael O’Leary sounds a scary thought. Stelios though is a good friend; I started this airline based on Stelios, and yeah, Stelios is a much nicer person to deal with than O’Leary. I’ve got 600 million people in Asia I can promote to, so basically, I don’t think we need a formal tie up; because the Internet brings it all together anyway.   

R.C: But why on earth are you launching at this particular time? Oasis, Zoom and others all going out of business?

T.F: What they did wrong was, number one, they didn’t have size; number two, they only had two or three planes; they didn’t have a brand like AirAsia. But the most important thing is they veered away from the low-cost model. Oasis had a business class with the same seating configuration as Singapore Airlines, and lounges. But the most important factor was, they didn’t have Air Asia’s short-haul network. When you arrive on KL with us, you’ve got the connectivity with us throughout Asia. 

We have 100 destinations out of KL, and hubs in Bangkok and Jakarta, like Stelios in Europe. I think that’s the difference between us, plus we were religious to the model;    we pack the seats in and made it as comfortable as possible.  

R.C. What sort of load factors do you have to have for this?

T.F: Well, right now,  fuel’s come down so much, so our load factors come down dramatically. Right now, at today’s oil price, for break-even we’re looking at 52 percent; with oil at $100 dollars, we’d be looking at about 65 percent; $150 dollars, we’re looking at 85 percent – at these fares.

R.C: Still, doing this in the credit crunch; why are you so optimistic?

T.F: I thrive on calamity; I thrive on the fact that everyone’s got their heads in a spin   and don’t know what to do. And in a world of chaos, it’s the best time to capitalize and to build market share when everyone’s too busy looking after their own back sides; they’re not worried about what you do, all they’re saying is, this guy’s a lunatic,  he will fail. So they leave us alone. 

What I say, if anyone listens, is the best time to build a brand is during a recession,   because everyone else has cut advertising. The worst time to cut your marketing budget is during a recession, because when you come out of the recession, your brand is very strong; those who survive will be very strong. So it’s the easiest thing to cut, that’s correct, but it’s the worst thing, and you sometimes can’t see the effects of the brand building, you know, to the bottom line. I have daily battles with my controller who says, why don’t you take a quarter page ad instead of a full page? But we thrive on this; we’re contrarian, we believe people want to travel, that we have good news and this will stimulate travel.  

R.C: What about other routes?

T.F: The big question is, whether I put all my eggs into Stansted, and use that as the base into Europe; or whether we split and say, okay, let’s have one in Stansted, one in central Europe, and one in eastern Europe. I would probably say the latter. So we’d look at somewhere in southern Europe or central Europe. And I’m a big believer in eastern Europe; I believe the Poles, and the Czechs, and the Slovaks would love to come to our part of the world;  and we would  love to go to their part of the world.

Call me any time. I would love to pick your brains.

London, Dec. 2008    

With All the Deals Around, How About a Program To Keep Executives Busy in Their Offices?

In today’s buyers’ market for business travel, many corporations are spending more management time on finding travel bargains than doing business when they get there, according to Stanley Zilch, chairman of Blue Skies Travel Research Institute in Broken Springs, Colorado. And business strategy often stems from travel opportunities. Travel discounts are changing patterns of international business.

Stanley and I are intimate enemies from my corporate days. So I called to ask what he meant.

“It all stems from the cutback in travel during the recession. Airlines worldwide lost $4 billion in 1991. And when you think that business travelers account for a third of seats but more than two-thirds of revenue, that’s an awful lot of leverage. Hotels too. Occupancy levels in the States fell to 62 percent, less than break-even. That is a lot of leverage. What’s happening is that companies are putting all that leverage to work by smarter purchasing of travel services.”

“So there are some great bargains. What else is new?”

“Stay with me. The problem is just that there’s such a blizzard of great deals from so many sources - airlines, hotels, travel agents, club membership and card companies, not to mention all the frequent-flier and frequent-stayer programs - that travel planning can be even more of a nightmare than the trip itself.”

“Frequent travel can mean frequent confusion.”

“Absolutely. Even straightforward trips -such as Paris to Los Angeles - can involve heavy management decisions. Do you fly Air France to earn the last 5,000 miles that you need for a free round-trip ticket between North America and Europe on United Airlines’ Mileage Plus program? Or American Airlines via Dallas to top up your AAdvantage miles for a free Caribbean cruise? Pay with American Express at the Hilton and get double points in the hotel program. Or get the corporate rate somewhere else. Then you might want to fly KLM through Amsterdam for a free stopover package. And if you want to rent a car you have as many options as possible moves in a game of chess: fly/drive and fly/stay/drive packages; discounted rack rates; non-discounted pre-booked rates. And so it goes.

“This is why travel management has become an end in itself, rather than a means to an end. Instead of asking: Is all my travel really necessary? people are traveling more often just in order to save money. I am therefore I travel: I travel therefore I am.”

“I think I see what you mean. But how does all this affect how and where business is done?”

“Simple. Every piece of research we’ve done confirms that people travel more to places that are easy to get to and where they can get the best deals. The hassle factor is important. People are looking for user-friendly airports and convenient schedules. Remember the number one rule for business travel is never to do business in the office you are visiting, but constantly be on the phone to somewhere else. It’s one way to beat jet lag - or pass on your jet lag to somebody else. And keep people in the subsidiaries on their toes. We call it Management by Absence. So from the business point of view, it doesn’t really matter where you travel, if the price is right.”

“This is why it makes sense for my English friends to meet me in New York. It’s cheaper for them than flying from London to Nice.”

“You got it. That’s another thing about bargain travel - companies often find it is more cost-effective to keep around 50 percent of executives on the road rather than at their desks. There is widespread recognition that foreign travel, especially to conferences, has made a major contribution toward full executive employment. I mean there are tens of thousands of executives flying around, and attending conferences, who might otherwise be standing in line atemployment agencies and executive soup kitchens.

“As more companies change from centralized, functional types of organizations into decentralized, divisional ones made up of profit centers, or business units, they are shedding up to 30 percent of their staff. In fact, up to 50 percent of personnel can be casualties in a major reorganization.

“Instead of firing these people, however, many companies find it more cost-effective to send them out on the road or the conference circuit. It’s a question of balancing travel costs against the expense of golden handshakes.

“What’s more, companies are finding that they can cut overhead costs by allocating one office to several executives. There are special computer programs for this. We find inventory control software is useful in working out the probability of any one manager needing the office on a given day.”

But to come back to the mechanics of travel: what can we do to keep track of discounts through a maze of airline and hotel tie-ins, corporate rates and bonus offers?”

“You’re talking about our new super CRS, which should come on stream in the summer.”

“A computer reservations system?”

“No, we call it a consumer research system. We enter your personal profile, likes and dislikes, what discounts you already have, whether you are primarily interested in saving money, or comfort and convenience. We search through the jungle of options for the best deal for you.

“You should join our frequent-flier program called The Program of Programs. It’s based on membership in all of the 40-odd airline and hotel frequent-flier and frequent-stayer programs. The big payoff at one million expense-account miles is two weeks in the office. Along with a full no-trip guarantee.”

“That’s quite an award!”

“Yeah, it comes down to ‘contingent liability.’ Airlines and hotels lose less money by paying frequent travelers to stay at home.”

Travelers will welcome the cascade of cuts in fuel surcharges by airlines such as British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, Lufthansa, Air France/KLM, Thai Airways, Cathay Pacific, Singapore Airlines and El Al, in response to a sustained fall in the price of oil, with jet fuel now half the price it was in the summer. Air Canada has eliminated fuel surcharges altogether on North American flights, instead “folding them into advertised base fares.”

This raises some questions: What is the “benchmark” price for jet fuel on which surcharges are based? And with the price of jet fuel accounting for more than a third of most airlines’ costs, are surcharges just the means of protecting airline profits during the downturn?

But what incenses travelers more than anything is that the price of an air ticket they have purchased online can just about double when it comes to the final amount charged. Just as we have become reconciled to a raft of taxes - as wide-ranging as the U.S. Animal & Plant Health Inspection Tax, the Sydney Noise Tax and the Canadian Airport Improvement Tax - here come the airlines with charges for almost everything, from checked baggage to onboard beverages, even soft drinks and water, to changing tickets.

The airlines believe that “à la carte,” pay-for-all-the-extras pricing is the magic bullet for restoring profitability.

“Airline customers clearly resent these often unclear fees, but they have incredible potential to boost the bottom line of an airline,” said Christopher Staab, a managing partner at Airline Information (www.airlineinformation.org), a consulting firm in Miami. So much so, he continued, that despite the worldwide economic downturn expected to hit most airlines very hard in 2009, many of the mainstream U.S. airlines “are expected to be very profitable next year thanks to à la carte pricing.”

But there’s still a lot of anger out there.

Stan Juster from Karmiel, Israel, writes: “Any day now, I expect airlines to charge for turning on the overhead air spigot. It’s an absurdity for airlines to think the public will accept extra fees for checked luggage, seat selection, food and water, pillows and blankets etc. - all under the guise of compensating for higher fuel costs. It’s a boondoggle; just another way to increase their profit margin, particularly in light of the recent decrease in the cost of fuel.”

Martin Bleasdale from Les Baux de Provence, France, agrees: “They may as well include the rest of the fuel, airport landing fees, amortized price of the plane, meals, drinks, cabin lighting, crew salaries …,” he writes. “That way they could charge full price for a free ticket.”

Staab said that every time airlines need revenue they simply increase their à la carte fees: Some U.S. carriers “are charging $15 or $25 for the first checked bag; all except Southwest Airlines now charge between $25 and $50 for the second bag, and have reduced the maximum weight from 70 pounds to 50 pounds,” or from 32 kilograms to 23 kilograms, “in economy on international and domestic routes.”

Fees vary radically, Staab added: “You go to book and you don’t know what you’re going to pay. This is a particular problem with online travel agents, like Opodo and Travelocity. I booked a fare on Expedia for $300 and I finally paid $600. They didn’t tell me; there was just a little flag saying, ‘Extra charges may apply.’ But you have no idea what those fees are; it’s not their fault, they cannot keep up.”

À la carte pricing will work for both airlines and travelers provided it is “transparent” and offers customer choice; after all, why pay for a meal and beverages, or baggage services that you don’t need?

Air Canada’s à la carte pricing model is being followed by other carriers. American Airlines, for example, has announced it will fully implement à la carte pricing next year. There are likely to be a few basic fares, giving travelers the option of paying for additional services.

At Air Canada’s Web site, you can choose from four basic fare levels. The top tickets, Latitude and Executive Class, are all refundable and come with priority check-in, food, drinks and all the frills. The cheapest fare, Tango, requires extra fees for meals, advance seat selection, flight changes and airport lounge access; Tango passengers can save $3 if they forgo frequent flier miles, or do not check a bag.

Speculating on the scope for a la carte options with the Airbus A380 Super Jumbo some time ago, I envisaged one of the airline alliances, such as Star Alliance or Oneworld, operating the ‘flying village’ for member airlines, who might share the same plane on certain routes, with their own fares, flight attendants, in-flight cuisine, and style of service. Franchises would be sold for wining and dining and other amenities.

There’s nothing new under the sun, they say. Some twenty years ago, the Canadian carrier Wardair (long since subsumed by Air Canada) offered quality at reasonable prices with a single standard of cuisine and service throughout the plane and a ‘Big Seat’ option. No matter how much you paid for your ticket, you could trade up to a Big Seat in the front of the cabin for about 50 Canadian dollars.

‘You’ve checked in, and printed your boarding card with your seat assignment online; fantastic. You then need to check your bag with an agent; go through passport control; join the queue at security; then present the boarding card and an ID when you board the plane. Each of these processes is being done in self-service mode somewhere in the world. We are trying to corral these to deliver a program to speed the progress of passengers through the airport.’

This is how Paul Behan, program manager for fast travel, at the International Air Transport Association in Geneva, talks about his mission.

Baggage, for example: you first need to register that you intend to check one, two or more bags, either on the Web or a self-service kiosk at the airport. Then you ‘self-tag’ your bags.

‘That’s what is happening in Scandinavia, Germany and Canada; getting the bag to the point ready to go,’ Behan says. ‘You still need an agent for airline liability and security sides, but you can cut the process to about 20 seconds as opposed to the couple of minutes it takes now. However, some pilots are going on in Europe, such as Schiphol, for a totally unmanned baggage drop facility.’

If your bags don’t make it to the other end, instead of standing in line for an agent, you will fill in the data at a kiosk, or an Internet work station, in the baggage hall, print a receipt, and leave without seeing anyone.

The next stage to printing out the boarding card at home will be to check in with your cell phone, or use it as a postbox for a Web check-in. Check in the night before and send it to your mobile. According to Behan, ten airlines enable mobile phone check-in with IATA bar-coded boarding passes.

Cell phones can lessen the misery of hanging around the airport waiting for a delayed flight.

Imagine a snow storm over Chicago with a hundreds of delayed or canceled flights; standing in line at the desk for an agent to help you.

‘We’re looking at mobile technology to send a message to the passenger saying, don’t turn up at the airport at two o’clock but at four; and by the way, here’s your new boarding pass. This is a reality today,’ Behan says. ‘You’ll also be able to use your mobile device as a boarding pass; saves you having to print a bit of paper.’

‘The next step is boarding the plane. In Japan, Scandinavia and Germany, they’re implementing self-boarding gates,’ Behan adds. ‘Think of your metro station. You’ll present your boarding pass either as a piece of paper or mobile with a bar code. There are some challenges with passport checks at the gate; but we are working on that.’

Baggage is the number one reason why travelers do not use self-service options, according to a survey by SITA, a Geneva-based airline communications provider, conducted at six of the world’s busiest airports.

SITA Air Transport World Passenger Self-Service Survey examined the attitudes and habits of a representative sample of the 232 million passengers who use seven international airports: Hartsfield-Jackson, Atlanta; Mumbai International; Charles-de-Gaulle, Paris; Moscow Domodedovo; Sao Paulo Guarulhos and Johannesburg. Interviews with 2,143 travelers representing more than 60 nationalities flying on more than 100 airlines were made at the departure gates during April and May 2008.

The survey confirms that self-service is part of full-service expectations; and airlines are responding with technology giving travelers greater convenience, with power to control their airport experience. Only price (70.5 percent) and flight schedule (63.1 percent) rank above ‘ability to make your own arrangements on the Web’ (42.5 percent).

Overall, 57.6 percent of respondents booked their flight on line, while 36 percent checked in on the Web or at a self-service kiosk. ‘Ease of use’ (72 percent) and ‘time saved’ (60 percent) were the most popular reasons for online booking - plus the fact that the Web makes comparison of the various options easier (56 percent).

‘Baggage is the reason stated by almost half (48.4 percent) of people as the reason for not using self-service check ins when it is available,’ says Dominique El Bez, SITA director, portfolio marketing, ‘seriously detracting from the passenger experience, and limiting the savings and efficiencies made possible by self-service technology. Addressing the baggage dilemma is a key milestone towards achieving our target of 80 percent self-service check-in.’

According to the survey, 47.8 percent of travelers would be willing to use both remote check-in and bag-drop services in the future, and 42.2 percent of them would be willing to pay for them.

A majority of respondents (66.7 percent) would welcome more online functions such as the ability to modify reservations. The ability to use kiosks for flight transfers would be welcomed by 53.8 percent, and for reporting lost baggage claims by 41.8 percent.

The number of travelers willing to use airline Web sites to frequently book other travel components, such as hotels and car rental, is expected to ‘almost double in the coming years’ from the present 11.2 percent.

‘Automated border control and security processing’ would be acceptable to 48.7 percent, while a ‘weighted average’ of 40 percent of travelers would accept the idea of airlines or airports using ‘location sensing technology to guide them through the terminal.’

This is ‘Big Brother’ territory. Radio Frequency Identification Tags linked with a network of high resolution CCTV panoramic cameras around an airport can track the location of any passenger with an accuracy of one square meter, enabling authorities to keep an eye on suspicious individuals, find lost children, ensure that passengers arrive at the gate in time to board their planes, and help evacuate airports in an emergency.

RFID chips work by emitting a short radio message when interrogated by an electronic tag reader. Passengers might be given a wrist band or a boarding pass embedded with a unique ID, cross-referenced to information on the reservations system, such as name and flight number.

The highest acceptance of the idea among respondents was in Sao Paulo (69 percent); the lowest in Paris Charles-de-Gaulle (four percent).

The International Air Transport Association has launched a new Travel Centre at www.iatatravelcentre.com. For an annual subscription of $25, travelers have access to personalized advice on passport, visa, and health advice, based on their itinerary, and details, such as nationality, documents held, and expiry dates, as well as airport taxes payable at departure or arrival, customs and currency regulations. According to IATA, an estimated 35,000 travelers are turned back at their destination or transfer points by immigration authorities every year due to wrong documentation. Countless more are refused boarding when airlines discover that their documents are not in order.

Frequent fliers can create and store their personal profiles, and be advised by e-mail when regulations change which might affect their travel plans. IATA updates its data base with about 14,000 changes a year.

Few things are more disconcerting on a trip than to wake up in a hotel room, and for a few bewildering seconds wondering where I am, which hotel, which city, why am I there?   Even which day it is, never mind the time.

But a release from British budget hotel chain Travelodge, reporting that sleepwalking among guests increased  seven-fold in the past year, mostly involving naked men, has set me worrying about a more alarming kind of amnesia: What am I getting up to while I’m asleep!

According to Travelodge, which runs 310 hotels in Britain,   more than 400 night-time wanderers appeared at reception in the past year asking such questions as ‘Where is the bathroom?’ ‘Do you have a newspaper?’ or ‘Can I check out, I’m late for work?’

One naked male sleepwalker even managed to get himself locked out of the hotel and later arrested. On other occasions, hotel staff were able to direct somnambulists safely back to their rooms.

The top five sleepwalking activities are:

opening the curtains; watching TV; getting dressed; eating and drinking; and going for a walk.

Studies have found that sleepwalking can be brought on by  such factors as, stress; alcohol; cheese; eating too late; too much  caffeine.

Chris Idzikowski, a sleep expert at Edinburgh Sleep Centre says, ‘The Travelodge figures are a surprise. Sleepwalking is a serious disorder that can develop for a variety of  reasons.  It can be triggered by a stressful lifestyle, sleep deprivation, alcohol abuse, or not breathing properly during the night.   Sleepwalking is most likely within an hour or two of going to bed and slipping into a deep sleep.’

‘Part of the brain switches into auto pilot, and can manage well-learned movements, Idzikowski adds, such as walking, bending or sitting, even detailed activity such as talking, texting, eating and drinking, opening and closing doors, even driving a car. Sleepwalkers will awake quite unable to recall any of their actions. Other forms of sleepwalking may involve acting out dreams.’

Leigh McCarron, director of sleep at Travelodge says, ‘My job is make sure guests get the best nights sleep possible; by  making sure we purchase the right duvets, with good linen, and comfortable beds. But we are seeing more cases of sleepwalking so we have issued our staff guidelines so they know how to help sleepwalkers when they meet them.’

Idzikowski’s recipe for a good night’s sleep is to allow at least an hour ‘of non-work-related activity,’ to empty the mind, to wind down, however late it is, along with silence, darkness and comfort. ‘We have shown that light from a laptop or Blackberry is concentrated enough to signal the brain to stop secreting melatonin, the natural hormone that  produces sleep.’

‘After a business meeting, go to your hotel room, sort out the results, what you’re going to do, put that aside,’ Idzikowski says.   ‘A hot bath can be relaxing, especially for women; there is no point in going to bed and not sleeping. Caffeine: a general rule is to avoid it for six to seven hours before you turn in. I am pro-alcohol; a nightcap is not a bad idea, but low doses basically. Above 80 milligrams it is catalyzed down, the brain reacts to lack of it, you get a rebound effect, and three to four hours later you wake up again.’

Idzikowski recommends sleeping in darkness and being progressively woken by an alarm clock with a light that slowly increases in intensity, simulating a sunrise; although you might draw the line at seashore, nature or city sounds.

‘Have expenses, will travel’ is a wistful mantra of the past to the present generation of road warriors as they struggle with tougher rules, and a heightened scrutiny of their ‘travel & entertainment’ expenses.

Back in my corporate days, we faced a dialectical dilemma between the creative exploitation of the rules, and grand larceny: rather like the legal difference between ‘tax avoidance’ and ‘tax evasion’ - between being smart and being dishonest.

The moral: Travel expenses, however outrageous, should be transparent. The best place to hide something is often out in the open. You can get away with (almost) anything if you show that you are (1) saving the company money with astute travel planning and (2) getting results beyond the call of duty. Make the most of your moral mileage - as distinct from frequent flier mileage. And always ostentatiously deduct personal expenses. There is no point in being virtuous unless you are seen to be virtuous.

Travel Management in most organizations is mainly about accounting control of travel and entertainment - who is allowed to travel first or business class; or stay in a certain category of hotel; and how many signatures are needed to sign off on expenses. Nobody takes much notice whether a trip is necessary as long as the procedures are followed. Look after the expenses and the trip will look after itself.

The new dimension in travel management is how one can most efficiently achieve a ‘business interaction:’ productivity as distinct from simple cost-saving.

Road warriors have made travel decisions on a shifting equation of cost, convenience and comfort, depending on where they are headed, and purpose of the trip. But security concerns and company travel restrictions have thrown into sharper focus the ‘productivity’ of a business trip taking into account the cost of management time rather than cost of travel alone - to travel management in the ‘management’ sense.   Why are we making this trip? What are we going to achieve? Can we do business some other way? How can we reduce unnecessary travel and achieve better productivity for trips that we do make?  There’s  also the ‘opportunity cost’ of traveling somewhere when it might be more productive going somewhere else, or having somebody fly in to meet you in the office, where you can call other people in when you need them. One has to ask, what’s the trade off?

I suppose it’s the puritan in me, but traveling on business, expenses should always reflect your normal lifestyle. You are asking for trouble if you egregiously spend company money on luxurious living beyond your normal income and lifestyle. It’s great to bond with colleagues while you’re traveling together. But never, ever, instruct, or allow, a person who reports to you  to pick up the tab when you will be signing his or her expenses. And remember, extravagance is measured by the value of what is achieved. Honeymooning clients or dealers may be justified if you’re negotiating a multi-million dollar contract.

Learjets are said to be the sports cars of the skies.  At a speed of Mach 0.81 (534 mph/859 kph) and an altitude of 51,000 feet, or 15,545 meters, higher and faster than a jumbo jet above weather and commercial traffic, the ego ensconced in a soft leather seat; and replete with fine food and champagne, even the most unruly soul should feel no pain.

Not even in the wallet, necessarily, as a range of ‘jet cards’ bring jet charter within the scope of (almost) everyone’s budget, from air charter operators and brokers, such as Bombardier, Air Partner, Marquis Jet, and Sentient Jet.

‘Block charter’ is an option whereby one purchases blocks of typically 25 hours of flight time per year.  You can call up an aircraft at a few hours notice 24 hours a day and only pay for the hours you fly, there are no ‘positioning’ costs.   And you choose to spend your hours in North America, the Middle East, or Asia-Pacific, where prices vary between aircraft and hourly rates, and you may simply clock up your contracted hours faster.

You may never justify the cost of traveling by business jet by the money you save on airline tickets.  It comes down to how much you value your time and the opportunity to make trips that you could not do otherwise and, perhaps the most precious asset, running to your own timetable from airports of your choice with private access to the plane. And traveling with a lighter jet, such as the Learjet 40, carrying up to 8 passengers, and weighing less than 10 tons, one can avoid the hassle of  security checks, with a 10-minute check in.

Bombardier Skyjet (Skyjetinternational.com), a subsidiary of Bombardier Aerospace (Aerobombardier.com), which makes corporate icons such as Learjet, Challenger and Global Express,  has launched a Jet Member card on which you can buy up to 25 hours for use within three years, on four types of plane, ranging from a Learjet 31A/40 (up to 6 people), a Learjet 45/60 (up to 8 people), a Challenger 300/604 (up to 10), or an ultra long range Global 5000.  Card members can spend their hours anywhere in the world, with access to more than 5,500 airports, a fixed price on certain routes, and a 20 percent discount on same-day return trips.

Judith Moreton, managing director of Bombardier Skyjet International, says, ‘We believe our Jet Member Card will open the door to a new generation of business jet users, and open the frontiers of business jet travel to executives who have experienced the benefits of corporate jet travel for business, the flexibility and privacy, and can now have the freedom to travel,  the way they choose, when they choose.’

The Bombardier Jet Member program for 25 hours flying time costs, in Europe, 123,750 Euros; North America, $138,000;  Middle East, $212,000; Asia-Pacific, normal quoted charter rate. Hourly rates range from 4,700 Euros for a Learjet 40, to 10,000 euros for a Global Express.

For instance, a one-hour flight from Farnborough (outside London) to Paris Le Bourget, or Versaille, with a Learjet 31/40 category costs from 4,950 Euros; a Learjet 45/60, 6,850 Euros. Farnborough to Milan (1.7 hours), 8,415 euros and 11,645 euros respectively.

It may seem expensive:  4,700 Euros an hour is still a lot of lamb chops; but for a party of six, that works out at 783 euros  per person traveling from near where you are to where you want to go. No match for EasyJet.  But EasyJet doesn’t go exactly the same way.

And, we are talking about traveling to and from an airport of your choice, to your own timetable with the people you want to travel with, in privacy and comfort, plus the ability to do trips that you couldn’t achieve otherwise.    What price do you put on that?

The Marquis Jet Card program (Marquisjet.com) provides ‘guaranteed access’ to the NetJets fleet with one payment for 25 hours flying time, which, within the United States, works out at $123, 888 for a Citation V Ultra tion Bravo.   You can ‘mix and match’ with 10 aircraft types, and a plane will be on the runway of your choice at 10 hours notice.

Sentient Jet (Sentientjet.com) sells two card programs that offer a wide range of jets, for annual deposits from $100,000 to $150,000, TravelCard Member and Preferred Plus Member, and a choice of around 24 jets in the light, mid and heavy range with capacity from 5 to 10 passengers.

Sample flights: South Bend, Indiana, to Wichita, Kansas, 4 people on a light jet, same-day round trip, $14,821; New York to Los Angeles, 5 people on a mid-sized jet, same-day round trip, $57,942.

Air Partner (Airpartner.com/Thejetcard.co.uk), the world’s largest air charter brokers, offers a JetCard, for 25 hours’ flying time, costing from 123,000 Euros for a ‘light’ jet (6 passengers) and 4,920 Euros an hour; to a ‘midsize’ jet from 178,000 (7 passengers) and 7,120 Euros an hour; to a ‘large’ jet from 273,000 Euros (10 passengers) and 10,920 Euros an hour; to a  ’global’ jet (14 passengers) at 426,000 Euros and 17,040 Euros an hour.

High performance jets with a higher price per hour taking more people over a longer distance in the fastest time can often be the most cost-effective option.

When travelers talk class of travel, the conversation covers topics such as better service, bonus mileage, seat pitch and avoiding “cattle” class.

However, in the world of frequent flyers, there is only one true class of travel, and everybody knows it: travel in business class. You get more space. End of story. Forget the glassware; forget the 25-percent class-of-service bonus; forget about avoiding the unwashed masses who occupy economy class. Every business traveler always prefers business class, and they prefer it because they get more space to sleep, to work, and to stretch their legs on those transatlantic flights. Of course, if first class is within reach, anybody would be a fool not to take it, but how many companies eagerly foot the bill for first?

Having dealt with that, we can now look at other aspects of class of travel. In a general overview, there is much to be said about differences between classes of service, why a traveler would choose one class over another and which carriers offer a better product. What follows is a quick rundown for each class. After that we get down to the important business at hand: miles. How does class of service affect mileage accrual and redemption?

One word of caution though: We’ve decided that the current state of domestic first class is not worth including here, a point that most of you would surely agree with.

Economy Class
When talking about economy class, there is no end to the complaints. Our readers indicate that “the best economy class [they] have flown does not exist,” because they “hate them all equally.” What makes coach so awful? The most immediate issue is seat pitch, which is the industry expression for space. Seat pitch is the distance measured between a seat and the seats in back and in front of it. When a carrier calculates the amount of space required for a seat, they default to what is termed the “95-percentile passenger.” The industry believes this prototypical passenger represents the average dimensions of most passengers. A 95-percentile passenger is male, 5′10″ to 6 feet tall and weighs 180-210 lbs. Hmmm …. That fits (looking around the office quickly) just the editor; who must be in-flight somewhere tipping the statistical scale in favor of that body type. No wonder economy class is so uncomfortable. Moving on from our very scientific analysis, the carriers have developed an industry standard of a 31-inch seat pitch to match this mythical 95-percentile passenger. For those who have stuck in economy class on a long-haul flight replete with screaming children, stale food and mounting minutes spent on the tarmac, 31 inches represents some type of medieval torture chamber.

If economy class is so miserable, why would anybody allow themselves to be herded into one of these strait-jackets that airlines call seats? The first answer is cost. If you pay for your own seat, the expense report makes the benefits of economy obvious. It has been said that: “Anyone willing to pay 10 times the price for business or first class over an economy ticket is a fool or a millionaire, though as an upgrader he/she could be a mileage millionaire.” A company conscious of the bottom line is going to book traveling employees into economy and save enormously. Some travelers have the benefit of measuring cost and comfort against each other. For short-haul and day flights, stick it out in economy and save cash. For long-haul or overnight flight, the benefit of comfort outweighs the concern over price. If economy is in the future though, many have decided to change frequent flyer loyalty, choosing United and their Economy Plus program or even JetBlue, both of which offer extended leg room. Many business travelers still feel that American Airlines blinked when it started to add seats to coach, when they had just started to move the dial for frequent flyers with their “More Room Throughout Coach” seating plan, popular with AAdvantage members. Other carriers recommended by our readers internationally for the quality of their economy class include Cathay Pacific and SAS.

Business Class [international]
Having escaped the constrictions of economy, business class provides an oasis. Travelers receive an extra 8 inches or more seat pitch, while avoiding the dramatic price increase associated with first class, even though today’s business class is easily as good or better than first class was just five years ago. As most of our readers know, a dozen years ago airlines started to introduce two-class service internationally, and thus introduced the hybrid class of travel which was somewhere between economy and first class. Even though business fares have risen rapidly in recent years, our informal poll still records 70 percent of travelers opining that business class is usually worth the added cost, simply for the extra space and comfort. “Service, the lounge [access] and food are also important,” records an InsideFlyer Advisory Board member, “and individual screens are good, too, for the privacy.” Another agrees that he likes the perks such as the “ability to sleep, technology like power adaptors for laptops, onboard Internet access for some and personalized screens for movies.”

Another standard is booking economy and upgrading by any means possible, whether with miles or money, or, in the case of AAdvantage and OnePass members, both. Luckily, a good proportion of our Advisory Board members are employed by companies that realize it is well worth the expense of flying business travelers in business class on international flights longer than four hours.

Responses regarding who has a better business class product vary enormously. One reader has obviously given this a great deal of thought: “Continental BusinessElite is a 9.0 [out of 10]; it is the best international I have flown. British Airways receives an 8.5 because the leg-rests are too short for long legs in the cradle seat. American uses leather seats that seem old cowhide and not comfortable [7.5] at all and Virgin just wows you with service [9.0].”

First Class [international]
Going back to seat pitch, the industry standard has changed over the years and no longer exists because of the change to “yacht-style” pods for first-class cabins popularized by British Airways. Of course, the fares for first are dramatically higher than economy. The arguments for flying first are the same used for the jump between economy and business: “even more space, excellent food and airport lounge access.” Readers are also quite opinionated about the preeminent first-class products. Quite a few airlines hit the mark, including Singapore Airlines (no surprise there), British Airways and Virgin’s Upper Class.

Mileage Classification
Although the choice of which cabin to travel in relies mostly on comfort, space and other non-mileage related issues, class of travel does have an impact on mileage accrual and redemption. For mileage accrual, the following questions apply: How do class-of-service bonuses compare between the programs? How do partner airlines differ from the host program in providing class of service bonuses? Are more bonuses offered depending on class of travel? With regards to mileage redemption, the questions change to: Are more reward seats allotted in a certain class? In which class are rewards most commonly claimed? Within a program, what are the relative redemption values between service classes?

Mileage Accrual
Traveling in business and first class is beneficial in mileage terms because they have guaranteed class-of-service mileage bonuses. How do class-of-service bonuses compare between programs? In general, the industry standard is 125 percent of actual miles flown for business class and 150 percent of actual miles flown for first class. A few programs go slightly higher. Considering that business class fares are usually at least double if not more than those in economy, only rewarding 25 percent when you have paid three times as much for business is somewhat miserly. Another issue that we have difficulty with is the tendency to not attribute miles for discount fares, or to reward 50-70 percent of the miles flown. This is more of a trademark for non-U.S. programs and considering the backlash at Delta a few years back, may or may not be a factor in airline plans in the future. When airlines publish highly discounted fares, the airline’s competitors almost always match them, so the traveler is still making the point of being loyal to one airline over another and should be rewarded accordingly.

How do partner airlines differ from the host program in providing class of service bonuses? Once again, the industry has the general standard of 125 percent for business and 150 percent for first class, with very few variations.

If it does vary, this is normally because the program itself is different than the standard. In other words, class of service bonuses on the partner airlines almost always match the bonus levels on the host program. Of course, the popularity of alliances have made this more homogenized than in the past.

With regard to bonsues offered on a promotional, limited-time basis, does the class of travel affect how many bonuses are available? Frequent flyer programs responded to this question with a resounding and unqualified no. We beg to differ.

Mileage Redemption
Moving on to mileage redemption, are more reward seats allotted in certain classes? The answer is: not particularly. Airlines allot a certain percentage of each cabin to reward travel, a percentage which tends to range from 5-10 percent of the seats. In a more specific illustration, Northwest WorldPerks states that: “The number of reward seats available for redemption varies depending on the flight origin, destination, date of departure, date of return, class of service, the chosen reward level and the airline the members desires to travel on.”

If the same percentage of seats are offered for redemption in each class, in which class of service are rewards most commonly claimed? The top answer appears to be that, although paying for business simply to obtain more miles is a waste of money, redeeming miles to fly reward tickets in business class is a great value.

An informal poll of Advisory Board members discovered the following: 41 percent redeemed their miles in coach, 35 percent flew business class and 24 percent spent their miles in first.

Although this portrays an equal playing field, actual comments condoned business class: “[It's] a very bad idea to pay for business class, but not a bad idea to redeem for business-class rewards.”

Once again, frequent flyer programs responded with the same answer for every program: Economy class takes the brunt of reward redemption, because economy-class tickets are cheaper to redeem. Interestingly enough, some programs report that their business class redemption is higher than economy class.

Although it is more expensive in mileage terms to redeem in business or first class, how much more expensive is it? Here are some pretty loose number crunching led us to the following conclusions. (Rewards were compared internally to a program along several representative routes and then averaged to obtain an approximate percentage of increase between economy and first. For greater detail, reference the corresponding chart featured online.)

From economy to business class, the required mileage increases between 25 percent and 60 percent, with an average of 45 percent. From economy to first class, the mileage required to redeem a reward increases by 50 percent to 150 percent, with an average of 80 percent. However, the majority of programs are right at 100 percent.

From this, deciding whether it is a good bargain to redeem the extra miles from your account to fly business or first varies, depending on your personal choices. If it’s a short-hop then economy is great. However, if you’re crossing half the world to reach a vacation or experience of a lifetime, add the extra 50 percent of miles to your redemption and let the vacation begin the moment you board the plane.

And being rewarded for enduring all the misery of business travel is what it’s all about, right?