New Zealand Air has found a way to secure your attention during the safety demo: show a safety video with crew members dispatched in their birthday suits. Well actually, they are wearing a little something: earrings and body paint. Camera angles err on the side of modesty, but the video is gripping nonetheless. I actually now know where all of the life jackets are in the unlikely event of a water landing.
Here's the clip as seen on YouTube.
One of Expedia's best-loved site siblings is TripAdvisor.com. I can't make a trip five feet or five continents away without checking out the latest feedback and photos on TripAdvisor. While certainly a must for leisure travelers, TripAdvisor now shares the love with business travelers and has launched its Business Travel Center.
Found on their homepage under Quick Links, the section provides a full-service business trip planning resource covering more than 20,000 hotels in more than 750 cities worldwide. Especially helpful is a one stop shop for business trip planning that features a Business Popularity Index that ranks hotels specifically for business travelers. I especially like the interactive maps that identify meeting locations then provide access to the area's venues and identities by helping business travelers find nearby restaurants, attractions, transportation and business services.
It's a great offering by TripAdvisor, one that will draw business travelers to like it, like an airline offering free mileage.
Alaska Airlines joins the ranks of all major U.S. carriers and will be begin charging for the first piece of checked luggage beginning July 7, 2009. The fee will be $15 and it comes with a unique guarantee.
Alaska Airlines will guarantee to compensate passengers 2,500 Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan miles or $25 off a future flight if their luggage is not at the baggage claim 25 minutes after the flight parks at the gate.
Cases where the $15 fee will not apply include: First class, MVP and MVP Gold Mileage Plan members, unaccompanied minors, military personnel on active duty and passengers traveling to or from Mexico City and Guadalajara, Mexico, and solely within the state of Alaska.
It's an interesting concept, and one that begs a couple questions: if one bag is late are not all bags late for the most part and how do you prove or document your bag was late?
I must admit, if it came to getting my bag 23 minutes after landing or 26 minutes and it meant getting 2,500 miles, I'd have to say, yeah take your time.
Just for clarification based on the prior post (about body imaging scanners), this is about a security redress not re-dress.
If you have a beef, concern, or inquiry, or seek resolution about difficulties you've experienced during your travel screening, the Department of Homeland Security has launched the Travel Redress Inquiry Program (DHS TRIP) as a single point of contact.
Who Should use DHS TRIP?
Passengers who feel they have been unfairly or incorrectly:
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) can see right through us. With the completion of a pilot program to test a new type of body scan called millimeter-wave imaging, the TSA has decided to take the technology national and make it the standard for U.S. airports, replacing the current walk-through metal detectors.
Designed to expose concealed weapons and explosives, the body scan does its job a little too well and also produces an image that is anatomically explicit. While the images will be out of public view, it's little consolation when your only other option according to the TSA is a pat down. (Decisions, decisions.) The test locations included Phoenix Sky Harbor (PHX), Los Angeles (LAX), New York (JFK), Baltimore-Washington (BWI) and Albuquerque (ABQ).
Considering the nature of the images, the TSA is quick to point out that to ensure privacy, the passenger imaging technology has zero storage capability and images will not be printed stored or transmitted. (A relief for those of us prone to destroying any photo record of having worn swimwear in public.)
See for yourself:
Clearly, this will be a topic of discussion for travelers, everywhere. Your thoughts?
Who knew an economic downturn could be so funny? JetBlue apparently, as the airline has deployed some laugh-out-loud online videos targeting the bigwig players in of our real-life monopoly game. It's titled the CEO's Guide to Jetting.
As a minion and someone who carries his own luggage, books his own flights, thinks a Gulfstream is an Atlantic current, enjoys his grapes with the peel intact and has munched away at many a value meal, I found the videos clever and effective in poking a little fun while showcasing the airline's offerings. Videos include: Welcome Aboard, The Airport, and The Flight.
Nice job JetBlue and if there are any CEOs reading, take a gander and see what you've been missing: http://www.welcomebigwigs.com/.
Anyone who's been on a business trip is not likely going to confuse the experience with vacation travel. And sure you can book a business trip on a leisure or vacation site, but for companies who seek control and cost savings, it's not the best way to optimize your travel spend and your travel program's goals. Even at Expedia, Inc., we offer a separate corporate travel management solution: Egencia.
In corporate travel, it was once common for companies to book travel all over the place with little oversight and control. In the long run a quick deal may be no deal at all and the general health and growth of a corporate travel program can suffer.
Below I've listed some of the benefits of companies consolidating travel booking and working with a corporate travel company as a single agency.
1. Supplier negotiations create savings opportunities
Suppliers view companies without a designated travel agency as companies with an unmanaged program. They become hesitant to negotiate with these organizations. To gain an edge in negotiations with suppliers, start by consolidating your spend, and your data, with a single corporate travel management company (TMC).
2. Find your travelers in an emergency.
Locating the phone number to a hotel where your traveler is staying is infinitely easier if you know where to look. When travelers all use one agency for their purchases, you have just one place to look for them. A few clicks and you can find their itinerary for any particular point in time. Call the hotel number or leave a message at the front desk.
3. Simplified reporting and reconciliation.
Reports tied to the spending and booking from a single source creates a simplicity and on-demand accessibility you won't have when using several sources. If all purchases aren't being made through one bookig tool, the reports aren't going to capture all the information you need to have a clear view of your company's travel spend.
4. Easier program management
Utilizing the online reports, you can gather travel information quickly and easily. By consolidating that information, you have immediate access to powerful data that can give you greater control over your program. When the information is widely distributed and fragmented so is your control.
5. Relationships in for the long haul
By developing a relationship with a TMC's account manager, you have a partner in facing the challenges of modern business travel. By utlizing a single agency, you're working with a partner who will have a full view of your company's needs and will gain experience working with you as your company grows.
These are just a few of the advantages in advocating a single TMC for your company's travel program. And when the time comes to book a vacation (and no doubt we all need one) our compatriots at Expedia.com are more than happy to help.
As someone who holds his breath in an elevator, the confines of an airplane make me pale with worry as the air 6C was breathing has now made its way back to me in 8D, and will repeatedly throughout the flight. (Appears the gent had garlic for lunch.) Let's hear it for the Hepa filter and Airborne.
And while an apple a day may keep the doctor away when you’re biding your time at home, what’s the answer to good health when you’re on the road?
Here are two of my favorite sources of health information for the traveler:
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
World Health Organization (WHO).
Be sure to check out Travelers’ Health from the CDC. Look here for regional outbreaks, health references and vaccination information. And while Avian flu may be in the travel news, it's malaria that remains one of the most serious diseases on the planet, killing in some estimations, up to two million people a year.
Also, check the following links to learn about international health issues and destination information: Travelers' Health by region and World Health Organization by country
Here's to your travel health and finding out what you need to know to stay healthy before you go.
The Department of Transportation (DOT) has a helpful travel tool on its FAA Web site: the real-time airport status page. Airport status is relayed via color-coding and brief updates: green, good; yellow, ummmm cautionary; and red and black...better get a good book or check an Amtrak schedule. 
The
http://www.fly.faa.gov/index.html
You can check for air traffic delays by using the posted map or drop-down text box. What makes this site particularly unique as well as valuable is the in-depth and up-to-the-minute accuracy of its delay information.
My compadres in the realm of account management at Egencia are hosting a best practices online seminar to talk about ways to improve your corporate travel program's performance. I thought there might be some would-be wunderkinds of corp travel who may like to attend.
The online session is designed to help Travel Managers by showcasing quick, practical and actionable best practices based on input from hundreds of other travel mangers.
Here's the scoop. For this session, they'll focus on how to adjust your travel program to optimize your travel spend, which includes:
This live online presentation will take place on Thursday, February 19:
10 a.m. Pacific | 11 a.m. Mountain | Noon Central | 1 p.m. Eastern
Registration is complimentary to Travel Managerw with this invitation
So the airline representative responded to your complaint with all the verve, empathy, and interest of a teen working at the mall--preoccupied stare, punctuated eye-rolling and gum-snapping notwithstanding. Better try Plan B: talk to Uncle Sam; he’ll listen (and in this case take notes).
If you don't get anywhere with the airline, you can turn to the Department of Transportation (DOT), where each month it publishes statistics based on consumer feedback and airline performance. The DOT then ranks airlines from best to worst—a list the airlines say they take very seriously.
If you have Complaints About Air Travel for issues such as canceled or delayed flights, on-time baggage delivery, and ticket refunds, comments should be directed to the Department’s Aviation Consumer Protection Division . You can also view the annual Air Travel Consumer Reports for specific airline rankings.
Baggage fees and policies, they are a changin'. And being the full-service blog that we are, I've posted the latest link to our one-stop baggage reference chart for domestic carriers.
Within the chart, you'll find first and second baggage fees and links to each airline's baggage policy. (Tip: traveling lightly will serve your wallet well.)
Here's a partial screenshot of what you'll see:
