The Business Travel Guide: Personalization

The Cutting Edge of Business Travel

Written by Michael Roney

These days your phone can be your boarding pass, your airline seat can be a fully connected office, and your hotel roomcan have all the amenities of home. That’s because airlines, hotels, rental car firms and credit card companies are increasingly melding clever technology and creative innovation to build a total travel experience around your preferences.

 

The degree to which you can access these conveniences is generally based on your loyalty to specific travel providers, your service class and the skill with which you are able to orchestrate the many options that are out there.

Loyalty and Alliance Benefits

Staying true to loyalty programs and global airline alliances such as the Star Alliance or oneworld® is your baseline strategy for taking full advantage of available services while enabling travel providers to better address your personal preferences.

 

As a member of a major hotel loyalty program, you typically can change your member profile anytime online, customizing the scores of services and perks that define your accommodation experience — even down to the beverages awaiting you in your room.

 

The airline alliances’ expansive route networks allow you to reach your final destination more quickly, as connection times are often reduced due to airport co-locations and code sharing. At Tokyo’s Narita International Airport, for example, All Nippon Airways (ANA) and other Star Alliance carriers moved under one roof, reducing overall connection time by up to 65 minutes.

 

Another benefit is the robust interlocking matrix of rewards shared between airlines, hotels, credit cards, rental car agencies, restaurants, travel agencies and scores of retail businesses. For example, you can earn miles on ANA or Qantas by staying at Hilton, Marriott, Westin, W and numerous other hotels by renting through Avis, Alamo and National, riding on Amtrak, or even by dining at thousands of restaurants worldwide. Intercontinental Hotel Group (IHG)’s Priority Club Rewards members can even use points to stay at other properties — including boutiques and competitors — using its American Express “Any Hotel, Anywhere” card.

 

Getting Personal With Booking

Advanced technologymeans thatmethods for booking flights, cars and hotels have become more flexible than ever.

 

Most major hotel chains now offer online check-in, some up to 24 hours in advance of your stay. For example, you can log in to Hyatt’s site and check in to your room hours before arrival, and at Hilton’s Homewood Suites, you can even select your preferred floor plan.

 

For air travel, e-tickets provide more flexibility in changing your itinerary, and also make it easier for your carrier to inform you of itinerary adjustments, cancellations and other last-minute changes via your phone or PDA. They also offer more flexibility in combining flights from multiple carriers.

 

More Choices For Airport Check-In

Over the past few years, the world’s major airlines have installed hundreds of self-serve kiosks that make quick work of checking in and getting boarding passes at the airport, allowing you to check in for your current flight and return flights, view your flight booking details by scanning the barcode on your e-ticket itinerary, check in a companion who is on the same flight as you, and even use frequent flyer points for immediate upgrades.

 

You can even book, get flight status and check in while you’re in transit. Half a dozen U.S. airlines, including American, Continental, Delta, Northwest, Southwest and Alaska, offer this service, along with international carriers like Lufthansa and Air Canada.

 

ANA has taken this concept even further with its SkiP system, now available for domestic travel in Japan. “It allows you to complete all ticketing and check-in procedures using your mobile phone; then use an IC-chip-equipped ‘smart’ ANA credit card or mileage club card,
an IC-enabled mobile phone, or a printed 2-D barcode to go through security and board the plane — it’s your choice,” notes Tomonori Ishii, ANA’s senior vice president and general manager for the Americas.

 

Continental offers a similar system, and with the International Air Transport Association’s announcement last year of a global standard
for mobile 2-D bar codes, other carriers will soon be joining the party.

 

Making The Most Of Lounges

Elite lounges provide additional — and often sumptuous — options for time management while traveling. These generally include exclusive restaurant areas, quiet rooms with reclining chairs, bathrooms with showers, private day rooms, spas and restaurants, as well as full office workstations and services.

 

Qantas is building new domestic business lounges in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, providing new sanctuaries in which you will be able to work, relax, socialize or prepare for your flight. And at the Tom Bradley International Terminal in Los Angeles, Qantas has partnered with Cathay Pacific and British Airways on a oneworld business class lounge offering more space, more seating, luxury shower suites and enhanced facilities.

 

ANA’s three award-winning retreats at Narita, open to Star Alliance, first and business class passengers, offer an automated currency
exchange service, the first of its kind in a Japanese airline lounge.

 

Meanwhile, renowned industrial designer Marc Newson created Qantas’ dedicated International First lounges in Sydney and Melbourne, described by Qantas Executive General Manager John Borghetti as “simply the best in the world, with services equal to those found in the best five-star hotels and restaurants.”

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