Business Travel Tips

Air France and KLM are introducing a service enabling passengers to check-in on their mobile phones.

Customers who have Internet access on their mobile phone, can go to http://mobile.airfrance.com or www.klm.com and eventually check in and choose their seat between 30 hours and 30 minutes before the latest check-in time.
After receiving confirmation via SMS, they can print their boarding pass, at the airport at one of the airline kiosks, before the latest check-in time.

This service, initially available on departure from almost all metropolitan France and European airports, on Air France and KLM short and medium-haul flights, is expected to be extended to the entire network by the end of the year.

New York JFK airport is to introduce a “cell phone parking lot” for people picking up arriving passengers.

People can park free in a designated lot and wait for the passengers’ cell phone call, at which point they can move to a designated pick-up point, and take them.

Port Authority of New York and New Jersey says there are no immediate plans for introducing cell phone parking at Newark-Liberty or LaGuardia, the other airports which it owns and manages.

Cell phone parking is a fairly new phenomenon at airports in the U.S., currently is in operation in San Francisco, Oakland, and San Josè.

American Airlines passengers traveling between New York JFK and London Heathrow can get triple AAdvantage miles if they purchase a First or Business Class round-trip ticket for this route.

That’s more than 22,000 miles for each trip, including the bonus miles normally earned for travel in First or Business Class.

The travel has to be completed between June 22 and August 31, 2007. Find out more on AA website.

American Airlines offers six round-trip flights each weekday, using Boeing 777 aircraft for the JFK-Heathrow service.

Unisys Corporation announced last week it opened its first Registered Traveler program, rtGOSM, at Reno-Tahoe International Airport.

Membership in rtGO is $100 a year. Program’s participants receive an identification card encoded with biometric data like iris scans and fingerprintsit, which provides passengers with access to a special security lane, enabling them to navigate airport security checkpoints more efficiently without compromising the TSA’s security standards.
Unisys says rtGO card is interoperable “meaning that any rtGO member can use his or her card at any airport with a Registered Traveler program, regardless of whether Unisys or another vendor operates the program. participants“.

The main operator in this industry is Verified Identity Pass, whose Clear program has about 48,000 members, with lanes at airports including New York JFK (Terminals 1, 4 and 7), Orlando, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, and San Jose, Calif.

The US Department of Transportation announced that seven new daily routes will be added between U.S. and China over the next three years.

A new carrier for one additional route will be chosen by the Department of Transportation, which invited applications from U.S. airlines this year, next March and March 2009.

Delta, one of the airlines most interested to win the rights to nonstop service to China, launched a website, www.nextgatewaytochina.com, to ask people to sign an online petition in support.
American, Northwest, Continental, and United Airlines are also expected to bid for these additional China service. (Source)