Business Travel Tips

Delta — and subsidiary NWA, announced that it will offer double-elite qualifying miles.
US Airways, American, Continental, and United are already offering double bonus elite-qualifying miles (EQMs).

The Delta’s offer applies to trips booked and flown through June 15.

Delta/NWA will offer triple EQMs to customers purchasing premium-fare tickets.
To participate in this offer, SkyMiles members must enroll at delta.com/elite, and WorldPerks members can enroll at nwa.com/offers/triple.

More than one year has gone by since the first authorized call on an Emirates commercial flight took place — flight EK751 from Dubai to Casablanca on March 20th, 2008.

The airline says they have received positive feedback for the service from its passengers.

Making and receiving calls during flights, is now possible on one-in-four of Emirates’ services. Emirates Engineering are installing the AeroMobile system — which allows passengers to safely make and receive calls during Emirates flights — on the rest of the fleet.

Patrick Brannelly, Emirates’ Vice President, Passenger Communications and Visual Services, said that typically about a third of passengers are switching on their phones onboard Emirates AeroMobile-equipped aircraft.

A new service lets air travelers automatically alert others about their arrival at their destinations.
ArrivedOK — the name of this the personal flight arrival tracker developed by Eyeline Communications Inc. — lets air passengers automatically notify others about their arrival to airports worldwide by SMS, email, via weblogs or Twitter, and enables users to save on international roaming charges.

- Here is how it works

Schedule your flight at http://www.arrivedok.mobi with the destination airport, expected arrival time, your recipient phone numbers or emails. ArrivedOK tracks your cell phone in the mobile network when you turn it on after the landing. Then it instantly sends ‘Arrived OK’ messages to the list of your recipients.

The unique feature of ArrivedOK is that it alerts about one’s personal arrival instead of flight status in general.
Andrey Deriabin, Director Business Development at Eyeline Communications explains: “Unlike other flight services, which are based on general flight data from dispatcher centers, ArrivedOK relies on particular subscriber’s mobile phone status. It tracks one’s actual appearance in the destination airport, so one’s friends and family are 100 percent sure the person has landed okay“.

ArrivedOK works by detecting its subscriber’s mobile phone when it is registered in a local GSM network. It allows sending personalized arrival alerts to different groups of recipients, and enables subscribers to save on international roaming charges when traveling abroad.
ArrivedOK starts its public beta testing with 29 mobile networks in 10 selected countries. For more information visit http://www.arrivedok.mobi/hello.

Delta Air Lines announced that passengers with Web-enabled cellphones can check in for domestic nonstop Delta flights out of Atlanta using electronic boarding passes starting today.

The carrier has already introduced the option at Minneapolis/St. Paul, Memphis, Detroit, Indianapolis, Las Vegas, and New York’s LaGuardia Airport — which was the first airport where Delta tested the electronic boarding pass last June. Delta plans to add Salt Lake City and Orlando in the next month.

- Here’s how Delta’s paperless boarding passes will work:
Step 1: Customers with a Web-enabled BlackBerry or cellphone check in at mobile.delta.com.
Step 2: At Delta’s Web site, customers can pull up a boarding pass on their mobile device. If they browse to another Web site, they can renavigate to Delta’s Web site to get another copy of the electronic boarding pass.
Step 3: If checking bags, drop them off before heading to security checkpoint.
Step 4: Security scans the barcode directly from the phone or BlackBerry.
Step 5: Customers are still required to show a picture ID as part of the security screening process.
Step 6: When it’s time to board, the agent at the gate scans the barcode from the phone or BlackBerry.

Emirates has added Toronto amongst the routes where it will use the A380.
Emirates A380 flights Dubai-Toronto, starting June 1,2009, come with the following schedule: departure from Dubai at 09:55AM arrival in Toronto at 3:45PM; departure from Toronto at 9:40PM arrival in Dubai at 6:35PM the following day. The service operates Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

Beginning June 1st 2009 Emirates will operate five A380’s on the following routes: Dubai-London Heathrow (daily), Dubai-Sydney/Auckland (daily), Dubai-Bangkok (daily), and Dubai-Toronto (thrice weekly).

Emirates A380 will provide a capacity increase of around 30% as well as a whole new level of comfort and luxury.

It offers flat-bed massage-equipped private suites in First Class, intelligent seating and flat-beds in Business Class, mood-lighting, and an in-flight entertainment system featuring over 1000 channels.

Emirates A380 comes with three-class configuration (14 First, 76 Business and 399 Economy Class) and spreads over two levels. The upper deck is dedicated to Premium Class passengers.