Business Travel Tips

American Airlines‘ passengers will be able to board early on domestic flights for a fee.
Passengers will pay from $9 to $19 each way to board right after premium-status fliers.

Boarding early for a price is one of the features of American Airlines’ “Your Choice” fee package which also lets travelers pay $75 instead of the usual $150 if they need to change plans.
Also, the package allows passengers to stand by for another flight the day of their trip at no extra cost.

“Your Choice” package is available when booking a trip on American Airlines website.
Early boarding as a stand alone option will be available for purchase later this summer at self-service kiosks in U.S. airports for $10 each way.
(source)

Best Western hotels launched a promotion for its hotels located in the major business destinations across Asia.

The Best Western promotion, named “Asia Best Deals!“, features hotel deals in China, India, Thailand, Malaysia, Japan, Korea, and the Philippines.

Asia Best Deals! promotion is valid until December 31, 2010.

Also, Best Western will offer Best Western Rewards members 10 points for every US$1 spent.

Beginning September 1st 2010, Singapore Airlines will increase its five-times-weekly service from Singapore to Munich and Manchester to daily flights.

The airline started service to Munich, using Boeing 777-300ER aircraft on March 28 2010.

On the Singapore-Munich-Manchester route Singapore Airlines will offer a new First Class seat which converting into one of the largest full-flat beds, a 30-inch-wide Business Class seat and all-new Economy Class seats.

Also, Singapore Airlines’ inflight entertainment system will offer more than 1000 on-demand options available across all three classes.

Beginning October 3, 2010, Hawaiian Airlines will start nonstop flights between Maui and Las Vegas.

Hawaiian will operate service twice weekly with Boeing 767-300 aircraft seating up to 264 passengers.

- Schedule
Maui – Las Vegas (Mondays and Thursdays): departure 08:00AM , arrival 4.35PM;
Las Vegas – Maui (Sundays and Wednesdays): departure 06:25PM , arrival 9:25PM

The International Air Transport Association (IATA), which represents more than 240 major airlines, announced airlines are on track to post a profit of US$1.9 billion profit in 2010.
It is a dramatic change on March predictions, when IATA said that airlines would lose up to US$1.8-billion in 2010.

The recovery, quicker than what could have been anticipated, was being driven by growth in the Asia-Pacific region and in North America.

Global premium traffic on long haul flights, the most lucrative for airlines, increased by 20 per cent in the first three months of the year.

However in Europe airlines still expecting losses throughout 2010 — strikes as well as days of disruption caused by the volcanic ash crisis playing an important role in the poor performance of the European air traffic.

IATA predicts that global passenger demand to grow by seven per cent in 2010, with average fares expected to rise by 4.5 per cent.