Business Travel Tips

Emirates will begin daily service between Dubai and Dallas/Fort Worth on Feb. 2, 2012 and between Dubai and Seattle on March 1, 2012. The airline will fly Boeing 777 jets on each route.

These two new services will bring to six the number of cities Emirates will fly to in the United States.

The list includes: Houston Bush Intercontinental, Los Angeles, New York (JFK), San Francisco, Dallas/Fort Worth (beginning Feb. 2, 2012) and Seattle (beginning March 1, 2012).

Hotel bookings for the business markets showed continued growth in August, according to a report by Pegasus Solutions, world’s leading provider of technology and services to hotels and travel distributors.

The report, The Pegasus View,  shows that global business travel hotel bookings grew by +10.2% year over year in August, up from July’s +5.8% increase.

Corporate travel markets recorded in August a 4.7% increase over 2010.
Also forward-looking bookings, which is based on actual business on the books, show corporate travel will continue to grow, with potential for significant growth for the upcoming meetings and conventions season.

The Pegasus View reporting on August 2011 bookings is available online and by free subscription at www.pegs.com.

The Obama administration proposed last week to rise the security fee for air travelers to $5 for a one-way trip.

The security fee — passengers currently pay $2.50 for each segment of a trip, up to a maximum of $10 for a round-trip ticket — then would increase by 50 cents a year from 2013 to 2017, up to a maximum of $15 for a round-trip airline ticket.

The debate over who should pay — airlines or passengers or all taxpayers — the larger share of air-travel security costs is raging.
The New York Times has published a good editorial about the issue. You can read it here.

Hilton reintroduced “Fast Ways to Free Stays” promotion for the fourth quarter.

The promotion gives you the chance to earn double points for each night you stay or get a free night certificate after four stays or ten nights when you stay between October 1 and December 31, 2011 at any participating hotel and resort worldwide. The ten nights need not be consecutive.

The free nights will need to be redeemed within 6 months from the date of issuance.
There’s no limit to the number of free nights you can earn.

At registration– at http://hhonors.com/FastWays — you have to choose which offer you want — “Double Points” or “Free Night After Four Stays or Ten Nights”. The offer you select cannot be changed later.

On September 26 2011, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines and WestJet will start codeshare flights.

KLM customers will be able to access to 30 domestic Canadian routes, with the Netherland’s airline marketing and distributing WestJet operated flights under its flight numbers.

KLM is the first European codeshare partner for WestJet.