Business Travel Tips

WestJet has launched its frequent-flier program.
Canada’s second-biggest carrier said that its loyalty program is mostly offering dollars off flights and holiday packages.
The dollars can be used as cash to pay for a flight on any date to any destination. There are no blackouts or seat restrictions on the reward flights.

- WestJet vs Air Canada

WestJet is also attempting to lure Air Canada customers away from the 25-year-old Aeroplan frequent flier program by persuading consumers to participate in a new program that offers rewards once an individual traveller spends more than $1,500 on WestJet flights annually.

Patrick Sojka, chief executive officer at rewardscanada.ca, which tracks a wide range of loyalty programs, said the main drawback of the WestJet frequent guest program is the relatively high threshold of minimum annual spending on WestJet flights.
He said Aeroplan still provides a greater number of options for consumers, especially through Air Canada’s membership in the Star Alliance of carriers.
WestJet is gradually building its airline partnerships, but it could be years before consumers are able to have access to a worldwide network. (source)

Even though some airports in the U.S. are offering free Wi-Fi service many analysts predicts most airports will retain paid service.

Twelve of the top 20 airports that handle nearly 60% of all domestic boardings charge for wireless Internet, USA Today reports.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/alex-s/ / CC BY 2.0

Large airports that offer it for free include Denver, Charlotte, Las Vegas, Phoenix and Orlando. Boston Logan and Seattle launched their free service earlier this year. Houston Bush Intercontinental offers free Wi-Fi, but only for 45 minutes. […] Houston is trying a tiered model, in which travelers can use the network free for 45 minutes after viewing a 30-second commercial or pay to skip ads and have more time.
Philadelphia waives its $7.95-a-day charge on weekends, and college students can access it for free every day.
Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky’s free wireless Internet at Terminals 2 and 3 is provided by Project Lily Pad.

The newspaper quoted Dave Hagan, CEO of Wi-Fi network operator Boingo Wireless as saying “You’ll definitely get more usage in a (free) model”.
He cited as an example Denver International — the largest U.S. airport to offer free Wi-Fi — where the heavy traffic has drawn complaints from travelers about their user experience there. Dave Hagan, who predicts most airports will retain paid service, says that travelers’ payments will help airports keep up with demand for greater Wi-Fi network capacity. (source)

Despite the January’s results showing a continued improvement of US hotel performance — began toward the end of 2009, the U.S. hotel industry posted declines in all three key performance measurements during January 2010 when compared with a year earlier.

In year-over-year measurements:
- Industry’s occupancy: - 0.4% (decrease to 45.1%) ;
- ADR: - 7.1% (decrease at US$ 93.93) ;
- RevPAR: - 7.4% (decrease at US$ 42.35).

Three of the seven Chain Scale segments reported occupancy increases: the Luxury segment (+9.4% to 57.2%); the Upper Upscale segment (+5.4% to 56.1%); and the Upscale segment (+4% to 53.1%).

Among the Top 25 Markets, Boston, Massachusetts, reported the largest occupancy increase as Houston, Texas, registered the largest occupancy decrease dropping 15.7% to finish the month at 49%
Top occupancy increase:
- Boston, Massachusetts, (+ 18.3% to 48.9%)
- Detroit, Michigan (+11.2% to 44.5%)
- Miami-Hialeah, Florida (+10.6% to 74.6%).

According to the recently released J.D. Power and Associates 2010 North America Airport Satisfaction Study, the trend that sees the smaller airports score markedly higher than the medium or large airports has continued in 2009.

The study measures overall airport satisfaction in three distinct airport segments, based on passenger traffic: large (serve 30 million or more passengers per year), medium (serve 10 million to 30 million passengers per year) and small (fewer than 10 million passengers per year).

The six different factors examined to determine overall customer satisfaction include: airport accessibility; baggage claim; check-in/baggage check process; terminal facilities; security check; and food and retail services.

Detroit Metropolitan (DTW) won the award in the Large Airports segment, Kansas City International (MCI) ranked first in the Medium Airports segment, and Indianapolis International (IND) topped the ranking in the Small Airports segment. (View complete airport ratings)

The study also shows that the airport experience is the least pleasant segment when compared to hotel and rental car satisfaction. Overall, passenger satisfaction with the airport experience averages just 690 points (on a 1,000-point scale) — considerably lower than average satisfaction with hotels and rental cars (756 and 733, respectively).

The 2010 North America Airport Satisfaction Study is based on responses from more than 12,100 passengers who took a round-trip flight between January and December 2009. Passengers evaluated their departing and arriving airports, and the study includes a total of more than 24, 200 evaluations. The study was fielded between January and December 2009.

Many airlines are taking the decision that it is better to drop flights from their schedules when bad weather strikes.

They are making this move to avoid new multimillion-dollar fines that airlines would receive for long tarmac delay — defined as three hours or more.

The government announced in December it would fine airlines $27,500 per passenger for long tarmac delays or $2.75 million for a 100-passenger flight, the USA Today reports. These fines go into effect April 29.
Cancellations cost far less than a huge fine, especially since seats are routinely prepaid and airlines save fuel cost.

The newspaper quoted Amy Cohn, an associate professor at the University of Michigan who has done extensive research on airline scheduling, as saying: “They’re canceling a lot more”.
She said she had seen a substantial increase in cancellations across the airline industry.