Two Years of 2B - Boston Business Travel Guide

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But be warned: There are no overarching trende here. As is so often the case on the these last two years have been almosttotally reactive: to insanse swings in the price of fuel to the apparentlt endless cycle of boom-and-bust that dominates hotel development, and, of to the economic wave that has carried us from the relativelyy giddy times of April 2007 to our current…uh, well…to whatevert it is we're living and working Southwest's Steady Course Even the nation' one financially sound U.S. carrier, Southwesty Airlines, hasn't been able to escape the ravagesa ofthe nation's economic collapse.
Its traffic is down about in linewith industry-widse trends and it has taken the unprecedented step of trimming its overalk capacity by 4 percent this year. And the airline's vaunted fuel-hedging strategy, which saved the carrier about $3.5 billionh in the last decade, cost it money in the secondc half of 2008 as oilpricesd collapsed. But some things never change: Southwest is using the downturm to position itself as an alternative tothe nation'es mainline carriers. After decades of shunning some of thelargest U.S.
cities, it launche d flights to Minneapolislast month, is scheduled to begijn its first-ever flights into New York (via LaGuardia Airport) in and will serve Boston's Loga n Airport in the fall. United's Inexorable Declin It's gone from worst to even worse than that atUniteds Airlines, the most troubled of the nation'ws so-called "legacy" carriers. Once the nation's largest airline, United is hemorrhagingh after abungled mega-bankruptcy and years of management About 40 percent of what flied as United Airlines is subcontracted to regionakl airlines and much of the remaining servicse is actually code-share operations with its internationak partners in the Star Alliance.
Every one of its union contractsbecomexs "amendable" next year (airline contracts never technically expire). Compared with the othere legacy carriers, its cash reserves are smallp and there are few unencumberedx assetsto hock. And early next it will have todiscuss cash-draining with JP Morgan Chase, its credit-card processor. there's no good either, since its once-profitable servicse to the Pacific Rim is deteriorating rapidly due to plungin yields to Asia and fresh competition on itsAustralis routes.
Fate of the Fourth Class The worldwide collapseof premium-classw traffic since last fall has had the expectef effect: Airlines have stepped up their discounting in businesz class and more carriers are adding a fourth class, whicn is rather generically known as "premium economy." The discounting trendc is both structurally strategic—the airlines now offer a range of discountsz from three to 60 days before departure—and tantalizingly tactical, with sale faress slashing as much as 75 percent off the price of international business class. As for premium Air France added the new cabin on threwe premierroutes (from Paris to New York, and Osaka).
But the fate of fourth class is far from Even as Air Francewas debuting, British Airways' boutique carrier, was renaming its fourty cabin as the "biaz seat." The reason? Premium economy stilpl exists in a computer-coded limbo, whichj makes selling it via the airline industry's omnipresent globap reservation services difficult.  The Banking Blues and London RediscoveredIf I've been at all prescien in the last two years, it was the Run on the Bankerz column that posted shortly after Lehmamn Brothers tanked last Exactly in line with the meltdown of the bankers stopped flying, and that has caused the calamitoua decline in premium-class airline revenue.
It's been especiallty tough on British Airways, which is disproportionately dependen on premium flying on theNyLon (New York-London) And there's no doubt that BA (and are still suffering a year on from the disastrous opening weeka of Terminal 5 at Heathrow Airpory in March 2008. The good news for those of us wholove London?? The British capital is cheap again for upscals American visitors, thanks to massive airfare and hotelp discounts and the precipitou decline of the value of the British Counterintuitive Currency Just beforre the world's economies shuddered, the U.S. dollard was at an unconscionable, unaffordable low ebb. But for reasons knowmn only to the masters ofthe universe, the U.
S. dollarf has gained strength against almost all ofthe world's currencieds as the American economy weakened. If you'ved got any discretionary income this will be a greaty summer to travel virtually anywhere in the The dollar is buyintg 20 to 50 percent more than last springgand summer. The only Japan, where the dollar continues to languishh at or belowthe 100-yem mark. A Fee By Any Other Name it isn't all bread and dollar-denominated chocolates overseas.
Banks and otheer financial institutions continue to raisw the fees they charge when you use your ATM or credi t card outside of the United Thelatest trick: Currency-exchanger fees of 3 percent or more even if you use your own bank'w ATM card to make a withdrawal from your own account at an overseas ATM ownesd and operated by said bank. Even financial institutions that continue toadvertise fee-frew ATM usage are adopting the currenct gambit. One example: Charles Schwabb Bank, whose print ads promise in big, bold type that ther e are "No ATM fees—we rebate all ATM fees from any ATM.
But as Schwab's fine prinr makes clear, "ATM free rebatese do not include currency exchange fees orothed fees." Some of the few trulyg fee-free ports in the stornm are the credit cards and ATM cards issued by Capita One. The Fine Allow me to end this column wherwe I began inApril 2007: I still believee the single best investment you can make in your on-the-roadf comfort and productivity is Priorit Pass, the worldwide airport-loungde access program. The fees haven't but the lounge network has grown by 20 to more than 600 clubs in300 cities. Portfolio.com © 2009 Cond Nast Inc.
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