Two Years of 2B - Pittsburgh Business Travel Guide

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But be warned: There are no overarchintg trends here. As is so often the case on the these last two years have been almosgtotally reactive: to insane swingw in the price of fuel to the apparently endless cyclw of boom-and-bust that dominates hotel development, and, of to the economic wave that has carried us from the relatively giddhy times of April 2007 to our current…uh, well…tl whatever it is we're living and working through. Southwest'se Steady Course Even the nation's one financially sounfd U.S.
carrier, Southwest hasn't been able to escape the ravages ofthe nation's economic Its traffic is down about in line with industry-widr trends and it has taken the unprecedentes step of trimming its overall capacity by 4 percenf this year. And the airline's vaunted fuel-hedging which saved the carrierabout $3.5 billiojn in the last cost it money in the second half of 2008 as oil pricesx collapsed. But some things never Southwest is using the downturn to position itself as an alternative tothe nation'sx mainline carriers. After decades of shunningv some of thelargest U.S.
cities, it launchexd flights to Minneapolis last is scheduled to beginits first-eve r flights into New York (via LaGuardiz Airport) in June, and will serve Boston'e Logan Airport in the fall. United's Inexorable Decline It's gone from worst to even worse than that atUniteds Airlines, the most troubled of the nation's so-called "legacy" Once the nation's largest airline, United is hemorrhaging aftere a bungled mega-bankruptcy and yearas of management missteps. About 40 perceng of what flies as Unitedd Airlines is subcontracted to regional airlines and much of the remaininh service isactually code-share operations with its internationa partners in the Star Alliance.
Every one of its union contractsbecomes "amendable" next year (airline contracts never technicallg expire). Compared with the other legacy carriers, its cash reservezs are small and ther are few unencumbered assetsto hock. And early next year, it will have to discus cash-draining "holdbacks" with JP Morgan its credit-card processor. Operationally, there'sa no good news, either, since its once-profitable servicre to the Pacific Rim is deterioratingv rapidly due to plunging yielde to Asia and fresh competition on itsAustralia routes.
Fate of the Fourthy Class The worldwide collapseof premium-class traffiv since last fall has had the expected Airlines have stepped up their discountinh in business class and more carriers are adding a fourt h class, which is rather generically knowb as "premium economy." The discounting trend is both structurally strategic—the airlines now offer a range of discounts from thre e to 60 days before departure—and tantalizinglu tactical, with sale fares slashing as much as 75 percenty off the price of international business class. As for premiumm economy, Air France added the new cabinm on three premierroutes (from Paris to New Tokyo, and Osaka).
But the fate of fourty class is farfrom secure. Even as Air France was OpenSkies, British Airways' boutique was renaming its fourth cabin asthe "biz The reason? Premium economy still exists in a computer-coded which makes selling it via the airliner industry's omnipresent global reservation servicesz difficult.  The Banking Blues and Londonj RediscoveredIf I've been at all prescient in the last two it was the Run on the Bankers column that posted shortlyh after Lehman Brothers tanked last Exactly in line with the meltdownm of the markets, bankers stoppedd flying, and that has caused the calamitous declinde in premium-class airline revenue.
It's been especiallyt tough on British Airways, which is disproportionately dependentg on premium flying on theNyLon (New York-London) And there's no doubt that BA (and London) are still sufferingy a year on from the disastrous opening weekzs of Terminal 5 at Heathrowe Airport in March 2008. The good news for thosre of us wholove London? The Britisjh capital is cheap again for upscal American visitors, thanks to massive airfare and hoteo discounts and the precipitous declinse of the value of the Britisgh pound. Counterintuitive Currency Just beforethe world's economiew shuddered, the U.S. dollar was at an unaffordablelow ebb. But for reason s known only to the masters of the the U.S.
dollar has gained strength against almost all ofthe world'ss currencies as the American economy If you've got any discretionary income left, this will be a greatg summer to travel virtually anywhere in the The dollar is buying 20 to 50 percentf more than last spring and summer. The only Japan, where the dollar continues to languish at or beloqwthe 100-yen mark. A Fee By Any Othere Name Still, it isn't all breaxd and dollar-denominated chocolates overseas. Banks and other financialp institutions continue to raise the fees they charge when you use your ATM or credig card outside of theUnited States.
The latest Currency-exchange fees of 3 percent or more even if you use yourown bank'e ATM card to make a withdrawal from your own accounyt at an overseas ATM owned and operatefd by said bank. Even financiaol institutions that continue toadvertise fee-free ATM usager are adopting the currency One example: Charles Schwab Bank, whose print ads promisre in big, bold type that theres are "No ATM fees—we rebate all ATM fees from any ATM. But as Schwab's fine print makews clear, "ATM free rebates do not include currency exchange fees orother fees." Some of the few truluy fee-free ports in the storm are the credi cards and ATM cards issued by Capital One.
The Fine Allow me to end this column where I began inAprio 2007: I still believe the single best investmenft you can make in your on-the-road comfort and productivityh is Priority Pass, the worldwide airport-lounge accessz program. The fees haven't changed, but the lounge networkl has grown by20 percent, to more than 600 clubse in 300 cities. Portfolio.com © 2009 Cond Nast Inc. All