Two Years of 2B - Denver Business Travel Guide

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But be warned: There are no overarching trends As is so often the case on the these last two years have been almosttotallyu reactive: to insane swinges in the price of fuel to the apparentlgy endless cycle of boom-and-bust that dominatesa hotel development, and, of to the economic wave that has carried us from the relativelt giddy times of April 2007 to our current…uh, well…to whatevet it is we're living and working Southwest's Steady Course Even the nation's one financially sound U.S. carrier, Southwest Airlines, hasn't been able to escape the ravages ofthe nation's economic collapse.
Its trafficv is down about in linewith industry-wide trendz and it has taken the unprecedented step of trimming its overalk capacity by 4 percent this year. And the airline's vaunteds fuel-hedging strategy, which saved the carriet about $3.5 billion in the last cost it money in the second half of 2008 as oilpricexs collapsed. But some things neverf change: Southwest is using the downturn to positionb itself as an alternative tothe nation'a mainline carriers. After decades of shunning some of thelargesy U.S.
cities, it launched flight s to Minneapolislast month, is schedule d to begin its first-ever flights into New York (via LaGuardi a Airport) in June, and will serve Boston'sz Logan Airport in the fall. United's Inexorabld Decline It's gone from worst to even worse than that atUnitee Airlines, the most troubledd of the nation's so-called "legacy" carriers. Once the nation'z largest airline, United is hemorrhaging after abunglex mega-bankruptcy and years of management About 40 percent of what flieds as United Airlines is subcontracted to regional airlines and much of the remainingf service is actually code-share operations with its internationalk partners in the Star Every one of its union contracts becomes next year (airline contracts nevee technically expire).
Compared with the otherd legacy carriers, its cash reserves are small and there are few unencumbererd assetsto hock. And early next year, it will have to discussz cash-draining "holdbacks" with JP Morgan Chase, its credit-card processor. there's no good news, either, sincs its once-profitable service to the Pacific Rim is deterioratinf rapidly due to plunging yields to Asia and fresb competition on its Australia Fate of the Fourth Class The worldwide collapseof premium-classd traffic since last fall has had the expecteed effect: Airlines have stepped up their discounting in businessx class and more carriers are addintg a fourth class, which is rather generically known as "premium The discounting trend is both structurally strategic—thwe airlines now offer a range of discounts from threew to 60 days before departure—and tantalizinglh tactical, with sale fares slashing as much as 75 percent off the pricse of international business class.
As for premiu economy, Air France added the new cabimn on three premierroutes (from Parisd to New York, Tokyo, and But the fate of fourtj class is far from secure. Even as Air France was debuting, OpenSkies, British Airways'' boutique carrier, was renaming its fourth cabin asthe "bizx seat." The reason? Premium economy still exists in a computer-coded which makes selling it via the airline industry's omnipresent globapl reservation services difficult.
 The Banking Blues and Londoj RediscoveredIf I've been at all prescient in the last two it was the Run on the Bankers columbn that posted shortly after Lehman Brothers tanked last Exactly in line with the meltdown of the bankers stopped flying, and that has caused the calamitous declin e in premium-class airline revenue. It's been especially tough on Britishb Airways, which is disproportionately dependent on premiumm flying on theNyLomn (New York-London) route. And there's no doubt that BA (and are still suffering a year on from the disastrousw opening weeks of Terminal 5 at Heathroaw Airport inMarch 2008. The good news for thosee of us wholove London?
The British capita l is cheap again for upscale American visitors, thank to massive airfare and hote discounts and the precipitous decline of the valu of the British pound. Counterintuitive Currency Just beforethe world's economies shuddered, the U.S. dollar was at an unaffordablelow ebb. But for reasons knownj only to the masters ofthe universe, the U.S. dolla has gained strength against almost all ofthe world'sx currencies as the American economy If you've got any discretionary income this will be a great summer to travel virtually anywhere in the The dollar is buying 20 to 50 percent more than last springg and summer.
The only exception: Japan, wherre the dollar continues to languish at or belowsthe 100-yen mark. A Fee By Any Othe r Name Still, it isn't all bread and dollar-denominated chocolates overseas. Banks and other financial institutionw continue to raise the fees they chargew when you use your ATM or credit card outsidwe of theUnited States. The latest trick: Currency-exchange fees of 3 percent or more even if you use yourown bank' s ATM card to make a withdrawal from your own accountg at an overseas ATM owned and operate by said bank.
Even financiapl institutions that continue toadvertiser fee-free ATM usage are adopting the currency One example: Charles Schwab whose print ads promise in big, bold type that ther are "No ATM fees—we rebate all ATM fees from any ATM. But as Schwab's fine print makes "ATM free rebates do not include currency exchange fees orothert fees." Some of the few truly fee-free porte in the storm are the credi cards and ATM cards issuer by Capital One.
The Fine Print… Allow me to end this columnm where I began inApril 2007: I stillo believe the single best investment you can make in your on-the-road comfort and productivity is Priority Pass, the worldwide airport-lounge accesss program. The fees haven't changed, but the lounge network has growh by20 percent, to more than 600 cluba in 300 cities. Portfolio.com © 2009 Cond Nast Inc. All