Timing

Sales calls to Singaporean firms usually begin at 10am or later. Lunch is usually around 12:30pm, and Singaporeans usually like to enjoy a full hour of food and conversation. You should strive to be punctual to all meetings to show respect…but know that tardiness is widespread in Singapore, so expect to wait when you arrive at a meeting. People here seem to underestimate the time it takes to get from place to place.

Dress

Business dress usually consists of shirt and ties for men, versus a full suit. Suits are worn only on important meetings. Women wear business dresses, skirts and blouse, or blouse and dress pants. Even with the hot and humid weather, Singaporeans dress well when they go out at night. You should too.

Etiquette

Shake hands a little bit softer and longer than you do in the West. When you present a business card, do it with both hands, with the card facing your colleague; you should also receive any paper objects and money with both hands to show respect.

Business cards are very important in Singapore, so when you receive one, show some interest in it before putting it away.

When negotiating, they may pause to think, and you shouldn’t raise your voice, as it is considered rude in Singapore. Singaporeans also value consensus when making decisions, so you should expect to be patient, as it might take them some time to come to decisions. Smoking is not always socially acceptable there, so check before you smoke.

Singaporean government is very sensitive to political criticism, so make sure you don’t venture into political conversations unless you know the other parties well.

Tipping is generally not needed in Singapore since most hotels and restaurants charge an automatic 10% service fee.

Addressing Names

Chinese people should be called by their last names. Malays usually like to be called by their first name followed by bin (son of) or binti (daughter of) their father’s last name. Indians usually don’t use last names, but instead like to place the initial of their father’s name before their first name.

Visas

Australian citizens can travel to Singapore without a visa if they plan to stay 30 days. This also holds true for citizens of other Commonwealth countries except for India.

Punctuality

Emiratis (people of Dubai) usually expect others to be on time for meetings. However, they are bad at being on time. So if you schedule a meeting with Emiratis, be there on time, but expect to wait at least fifteen minutes.

If You’re a Woman in Business

Shaking hands is a common way to greet, but if you are a woman, wait to see if your counterpart extends a hand first. Some Muslim men won’t touch women who are not their spouses or relatives. If the man doesn’t extend his hand, just make eye contact and nod politely to greet. You should also dress  conservatively and make sure your clothing is a bit loosely fitted.

Building Relationships

A lot of Emirati businesses are family-run, and you may not get to meet the decision maker until you have built up a relationship with junior employees of the company. This is similar to doing a sales call in Australia and building the relationship with the assistants before they will open the gates to the decision maker.

Meetings

Business meetings in Dubai are usually mixed with some rapport building before discussing business. Before commencing the meeting, it’s normal for participants to drink a non-alcoholic beverage and chat for a while to build trust and get a sense of where each person is coming from. Many times, business will be done over a meal there, so if you get invited to a meal, you should accept it even if you might feel that it is wasting too much time to mix pleasure with business.

Your Word

In the United Arab Emirates, verbal agreements are taken a lot more seriously than they are in the Western world. So be sure to mean what you say when agreeing to business terms.

Communication

When assembling print collateral to bring to meetings, eliminate any pictures of pigs, pork, women dressing provocatively, people drinking alcohol, or alcoholic beverages. When speaking or presenting, don’t point, because pointing is considered rude. When you present your prices, know that you are expected to negotiate, so make sure your initial offer takes into account the negotiations to ensue. And most importantly, address everyone in the group when you speak, since the quiet person is usually the key decision maker.

After packing my carry on, I weigh it by attaching the Balanzza Mini digital luggage scale onto the handle of my Travelpro Crew 7 Rollaboard Suitcase to make sure I don’t encounter any baggage overages while checking in the next day. Once on board, I roll my Travelpro off the ground, collapse the handle, and put it away on the luggage cabin overhead.

Besides being the luggage of choice for George Clooney in the movie “Up in the Air”, the Travelpro suitcase is big enough to cram in a week’s worth of clothes while being small enough to be a carry on. Useful if you travel a lot on business.

While on board, I take out my iPhone and notice that the battery is running low. Out comes my Kensington iPhone Battery Pack and Charger. I plug in the charger to give my phone some juice while the flight takes off. The charger is sold as an iPhone charger, but really, it will charge any mini-USB device while you’re on the go.

Feeling productive, I whip out my MacBook Pro 13.3 Inch Laptop to organize some files I’ve been meaning to share with colleagues. The MacBook is compact and very quick, making it very handy to have on hand while traveling for work or play.

I pull up one of the files on my computer and copy it into my Dropbox folder to share with my colleagues. Dropbox is an online storage service that makes file sharing simple and foolproof. It even allows me to make public links to my documents so I can share it via email or through social media networks. I like it because it eliminates the need for wieldy email attachments.

After sharing the files, I put away my MacBook and pull out my Amazon Kindle. Sure, the iPad is useful for its many apps that I can use to essentially run my business from, but this time, I only packed the Kindle. I catch up on my news reading and bookmarked some interesting articles for further follow ups.

For some reason, reading on my Kindle inspires some ideas that I want to capture for later. So I pull out my old favorite Moleskine notebook. Even with all the tech gadgets that I own and enjoy, nothing beats the old pen and paper when I want that creativity to start flowing.

Location

If you’re traveling to a city, look for hotels near tourist spots in the city. These hotels tend to charge more, but you get to immerse yourself more into the vibe of the city when you live near the center of the city.

When you stay near the tourist center, you can walk to your destinations, and walk back to your hotel for a quick nap or refresher while you take in the city. Staying near the city center also allows you to enjoy the nightlife without worrying about missing the last train back to your hotel. That way, you get to sense the “heartbeat” of the city you’re staying in.

Choose a hotel near the attractions you want to see. You can go to Google Maps and type in “hotel near [location]” to see a list of hotels near your attractions.

Pricing

Then after you narrow down the list, you can search for specific deals by typing in “[hotel name] [location] [deals]”.

Local hotels may have lower prices than chains. Often, these local hotels are not listed on sites like Orbitz or Expedia. But you should be able to find some local hotels by conducting the Google search suggested above.

If you like a homey feel, you can search for bed and breakfast places. These local B&Bs often offer comfortable accommodations at great prices, and you can look for them on Yelp or TripAdvisor. You can also ask around on forums. Other sources of information are travel agents, national government tourist boards, directories of hotels.

If you don’t get all the amenities you want within your price range, consider the amenities you are willing to give up to get the amenities you want.

If this sounds like too much work, you can always contact a good travel agent to take out the guesswork for you.

For Business

If you’re traveling for business, there are a few things you’ll need to check out in advance. You’ll want to ask if there are any discounts for business or group events.

If you want to use their convention rooms, ask how many attendees can fit into the rooms. You’ll also want to check for discounts on meals or catering service that the hotel provides.

Other things you might want to ask for if you’re traveling for business:

• Group events near the hotel that your business can attend
• Concierge service availability
• Roll-away beds
• How many rooms the hotel has

It collects information from other apps, emails, or through direct download and keeps all of the information organized and accessible.

Passbook is time and location aware and automatically displays relevant codes on your phone based on where you are.

For example, if you walk into an airport, it will place the relevant boarding pass on your phone screen. It will also let you know of any flight delays or gate changes, so it helps your on boarding experience go a lot smoother.

If you decide to shop at a store where you have a stored gift card, Passbook will display your gift card on your phone screen the moment you walk into the store. This helps you remember to use your cards and coupons before expiration.

Verdict

With Passbook, you’ll no longer have to fumble for your ticket at the gate or run to a new gate after realizing you went to the wrong one.

The time and location awareness is a nice touch because it allows the passes to pop up automatically without requiring you to remember to pull up a pass.

Since Passbook is so easy to use, it will become more easily integrated in our lives and become more of a habit. This habit-forming aspect of it fills what’s currently lacking in 2D barcode pass adoption at airports.

Hopefully, this innovation from Apple will help drive the adoption of barcode ticketing of all kinds in the near future.

Passbook is the first step to Apple’s iWallet, which could potentially turn your iPhone to the only thing you need to carry around with you when you leave the house.

Logistics

• Passbook will support iPhones all the way back to iPhone 3s, which will help Apple build a good base of Passbook users.
• It displays 2D barcodes that are of the following type: Aztec, PDF417, or QR.
• Passes are triggered by location or time, and can be updated by the user or the pass providers.
• You can also turn your physical cards into a Passbook pass with a Passbook pass creation app such as Kiip or BellyCard.
• Airlines that are now compatible with Passbook include Air Canada, American Airlines, ANA (for domestic flights only), Lufthansa, Malaysian Airlines, Porter Airlines, Qantas, Turkish Airlines, United, and Virgin Australia.

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Travel News Summary:

Hi, welcome back to another weekly news update. I’m Jake Hower from Business Travel Management; or should I say this is normally our weekly news update?

I would just love to thank you very much for tuning in this year. We’ve been shooting videos weekly since May so I really appreciate you tuning in.

Thank you to everybody who has booked with us this year or who I have spoken to as well. I really appreciate it and so does the entire team here.

This message really is just to say thank you and to wish you a very merry Christmas and a safe and happy New Year.

• Housekeeping Advisory

A little bit of housekeeping. We will be closing the office here from Monday the 24^th through to the 2^nd of January. Now between those times the office will be closed but will be open for trading still between the hours of 11 and 3 p.m. The beauty of modern day technology is I can just divert the phones to my mobile so I will be based at home but working between the hours of 11 and 3 if you need to contact us. That’s on all but the normal public holidays.

So again, thank you very much for tuning in, we really appreciate it. Have a safe and merry Christmas and tune in again next week where we’re going to bring you the top news stories of 2012. Thanks very much and we will see you again in about seven days’ time.

That’s what high-speed rails allow many business travellers to do. As high-speed trains get faster, they will become a more attractive option compared to flying. However, speed is not the only consideration when comparing travel modes. The quality of the travel time also comes into play.

Airline travel is typically much more stressful than rail travel. You need to allow extra time to get to the airport, stand in line for security, and be mindful of what you are carrying onto the plane.

High-speed trains offer excellent comfort, especially when you travel First Class, where they have wide seats, plenty of legroom, meals served at your seat, and executive lounges at major terminals. What’s more, train tickets are usually much cheaper than plane tickets to the same destination. For example, a First Class round trip on the Eurostar high-speed rail costs up to 40 per cent less than an Economy Class round trip airline ticket.

Aside from the cost and stress savings, high-speed rail travel also allows you to get more work done on the trip. If your total travel time is three hours, you can get up to two and a half hours of work done on a rail trip. On a plane trip with a total travel time of three hours, much of that time is spent getting to the airport and checking in. So you will only get up to one hour of work time on the plane trip.

There’s a trend where travellers will tend to choose air travel when total trip time is over three hours. For example, Eurostar is a big hit with travellers due to their three-hour trips from London to Paris. However, the old London to Brussels route was not as successful since it was over three hours.

Londoners who want to go to Paris have the alternate option of going to Waterloo to catch Eurostar to Paris rather than flying out of Heathrow. Pretty soon, people will also warm up to the London – Brussels rail trips since Eurostar has recently cut down the trip time to two hours and thirty minutes with its recent addition of a new high-speed line between Lille and Brussels in March 2012.

Other European high-speed links that take three hours or less include Geneva – Zurich, Paris – Brussels, Brussels – Amsterdam, and Brussels – Cologne.

If you’re traveling within Europe, high-speed rail travel is a worthy option to consider for its comfort and lower price.

The differences between Business and Economy Class travel vary among carriers in terms of pricing, seat comfort, and extra services.

According to Inside Flyer magazine, the main reason people choose to travel Business Class versus Economy is for the extra legroom and recline. The magazine compared seats between the two classes, and found that Business Class seats let travellers recline 8 inches more than Economy Class.

However, this difference in recline will vary among the airlines. Furthermore, aircraft redesigns and new aircraft acquisitions will change the differential in recline between Business Class and Economy Class, even within the same airline.

Aside from the extra room, Business Class also offers you more services. Some airlines offer their Business Class travellers access to premier lounges that offer things like snacks, showers, saunas, or even massages. Business Class travellers will often get priority boarding.

Once on board, Business Class often offers extra perks like personal T.V. monitors, power adapters, more luggage allowances, amenity kits, and better food.

If you are a frequent flyer, flying Business Class can also help you accrue points faster since airlines will often reward Business Class passengers 125 to 200 per cent more points than they offer their Economy Class passengers flying the same route.

Most frequent flier programs will allow you to redeem points for upgrades from Economy to Business or to get certain perks usually only available to Business Class.

Of course, Business Class travel will usually cost a lot more than Economy Class. The Travel Insider estimates that on average, Business Class travel on a trans-Atlantic flight costs almost 10 times as much as Economy Class on the same plane. They also found that Business Class accounts for most of an airline’s income, and that there are many more Business Class seats on a given plane than there are First Class seats.

As you can see, Business Class is important to an airline’s income, so it makes sense that they’ll be luring customers with more incentives for this class of travel.

In the end, the decision to go with either Economy or Business Class will depend on the business’ view of how much additional value an employee can create when they have the extra room and perks available to Business Class.

For businesses that have a hard time choosing, there is a compromise available: Premium Economy.

Most Premium Economy seats have a larger pitch than regular Economy seats, which translates to more legroom for travellers. This is especially important during long flights if you are tall and have longer legs.

That little bit more legroom can improve comfort a lot during long flights. Premium Economy seats also tend to have deeper recline, which comes in handy when you want some shut-eye during your flight.

Inflight food on Premium Economy is also better than that of Economy Class, and Premium Economy customers get to enjoy priority check-in as well as extra luggage allowance.

Australian travellers have the luxury of choosing from two of the world’s best airlines for Premium Economy: Qantas Airways and Cathay Pacific.

Qantas has award-winning Premium Economy seats on their A380s and their upgraded Boeing 747s. All of their Premium Economy seats have padded leg rests.

Right now, Cathay Pacific offers Premium Economy on flights from Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, and Perth. By March 13, 2013, Cathay will offer Premium Economy seats on all of its Australia-bound aircrafts.

Cathay’s Premium Economy leg rests are not padded like Qantas’. However, Cathay’s Premium Economy serves inflight meals that are similar to its Business Class meals.

• Breeze your way out of the airport with Airport VIP Visa-on-Arrival Assistance.
• Travel Insurance – it’s better to know if the risk you are going to take is covered by your travel insurance policy.
• SOCK ‘em Up – Make use of in-flight airline provided amenities!
• Noise cancellation headsets – best travel companion of frequent flyers

View the full transcript by visiting the Pan Australian Travel post

The iPad Mini does not have Retina display, since Apple has chosen to keep costs down by making it with a standard resolution screen. However, because it crams the same number of pixels onto a smaller screen, the iPad Mini’s screen will look a bit more impactful compared to a non-Retina iPad.

The iPad Mini uses Apple’s Lightning connector, and the 4G version uses a nanoSIM card and works with Telstra and Optus 4G networks.  With the smaller size, Apple pits the iPad Mini against other tablets of the same size—namely, Google’s Nexus 7, as well as tablets from BlackBerry, Samsung, and Acer.

Increased portability of a smaller tablet combined with a lower price makes the iPad Mini an attractive option for those of you looking to buy your first tablet—or just to have another one on hand for lighter traveling. You can get an iPad Mini starting from $369.

If you are new to the iPad and need some ideas on what to use it for, below are three useful travel apps you can use on your iPad.

iPhoto allows you to capture unique moments with your iPad. This app will cost you $4.99, but allows you to capture pictures, edit photos, add special effects, and create photo journals to share via email or on your favorite social network.

Sometimes you’ll hear sounds that are unique to your travel destination, and you might want to record them. For that, you’ll find the free SoundCloud app very useful. SoundCloud is a social platform for sharing self-made music, but you can use it to record travel sounds and share the sounds from your trip with your friends.

If you are waiting at the airport and trying to kill time, you’ll find the Longform app useful. It brings you top long form journalism from the world’s best publications, so you’ll always have something interesting to read during wait times. Longform also supports services like “Instapaper” or “Read It Later” that allow you to bookmark an article and come back to it later.

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Okay, first off to Virgin Australia, which is certainly the big, big news for the week.  They’ve announced two acquisitions.  They’ve invested in a 60 percent share of Tiger Airways and they’ve also purchased 100 percent SkyWest, which is the regional WA carrier mainly operating into regional centers and mining centers through WA.  Two things that they’re doing with these two purchases is that they’re reentering the low cost market without affecting the Virgin Australia brand and they’re also re-branding SkyWest 100 percent so it will become Virgin Australia.  They’re entering the mining market, which they haven’t made too many inroads as yet.

The benefit for you of course will be, as far as I’m concerned, it will mean increased competition against Qantus.  It makes Qantus and Virgin, I guess, a piece sit up in a similar way in that they’re a two airline company in both instances and that’s just going to mean increased competition particularly in Australia, but also on the global network.

• Singapore Airlines buy 10% stake in Virgin Australia.

On Virgin and at the same time that they made these two announcements they also announced that Singapore Airlines is investing 10 percent into Virgin Australia.  That means that the major shareholders Singapore Airlines, Etihad, Air New Zealand and Richard Branson’s Virgin group.  They’re obviously also their main airline partners.  It really means that Virgin has been created as fully a global airline.  It’s almost a virtual network.  It’s going to be very interesting to see how it pans out.  Certainly watch their space.

• Emirates expands Australian services  launches Adelaide – Dubai route.

In other news this week, Emirates are set to launch their Adelaide to Dubai services.  Now this, I guess has the biggest impact for Qantas customers where of course Qantas will be withdrawing early next year from the Adelaide to routes through to Europe.  So, option for Adelaide travelers will be of course on the Emirates codeshare.

I really feel Emirates are picking up their game again in terms of improving their product, but they’re also investing heavily in Australia of course because it’s their biggest profit center.  They have…   the most flights into one country is into Australia, so their investment in Qantas and of course in Australia is substantial and I think it’s going to be of benefit for Australian travelers as well.

Support Emirates where you can.  They’re a fantastic partner to us, but certainly they’re also fantastic for you, particularly if you’re a Qantas frequent flier effective 01 April 2013.

That’s it for another week.  Thanks very much for tuning in.  If you’ve got any feedback, please feel free to hit reply to the e-mail I’ve sent you, or use the contact us page on this particular web site that you’re watching this on.  Apart from that, you can subscribe on the web site, or if you’re listening iTunes, just subscribe in iTunes to receive a weekly update.

Until next week, take care.

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Timing

Book your flights at least a week in advance. Airfares are about 25% less if you book a week in advance. However, make sure this fits in with your work priorities. If you tend to have a lot of meetings or travel at peak hours, then it might be best to opt for flexi-fares.

Meetings

Make sure that a meeting is truly necessary before you book travel. You can consider doing video conference meetings instead. However, sometimes a face-to-face meeting can be the difference between landing that big client and not landing one. If you can, try to book meetings and events together into the same trips to minimize waste. You can also use the airport or nearby hotel lobbies to hold meetings and save on the costs and hassles of commuting into the city. You can ask the hotel to give you a temporary guest pass code for the free wireless internet if you need to use the internet while there. If you have to commute into the city anyway, you can try holding meetings at a church. Many churches have conference and meeting rooms that are available during the week. You can call them up and ask if they might let you use the space.

Commute

Commute by train to and from the airport to the CBD in Sydney. The train is cost and time effective. It is especially valuable during peak times when the city is gridlocked.

Communicate

Immediately address employees who breach the travel and entertainment policy. Have regular discussions with your employees about managing their travel expenses. Enforce spending limits that your employees cannot go over accidentally. Keep your travel policy updated to be clear about which hotels to use, which class of travel to book, what the meal budgets are, and any other transportation methods allowed. Then make sure your employees are well aware of the travel policy.

Consolidate

If you do your travel bookings yourself, try to get all the bookings managed by one person. If you consolidate the bookings so that there is a simple reporting system, it will make it easier to keep track of your spending. Even better, you can explore the benefits of outsourcing your travel management to a travel manager who can access special deals for airfares, hotels, and car rentals. Your investment in a skilled travel manager will likely pay off 100% in terms of both time and money savings.

Couch Surf

If you are really looking to save on hotel accommodations, and are adventurous, you can try couch surfing. Couchsurfing.com has many people who offer their homes for a free night’s stay.

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Qatar Airways

Qatar Airways is based in Doha in the Middle East. They’re known for their warm staff, good entertainment system, and comfortable seats. In First and Business Class, they serve you meals when you want them, and not by a set schedule. They’ll also give you amenity kits that feature Prada and Molton Brown products.

If you are flying Economy Class, you won’t get an amenity kit, but the attendants will give you a welcome towel. Their Economy seats have a larger pitch than those of the other airlines. This means that you’ll get more legroom on their Economy flights than you would on their competitors’ Economy flights. They’ll also serve you two hot meals on a six-hour flight in Economy.

Qatar Airways offers its Business and First Class passengers the Premium Terminal in Doha. To emphasize the size of this terminal, it isn’t just a lounge; it’s a full terminal. They’ll drive you to the Premium Terminal via a luxury bus that has sofas instead of seats. Then when you arrive, two of their staff will welcome you and lead you to the appropriate lounge for your travel class.

The terminal is exclusive, spacious, and quiet. If you want to stay active, then you can shop in its duty-free shops, surf the web with its free Wi-Fi, eat a meal in its restaurant, or hold a meeting in its conference room. If you need some relaxation, they have massage chairs, private bedrooms, a sauna, and a Jacuzzi.

Air New Zealand

Air New Zealand has three classes of travel: Economy, Premium Economy, and Business Premier. Their Premium Economy is much closer to Business Class than it is to Economy Class. In addition, Business Premier is their top product since they don’t have a First Class.

Business Premier has a color scheme that allows mood lighting to change the ambience. There is 110-Volt power available, a USB charging socket, and a video-out cable to play your own movies on the seat screen. Their table has enough space to get your work done.

The bed in Business Premier is nicely padded and super comfortable. They have a new induction oven on their new 777s, which will allow them to serve a greater variety of food and snacks. You’ll also see a trendy wine bar as part of the kitchen. The bar offers six to eight different kinds of wines, and they stock it with wine glasses that self-balance to combat the effects of turbulence.

Premium Economy has seats in a 2-2-2 layout, and the seats don’t face forward. If you want to interact with your seatmate, you probably want to go for the seats in the middle of the plane. If you want privacy, then getting one of the outer seats is best for you. Each outer seat tilts towards the window and away from the aisle, giving you more privacy.

Premium Economy’s table has enough room for a large laptop so you can get some work done. Their in-flight entertainment system is decent if you want to take a break from working. There is a “My Flight” menu that gives you an itinerary of where your flight is, when they’ll serve food, and when they will adjust the lights. This gives you the ability to plan when to sleep and order food.

Air New Zealand also has the Economy Class, which gives you the option to buy a row of three Economy seats that turn into a couch (called the Skycouch). The Skycouch has armrests and footrests that you can configure to turn the entire area into a couch wide enough for two people. This has given rise to the nickname of “Cuddle Class” for their Economy Class.

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(photo courtesy of antwerpenR)

Best business-class airfare deals

If your business requires a lot of traveling, hire a travel manager that specializes in business travel. They will have access to special fares not available to the public, and will save you the time and hassle in searching for airfare deals for yourself. If time is money to you, then the right travel management company will get you the best airfare for your money in terms of cost and time savings. If your business only requires travel every so often, then subscribing to JoeSentMe.com is worth it.

Track your travel

TripIt.com organizes your travel reservations into a master itinerary. It works by consolidating all of your confirmation emails related to a trip into one itinerary. It also adds links to online check-in, flight updates, seating advice, maps, directions, weather of your destination, and more.

Low price on a high-end hotel

There are private sales sites such as TabletHotels.com and Jetsetter.com that offer deals for stylish hotels for a limited time. They are worth checking out if your business only requires occasional travel. However, for businesses that require heavy traveling, it’s wise to consider the importance of time to their business and calculate the worth of these sites’ savings versus the time and mental attention needed to check up on deals at certain times. If your hourly rate is low, then these sites offer a valuable way to save on high-end hotel stays. If your hourly rate is high, then it’s best to consider a travel manager who has special relationships with hotel suppliers. Their supplier relationships can often get you deals to great hotels that the public can never get.

Ask for a room upgrade

When you check in, ask the front desk if there’s a better room. Oftentimes, the front desk agent would be willing to upgrade you at no extra charge when there’s a better room available.

Lose weight

Choose an ultra-light laptop to take several pounds off your luggage.

Best price for a car rental

There is Autoslash.com that searches for the lowest car rental rates by using all publicly available discounts in its search. Here again, the cost versus benefit calculation holds. If your hourly rate is very high, it is probably not worth it to search for deals yourself. Some people have an assistant do it for them, which makes better use of time leverage. However, for businesses that require a lot of traveling, hiring a travel management company will allow businesses the most time and cost savings due to the travel manager’s expertise and integrated approach.

Better than Google Maps?

HopStop is a mobile phone-friendly site that is also available as an iPhone app. It tells you how to get to your destination (whether by foot or public transportation), and how long it will take.

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Qantas App for Windows Phone 7
Windows Phone | iPhone

Qantas and Microsoft teamed up to create this app for Windows-powered smartphones. It offers mobile check-in, helps with baggage check-ins, tells you where the airport lounge is, and reports the weather at your destination.  Standout features include live updates on your phone’s home screen to help you keep tabs on your flight without opening the app, and the ability to pin individual flights to the home screen to help juggle several segments of a complicated trip.

Frequent Flyer Calculator First Class
iPhone | Android

FFC is an iPhone app that manages your Qantas Frequent Flyer points—better than anything offered by Qantas. It calculates how many Qantas Frequent Flyer points and Status Credits you’ll earn based on your travel class and current status. It even works with complicated itineraries which span several flights across Qantas and its OneWorld partners (British Airways, American Airlines, Cathay Pacific, etc.). FFC also allows you to track how many status credits you need to climb to the next tier.

Award Wallet
iPhone | Android

Since most business travellers belong to multiple airline and hotel loyalty programs, Award Wallet lets you track all your programs and keep tabs on points that are about to expire. Award Wallet runs on Android and iPhone, and takes a while to set up because you need to enter your login for each reward program you belong to.

TripIt
Windows Phone | iPhone | Android

Available on the iPhone and Android phones, TripIt allows you to organize all your travel into a master itinerary. Here’s how TripIt works: you forward your confirmation email from each booking to your TripIt account. TripIt then extracts relevant details and puts them together in a master itinerary, adding in weather reports and maps. TripIt also allows you to sync your itinerary to Google Calendar, Microsoft Outlook or Exchange, or Apple’s iCal.

Currency
Windows Phone | iPhone | Android

Currency is available on Android and iPhone, and is the easiest currency app to use. Frequent flyers will appreciate its ability to keep up to seven currencies on the home screen.

Skype
Windows Phone | iPhone | Android

Skype allows you to avoid roaming charges by letting you use wireless hotspots to make calls. It allows you to pay as you go, or to buy an unlimited calling plan that starts at $8 per month.

Yelp
Windows Phone | iPhone | Android

Yelp is available on both Android and iPhone. It offers consumer reviews of local businesses and is very useful for finding good service providers and restaurants in an unfamiliar city.

Best Coffee
iPhone | Android

Available on iPhone and Android, Best Coffee allows you to find the best coffee shops in London, San Francisco, and New York.

KickMap
iPhone

Available only on iPhone and iPod Touch, KickMap offers a 24/7 subway map for NYC. It works underground without an internet connection, and displays directions right on the map without needing internet connection.

The Scoop
iPhone

An iPhone app developed by The New York Times, The Scoop gives you a hot list of The NYT staff’s favorite restaurants, bars, coffee shops, stores, events, New York City experiences, and day trips. You can check off the places you’ve visited and share what you’ve done with friends on facebook.

Why You Should Attend

The conference will provide attendees with strategies to navigate their toughest challenges and help them run a reliable, concise and cost effective travel program that matches their company’s culture, requirements, and legal duties.

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Thought provoking speakers will share their insights about the direction business travel is heading in. They will also share ideas on how this can potentially help attendees’ travel programs.

There will be education sessions focused on key business travel issues. Attendees can network with others who share similar challenges and who are also trying to find solutions to their travel requirements.

There will also be exclusive après sessions to maximize the allure of the Sydney’s beautiful Harbor during the warm December temperatures.

Venue

The Shangri-La Hotel Sydney is located in the heart of Sydney in the historic Rocks district. From the hotel’s Altitude Restaurant, Blu Horizon Bar on level 36, and from many of the hotel’s guestrooms, guests can enjoy views of the iconic Opera House and Harbour Bridge.

Attendees will have a chance to take in the breathtaking panoramic views of the Harbour at the opening reception ceremony on December 5, 2012 at the Altitude Restaurant on level 36 while they sip cocktails, munch on canapés, and network.

Keynote

One of the keynote speakers this year is Peter Harbison, Executive Chairman and Founder of CAPA – Centre for Aviation. Mr. Harbison is regarded as a top aviation strategist worldwide. His keynote will provide an assessment and forecast of the regional and global airline industry.

Topics touched on will include former LCC’s becoming strong business travel providers, how traditional business relationships are ending, and how new changes are creating strong alliances out of formerly fierce competitors.

Other keynote speakers will be added to the roster in the coming weeks.

Table Tops

Attendees can register for Table Tops to exhibit their business.

Table Tops:

• Allow access to a variety of suppliers who offer business travel products and services beyond just technology products.

• Gives more options for conference attendees.

• Facilitates connection among attendees via an online portal called eConnect. eConnect allows attendees to contact each other before the event to request one-on-one meetings at the conference.

e-Travel Blackboard

A short interview done with e-Travel Blackboard by Business Travel Management’s Managing Director, Jake Hower. In the interview Jake discusses why he joined the travel industry, his favorite travel experiences and details who he admires in the travel industry.

Read the full interview below:

Jake Hower, ACTE’s 3 Under 33 and TIME Graduate

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With The Qantas and Emirates alliance; the frequent flyer program looks more  promising. Frequent flyers will have the ability to earn frequent flyer miles and points and redeem them with both and on the opposing carrier’s schedule. Reciprocal status recognition is an extra benefit, when you’re a Qantas Gold customer and you fly Emirates, you will be recognized as a Skywards gold customer and vice versa.

• Enjoy the luxury of both carriers’ lounges.

Gain access to both carrier’s lounges and you will be given access to the lounges in either program and will be given reciprocal benefits across both networks depending on your status.

• Larger network and shared or identical baggage policies.

Other Key feature that frequent flyers will enjoy will be the shared baggage  policies. Qantas customers will also be able to take advantage of a much larger network across Europe, Africa and of course the Middle East.

• Same day connections to most Asian countries or cities.

One big benefit is being able to connect onto most places in Asia on the same day, a really welcome convenience.

• Enjoy car or chauffeur services with Qantas as Emirates business class and first class customers does.

Qantas business class and first class customers will also enjoy an additional privilege that was exclusive to Emirates business and first class customers, they will also now enjoy car service or chauffeur services.

• Timed departures, arrivals and connections.

Finally, the most important point, will be the flight schedules for the Qantas Aircraft onto London. QantaS might keep a similar time for their flights over Dubai.

Further Resources:

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• Companies Returning to Corporate Travel Management Programs

According to a March 2012 report from Euromonitor International, businesses have decreased their reliance on booking their own travel online. Previously, because of the 2008 financial crisis, companies started booking their own travel online in order to cut costs. However, the past year has seen more companies returning to travel management companies to book their corporate travel as they start to realize the real costs saved by TMCs.

When companies choose last minute rates online, this leaves them with little flexibility. Flexibility is important since approximately one-third of hotel bookings are changed or canceled. Furthermore, online bookings don’t offer businesses the expert guidance and 24/7 accountability of a travel management company.

Businesses are also starting to realize the benefits of preferred supplier relationships offered through strong corporate travel management companies. These preferred relationships can give businesses access to upgrades and perks not available through retail consumers.

• Hotels Adding More Homely Atmosphere to Their Accommodations

Hotels are starting to add more amenities and services to create a home away from home atmosphere for business travelers. There is a trend of business travelers looking to add some more leisure to their business trips, and some chains like IHG are launching a new line of health and wellness properties in response to this trend. IHG’s EVEN properties have designed some workout rooms with coat racks that can be used as pull-up bars, and luggage racks that can double as a workout bench. They also have yoga mats and a circuit-training guide featuring routines that guests can do without having to leave the room.

Hotels are also introducing better technology infrastructure to support travelers’ smart phones, laptops and tablets. This will allow them to access music, video, photos and other data, in the comfort of their hotel room.

• Strong Demand Puts Upward Pressure on Room Rates

Australian business travelers are continuing to fill up hotels in the key capital cities, such as Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Brisbane. This has raised the hotel rates in these cities to being among the 10 highest city room rates in the world. Coupled with limited increases in the newly built properties in Australia, this will increase rates and hotels are less likely to offer discounts. However, businesses can work around this cost impact by using a travel management company to secure negotiated rates through a preferred supplier relationship.

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Ok, first off to Singapore Airlines who’ve announced that they’ll be upgrading their business class lounges.  The first of which being Sydney which is due for completion about mid-2013.  Look out for that, they’ll be upgrading a lot of their other lounges as well.

• Tips and Tricks: How to get maximum comfort on angled lie-flat seats.

There’s a great article on Australian Business Traveler this week about getting more comfortable on the angled lie-flat seats.  You can tend to slide down a little bit so there’s some great tips there just to increase the comfort levels on board those particular aircraft.

• A peek insides Qantas’ Chairman’s Lounge – Most exclusive, posh and lavish invitation-only lounge.

You might be aware that Qantas have their chairman’s lounge which is accessible via invitation only.  If you’re interested in seeing what the lounge looks like, Australian Business Traveler have also got another article on their site which goes behind the scenes with some photos.  It’s quite interesting to have a look at as well.  The link is below, take a look at that.

• Qantas and Emirates formalizes alliance and codeshare deal.

Finally on Qantas, previously they’ve announced with Emirates that they’re looking at a co-chair partnership.  While news this week is that they’re a lot closer than initially expected.  They’re looking at inking a deal in the next one to two weeks.  Look out for that if you’re traveling up through to Europe, it’s going to open up Qantas’ network.  One negative is that it’s potentially going to mean the removal of the Frankfurt Qantas flight.  If you’re looking for upgraded from economy to business class using your points, you’re only option now will be in to London.

That’s it for another update.  Thanks very much for tuning in.  If you’ve got any feedback or have any questions, feel free to contact me.  My details are just here, otherwise we’ll speak to you next time.

Further Resources:

According to a study conducted by Harrell Associates in 2009, online travel agencies can offer attractive deals for leisure travelers. However, when it comes to corporate travel, a travel management company offers greater overall savings and value for businesses.

One reason for this is that employees often make their own arrangements according to their personal preferences when there is no travel policy. This can lead to them booking expensive seats that contribute to blowing out the company’s travel budget. With specific guidelines indicating what is acceptable, businesses can steer employees away from wasting company money on travel.

A competent travel management company can help businesses draft a travel policy that will clearly state when employees can travel, the type of accommodation they can stay in and what travel expenses the company covers. Once the policy is done, the travel management company can help your business enforce the policy to make sure employees stay compliant.

Aside from savings coming from a consistent travel policy, businesses can also leverage a travel management company’s preferred relationship with suppliers to save even further. Travel management companies often have access to exclusive negotiated deals with suppliers, allowing them to get better discounts for clients than what the clients might be able to get on their own negotiating strength. These exclusive deals can often lead to additional benefits such as upgrades, complementary breakfasts and free internet.

Seeing the Big Picture

One of the biggest advantages of using a travel management company is the business intelligence gained. A travel management company can help your business track unused or lapsed tickets, real-time reporting on the location of traveling staff, and your travel spending trends versus other companies’ trends to highlight opportunities for improvements.

In fact, one of the first things a travel management company will do is look at your existing travel program. It will look at how much your business spends on travel, whether you are using suppliers that fit your expectations and budget, whether you have guidelines to let your employees know what is permissible and what’s not, and how closely your employees are following your travel guidelines.

Employee Ownership

A good travel management company will offer online booking tools that allow your employees to view accommodation and modes of transport, allow you to authorize the trip before it is booked, and provide data and analysis so you can analyze the bigger travel trends within your company.

Having employees book travel through an online booking tool also provides a ‘visual guilt’ benefit that can drive savings. It has been shown that if employees book travel themselves through the online booking tool, they will look for lower-cost options because they have no one else to blame when questioned about the expenditure.

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This week’s all about the financial year results for the two major domestic airlines Qantas and Virgin Australia.

Are you in the events or business travel industry? If so, then you might consider attending EIBTM this year.

EIBTM, also known as The Global Meetings and Events Exhibition, will be held from November 17, 2012 to November 19, 2012 this year at the Fira Gran Via in Barcelona, Spain.  It is the internationally leading event for the meetings and events industry. This year, it is expanding its scope by adding business travel into the mix.

What You Will Get as an Exhibitor

You can choose to become an exhibitor to promote your business to over 15,000 attendees from all over the world. This will allow you to leverage the power of face-to-face meeting with a targeted audience of buyers in your industry, and establish your brand as a key player.

Exhibitors also have the chance to pre-schedule one-on-one appointments with some of the 4,000 buyers attending the event through the cornerstone Hosted Buyer Programme. This helps you navigate the sea of attendees by getting confirmed appointments with relevant buyers in advance.

In addition, exhibitors get year-round business promotion opportunities through features on eibtm.com, EIBTM’s newsletter, ability to add your press releases to the EIBTM website, joining the EIBTM social media community, and the chance to place ads at the show.

Educational Programme

Attendees can participate in the Professional Educational Programme led by industry experts. This Programme will teach topics in personal and business development. You will also gain exclusive insight into current industry trends to help you shape your business strategy.

There will also be engaging sessions about emerging technologies in the industry, which gives technology exhibitors to display their products to the market.

Other educational highlights include the Sustainable Events Corner and the CEO Summit. Attendees can learn how to implement sustainability practices into their business in the Sustainable Events Corner. The CEO Summit will bring together over 60 of the most senior CEOs in the industry to discuss current issues and agree on best practices with regard to these issues.

Networking

There will be over 100 networking events surrounding the EIBTM event, including the Welcome Party, Networking Hour, and the beachside Club Night. What’s more, the exhibition will stay open for an extra hour on November 28^th to give exhibitors the chance to host networking functions at their stands. Hosted Buyers will then get the chance to spend time on the show floor outside of their meetings.

Here is one simple, yet effective tip for getting the most out of your networking:

• Adopt the attitude of non-entitlement: you are not entitled to anything until you’ve created value for someone else. Make sure the conversation is an exchange of wants. Talk about what interests the other party with regard to business. Don’t just pitch.

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SMEs often have a misperception about travel management. Some of them think they can save money by booking travel directly with suppliers, either through the Internet or with budget air and hotel suppliers.However, if you consider the extra time and inefficiencies involved in scouring the best deals and booking your own accommodations, you will come to see that directly dealing with suppliers is not the most cost-effective way to book travel for your firm.

Since business travel is a controllable cost, your firm can create a plan to control that cost in a systematic way. Below are five practices you can adopt to best control your business travel expenses:

 1. Work with a travel management company that specializes in dealing with small and medium enterprises.
SMEs have unique travel needs that differ from big corporations and sole travelers. Working with an SME travel expert also gives you benefits including a centralized booking process, consistency in booking process, and easy access to best fare of day.

2. Have a big picture of how your company travels.
Your travel manager can help you see the big picture by looking at areas where costs can be contained, considering what you care about most when booking travel, creating a travel policy that guides the way your staff travels, ensuring awareness and compliance with the travel policy, and centralizing all your travel booking.

 3. Get the best airfares available for your travel.
This involves sourcing best fares of day, booking tickets in advance, analyzing class of travel as well as the best carriers to use, and developing clear sanctions for employees who do not follow the travel policy.

 4. Get the most out of your hotel bookings.
Your travel manager can help you with this by negotiating better deals for high volume bookings or for add-on services like food and laundry.  She can also help you consider cheaper alternatives that might be just as convenient, provide recommendations based on her travel expertise, take advantage of strong supplier relationships that she has, create a specific hotel program for your company, and document the rates that you’ve already agreed upon to promote consistency in rates.

 5. Manage risk through planning.
You can mitigate risk by having all traveling employees book travel through one travel manager so that their locations can easily be identified in the event of a crisis. Your travel manager can also get comprehensive travel insurance for your traveling staff, go over vaccinations and health precautions before traveling, identify all potential threats before each trip, and straighten out all visa, passport, and currency exchange issues before departure.

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Business travel is a necessity in this global age. However, the way your company manages its travel arrangements can affect its bottom line. Below are ten tips on how to cut costs on your business travel…

 1. Opt in to email newsletters from your travel management company.

This will give you instant access to the latest deals as well as industry news that may affect your business. You can get the latest updates on airfare restructures, as well as price and inventory changes.

2. Consult your travel manager about the best travel insurance for your needs.

Businesses leave themselves open to huge financial and legal risks when they don’t insure their traveling staff. What’s more, it is difficult to wade through the different levels of coverage that different travel insurance policies offer. Cut through the confusion by consulting with a travel manager who is well versed in travel needs and insurance.

3. Choose a travel management company that uses benchmarking.

Benchmarking compares your travel program with other clients with similar needs, and against standard industry measures. This helps you see where you are with your airfare and accommodation buying strategies, and lets you see where you need to make changes to get long-term savings.

4. Make sure you choose a travel manager that has preferential relationships with suppliers.

If your manager has preferred relationships with air, hotel, and car suppliers, this will allow you to benefit from discounts, upgrades, priority service, and special accommodations not available to regular travelers.

5. Implement best practices when booking travel.

Things like purchasing airfare at least three weeks in advance, flying at non-peak times, using preferred suppliers, and refueling before returning a car rental can cut costs and help you improve your bottom line.

6. Design a clear travel policy for your company.

This will outline how your staff travels, where they stay, what cabin class they travel in, which hotels they stay at, and which preferred suppliers to use. Most importantly, someone in your company should be appointed to work with the travel manager in ensuring policy compliance.

7. Work with an experienced travel manager to promote and maintain staff compliance to your travel policy.

Since non-compliance by staff can cause missed savings, it is crucial to work with a travel manager to not only promote compliance, but also to come up with strategies for dealing with noncompliance.

8. Try to book with the same hotel and car rental companies to access volume discount with suppliers.

When you consolidate bookings, you build up data to show how much business you can give to a supplier, which will help your travel manager negotiate better rates on your behalf.

9. Work with your travel manager to make sure your travel process is operating as efficiently as possible.

The more you can streamline the process for your employees, the less time they’ll have to spend on organizing travel, which will leave them with more time to devote to doing business.

10. Work with an SME travel expert.

Small and medium businesses have different travel needs than do sole travelers or big corporate travelers. Due to this, SMEs need a travel manager that is experienced in serving the SME market to give them the efficiency gained from dealing with companies of similar size and travel needs.

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Hi, I’m Jake Hower from Business Travel Management. Welcome back for another weekly news update.

• Qantas and Emirates Airways partnership agreement.

First off we are going to touch on the proposed Emirates and Qantas Codeshare Deal. They are working together at the moment. They say it is at least six months in the making, but watch this space

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• Qantas unveils MCA Platinum One lounge – located at Sydney Museum for Contemporary Arts
• Hotel & Airfares increase globally: Check out the Egencia white paper here.
• Virgin Australia / Singapore Airlines launch joint Round The World and Circle Pacific fares.
• Travel Hack:  for Qantas Platinum frequent flyer members on how to get into the Qantas First Class Lounges on domestic flights.

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• 2011-12 Fiscal Year comes to an end – perfect time to review business travel reports to plan out travel expenses for Financial Year 2012-13
• Cost effective business travel management tips – To ensure strong ROI on all company travel
• Qantas Frequent flyer points – use them or burn them – simple ways to redeem and burn your points
• Other Top-notch airlines’ frequent flyer programs who’s hot and who’s not!

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• Regus Worldwide – a business traveller’s smart option for setting up office in 550 locations worldwide.
• Travel hack – Get access to Virgin Australia’s The Lounge via membership to Delta’s 30 Day Sky Club membership
• ACTE Executive Forum - Dealt with Global economy, climate change issues as well as safety and travel management issues.
• Do you have a disaster management plan in place? Make it your priority to implement one. We’ve got a number of resources to help you set up an effective program - Contact Us for further details.

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Full Transcript

Hi there, Jake Hower from business travel management with this week’s news update. Regus Worldwide is a program that allows you to utilize service offices, meeting space, and just some business centers in over 550 cities worldwide. It’s a great option for travelers in particular that don’t have the space to be working in cities that need to be in a, I guess, more business friendly environment rather than just bashing around on your laptop in cafes, et cetera, et cetera.

Now there’s a number of different membership tiers you can get with the basic just starting, just general sort of communal business lounge access. There’s some nice workstations. You get Wi-Fi included, and drinks, and just some snacks included as well. So it’s brilliant if you’re a traveler and you’re frequenting cities where you don’t have office space.

You can also rent meeting rooms if you’ve got to invite clients to your workplace to actually meet with. Or if you just need a little bit more privacy, you can actually also hire office spaces for yourself.

Here’s a great travel hack for you. If you need access to a Virgin lounge, you will find now that unless you’re a gold or platinum frequent flyer, or you actually purchase a full year’s membership to the lounge, you can’t actually get access anymore. So they’ve removed the single entry passes.

However, Delta, who’s a partner of Virgin, allow you to purchase a 30-day access to Delta’s, I guess, lounge program, which also includes access to the Virgin lounges on their worldwide network. So the cost is about $90, which is roughly twice the price of a single entry pass, so if you’ve got a couple of trips coming up in one month period. It’s a great option for you.

As mentioned in last episode, I attended the ACTE Melbourne executive forum on Tuesday, which we heard three speakers dealing in just the global economy, some climate change issues, but also some safety in travel management issues as well. If you don’t have in place in your company a disaster management plan or a traveler location plan and evacuation plan, I would suggest looking at that and implementing that straight away.

If you need some help with that, I’ve got a whole heap of tips and some notes, which I took down from the event, which I’m more than happy to pass on to you. Just feel free to either respond to the email I’ve sent you or use the Contact Us page on this particular website, and I’ll shoot through the notes from the day.

That’s it for this week. Thanks very much for tuning in. If you have any queries or feedback on this particular episode, please let me know. Otherwise, I will speak to you next–

• ACTE Executive Forum on 19 June 2012 with focus on climate change and carbon tax pricing and risk management.
• Apple launches the upgrade to iOS 6 to power all Apple devices.
• Apple’s iOS 6 comes with the launch of the PassBook App - A smart, hi-tech mobile wallet and document storage and organizer.
• Virgin Australia announced further integration with Virgin America that benefits Velocity frequent flyer members.
• We are currently on the stage of introducing and testing a new software, an upgrade to our Tramada system to ensure better and bigger quality services.
• Looking for a new Travel provider? – Contact US – We’ll point you to the right direction!

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• Etihad upped their share to just under 4% to partner with Virgin Australia – Now offers 110 Destinations.
• InFlight Communication now in motion with Qantas’ Wi-Fi OnBoard – Communication made easier.
• Travel Management – Tips and Pointers – Contact US – The Travel Management Authority.

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• Find out how to get VIP airport lounge entry and priority fast track access
• Secure the best Economy Class seat on the Qantas A380 Economy Class
• Travel in Europe with much less hassle –  Get between destinations quickly with more comfort
• Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner visits Australia courtesy of Qantas

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In this first episode we announce the launch of Business Travel Management’s Weekly News Updates, how to subscribe to the weekly news recap and the Business Travel Management iTunes Podcast Channel.

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