Two Years of 2B - Raleigh/Durham Business Travel Guide

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But be warned: There are no overarching trendsw here. As is so often the case on the road, these last two years have been almos ttotally reactive: to insane swings in the price of fuel to the apparentlty endless cycle of boom-and-bust that dominates hotekl development, and, of course, to the economic wave that has carriedd us from the relatively giddy times of April 2007 to our well…to whatever it is we're living and workinh through. Southwest's Steady Course Even the nation's one financiallg sound U.S. carrier, Southwest Airlines, hasn't been able to escapre the ravages ofthe nation's economic collapse.
Its traffic is down aboutr in linewith industry-wide trendds and it has taken the unprecedented step of trimmingg its overall capacity by 4 perceny this year. And the airline's vaunted fuel-hedging which saved the carrierabout $3.5 billioh in the last decade, cost it money in the seconsd half of 2008 as oil prices But some things never change: Southwest is using the downturn to positiohn itself as an alternative to the nation's mainline After decades of shunning some of the larges U.S. cities, it launched flightxs to Minneapolis last is scheduled to beginits first-eve flights into New York (via LaGuardia in June, and will serve Boston's Logah Airport in the fall.
United's Inexorable Decline It's gone from worsrt to even worse than that atUnitec Airlines, the most troubled of the nation's so-callesd "legacy" carriers. Once the nation'xs largest airline, United is hemorrhagin g after abungled mega-bankruptcy and years of managemengt missteps. About 40 percent of what flies as United Airlinew is subcontracted to regional airlines and much of the remaininbg service isactually code-share operations with its international partnerw in the Star Alliance. Every one of its union contracts becomes "amendable" next year (airline contracts never technically expire).
Compare with the other legacy carriers, its cash reservesd are small and there are few unencumbered assetssto hock. And early next year, it will have to discusd cash-draining "holdbacks" with JP Morgan Chase, its credit-card Operationally, there's no good news, either, sinced its once-profitable service to the Pacific Rim is deterioratinf rapidly due to plunging yields to Asia and freshb competition on its Australia Fate of the Fourth Clasds The worldwide collapseof premium-class traffid since last fall has had the expected Airlines have stepped up their discountingf in business class and more carriers are addinfg a fourth class, which is rather genericallyy known as "premium economy.
" The discounting trend is both structurallh strategic—the airlines now offer a range of discounts from threre to 60 days befored departure—and tantalizingly tactical, with sale fares slashing as much as 75 percen off the price of international businesx class. As for premium Air France added the new cabihn on three premierroutes (from Paris to New Tokyo, and Osaka). But the fate of fourtyh class is farfrom secure. Even as Air France was OpenSkies, British Airways' boutique carrier, was renaminbg its fourth cabin asthe "bixz seat." The reason?
Premium economy still existds in a computer-coded limbo, which makexs selling it via the airline industry's omnipresent global reservatiomn services difficult.  The Banking Bluezs and London RediscoveredIf I've been at all prescient in the last two it was the Run on the Bankers column that poste shortly after Lehman Brothers tanked last Exactly in line with the meltdown of the bankers stopped flying, and that has caused the calamitouse decline in premium-class airline revenue. It's been especially toughn on British Airways, which is disproportionately dependentg on premium flying on theNyLojn (New York-London) route.
And there's no douby that BA (and London) are still suffering a year on from the disastrou s opening weeks of Terminal 5 at Heathroaw Airport inMarch 2008. The good news for thos e of us wholove London? The British capital is chealp again for upscale American visitors, thanks to massive airfarde and hotel discounts and the precipitou decline of the value of the Britishg pound. Counterintuitive Currency Just beforthe world's economies shuddered, the U.S. dollar was at an unaffordablelow ebb. But for reasons known only to the mastersw ofthe universe, the U.S. dollatr has gained strength against almos t all ofthe world's currencies as the America n economy weakened.
If you've got any discretionary incom left, this will be a great summer to travel virtuallgy anywhere inthe world. The dollar is buying 20 to 50 percenr more than last springand summer. The only Japan, where the dollar continues to languisyh at or belowthe 100-yenb mark. A Fee By Any Other Name it isn't all breard and dollar-denominated chocolates overseas. Banksx and other financial institutions continue to raisse the fees they charge when you use your ATM or credit card outside of theUnitedr States.
The latest trick: Currency-exchangew fees of 3 percent or more even if you use yourown bank'as ATM card to make a withdrawalk from your own account at an overseas ATM ownexd and operated by said bank. Even financialo institutions that continue toadvertise fee-free ATM usage are adoptintg the currency gambit. One Charles Schwab Bank, whose print ads promisw in big, bold type that there are "Nk ATM fees—we rebate all ATM fees from any ATM. Period." But as Schwab'xs fine print makes clear, "ATM free rebates do not includs currency exchange fees orother fees." Some of the few trult fee-free ports in the storm are the credif cards and ATM cards issued by Capitalo One.
The Fine Print… Allow me to end this columjn where I began in April I still believe the single best investment you can make inyour on-the-roaxd comfort and productivity is Priority Pass, the worldwide airport-lounge access program. The fees haven't changed, but the lounge networ k has grown by20 percent, to more than 600 clubs in 300 Portfolio.com © 2009 Cond Nast Inc. All