Did you know: Vancouver International Airport has been named the best airport in North America at the Skytrax World Airport Awards in Brussels. The annual awards are based on 9.8 million passenger surveys conducted in airports around the world. YVR ranks 11th on the global top 25 list.
Going Places!
Some of our clients are asking if people are travelling again. Surprisingly, more people are flying places than you might expect – albeit mostly within Canada. Few are flying for the fun of it – mostly people are travelling on essential business or for urgent friends-and-family issues. That being said, many savvy travellers are taking advantage of future deals and the temporary...
David recently joined some of Air Canada’s top supporters to tour an Air Canada JETZ all-business class plane out at YVR’s private jet terminal. Normally, these private jets are busy all year with sports groups (including the Vancouver Canucks and Whitecaps) and private groups. For the first time ever Air Canada will be offering these planes to select Sun Destinations during the Christmas period – with standard business class pricing.
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In mid-July, two consultants from our offiice were invited to join media on an Air Canada flight from Vancouver to Edmonton in order to (a) experience flying during the COVD-19 period, and (b) try out Air Canada's brand, new Airbus 220 aircraft, which was developed in Canada by Bombarier.
The aircraft is beautiful; more spaceous in terms of seat pitch and aisle width than the 737 Max. Overhead bins rival the large ones on the Max and the Dreamliner, so far less chance of having to compete with a hundred other passengers...
Future of Travel (Part 6]: Tourism
So far, our articles on the future of travel (Airports, Airlines, Hotels, Cruise Lines) have been speculative in nature. Our final one on Tourism in the future is aspirational. How would we like to see tourism evolve?
First, a short editorial. Borders are starting to re-open; hotels and airlines are starting to ramp up. But tourism will...
Future of Travel (Part 5]: Cruises
As in the past articles, let’s dispense with what cruises will be like in the short term after the COVID-19 crisis dies down. Lots of articles have already been written about this; and everyone knows that - like airlines and hotels - cruise lines will be going out of their way to make...
Future of Travel [Part 3]: Airlines
In our third article we tackle the big kahuna – airline travel in the future. Until consumers feel safe and confident about getting on an airplane, it doesn’t matter when the rest of the world opens up again for travel. If we see airports as the “gate keepers,” the key to getting this show back on the road, airlines are the vehicle driving business to the rest of...
Future of Travel Series - Airports
You might think that the logical place to start this series of articles about travel in the future would be airlines. After all, you won’t be taking that cruise, staying at a resort, or doing a business meeting in a far-away city without the airline. And a lot of media attention has already been on the steps airlines are taking to reassure...
Even before Marco Polo, human beings have had the irresistible urge to travel. That’s why the Polynesians colonized the islands of the South Pacific, why our indigenous people crossed the Bering Sea, and why early humans migrated out of Africa to populate the entire planet. It’s in our DNA to travel and explore new places....
Because our clients don't stop needing us during an emergency like this, we are maintaining our regular office hours, Mon. to Fri., 8:00am to 5:00pm. While our consultants will be working more limited hours you should be able to connect with one of our travel professional even if your regular agent is unavailable. And, of course, we are regularly checking email.
We know that your friends may be in trouble somewhere and didn't have the benefit of a travel agent to help them. Airlines and tour companies are practically impossible to reach right now because of...
Because our clients don't stop needing us during an emergency like this, we are maintaining our regular office hours, Mon. to Fri., 8:00am to 5:00pm. While our consultants will be working more limited hours you should be able to connect with one of our travel professional even if your regular agent is unavailable. And, of course, we are regularly checking email.
We know that your friends may be in trouble somewhere and didn't have the benefit of a travel agent to help them. Airlines and tour companies are practically impossible to reach right now because of...
"Unprecedented" is one of those words we are all sick of hearing; but that pretty well sums up this worldwide crisis.
As of Sat., Mar. 21, we have successfully repatriated all clients who responded to our early warning to get home. And with only one exception we successfully got the folks home who had resisted the early warnings from the Prime Minister (and us). For the past few...
The latest craze in the airline business is bidding for an upgrade. Lots of airlines are offering this now; and the feature has turned out to be wildly popular with consumers. Here's some advice on how to finesse the upgrade bidding systems of Air Canada and Westjet.
Their programs are almost identical:
Ineligible tickets...
Everyone "knows" you can't really get a business class ticket on airline points, right?
Wrong. Clients of The Travel Group can, and do. Here's how.
First of all, here's the back story. Although credit card rewards programs make a convincing pitch - fly any airline, any time, anywhere - there is one important caveat. Credit card rewards programs are based on a 1 to 2 cent per mile formula. That's fine for economy class travel, but be prepared to dish out a million points for an international business class ticket. That's the number...
You've read the media stories about the dirtiest areas of the airplane to touch. But, which airlines score highest for overall cleanliness?
Well, according the Skytrax, the organization that rates airlines, it is mostly Asian airlines that score highest for cleanliness.
Air Canada scored highest for North American airlines, but it did not make the top 20 list.
Here's Skytrax Top 20 Cleanest airlines in 2018:
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The latest hotel trend is not a good one. Major chains such as Marriott (who now own Starwood) and Hilton are imposing 48-hour cancellation policies on customers.
It wasn't that long ago that 6pm day of arrival cancellation policies were the norm. Then, about 3 or 4 years ago, all the major hotel chains started imposing 24-hour cancel policies. Travellers accepted that change in stride, as it didn't seem too unreasonable. Roughly the same time, hotels also started putting similar restrictions on cancelling nights during your stay: eg. insisting you must give them 1...
This is the first of an ongoing series of stories where we will explore corporate culture, particularly as it relates to travel. We'll look at how various companies we support look after their employees and their unique policies and philosophies. We are particularly interested, of course, in how they deal with their employees' needs when they travel.
