Giftaway A Getaway. . . If you’re stuck on how to reward your employees or top performers this holiday season, consider the gift of travel. Azumano Gift Cards make great stocking stuffers and may be applied toward prepaid vacation travel arranged by any of our leisure travel specialists. Cards are good for air tickets, cruises, vacation packages and associated agency fees. Azumano Gift Cards can be purchased in any amount at any Azumano Travel office, where they can also be redeemed and reloaded. Your Azumano Account Manager will be happy to facilitate purchase. Cards are not refundable or redeemable for cash.

Crystal-Ball Gazing. . . This is the time of year when corporate travel prognosticators get out their crystal balls and start looking to the year ahead, anxious to give travel managers a hint of what fate awaits them. Our friends at American Express say they expect "a pent-up need for travel and meetings to be unleashed in 2010” and that road warriors will face higher prices next year, but only slightly higher. "Considering airfare, hotel and ground transportation, we expect the average domestic business trip to increase 1.2 percent, or $13, to a total of approximately $1,080," said Herve Sedky, American Express Business Travel's vice president and general manager. "An increase of 2.4 percent, or approximately $67, is expected for international business trips to bring the average cost to $2,818." But that's just the basic cost of services: "As unbundled and ancillary fees continue to add to the cost of trips, businesses should expect to add up to an estimated 15 percent to the total trip cost for air, hotel and ground transport elements alone," he added. AmEx is quick to warn us, however, that "actual changes in business travel costs could vary significantly from forecasted data, particularly as a result of unforeseen future political, economic and/or environmental events." (Source: American Express Global Business Travel Forecast, 09/30/09)

"Presents" for Passengers. . . Inventive minds are hard at work coming up with some smart, practical initiatives to perk up passengers—if not already, then sometime in the not-too-distant future. Before you know it, driverless, battery-operated pods may be zipping passengers between an airport and its parking lots. Currently, 18 pods are being tested at London’s Heathrow Terminal 5. You can board when you want to, punch in your destination, then leave the driving to the machine, which glides on rails at 25 mph. Then there’s Virgin America’s in-cabin mood lighting that subtly shifts through 12 shades of violet that help your body adjust to a new time zone and beat back jet lag. Not to be outdone, Cathay Pacific has re-invented the economy-class seat. As the seat reclines, the bottom slides forward but the back stays in place, so the passenger sitting behind doesn’t have to endure a seat hovering mere inches from his or her chin. What an image that conjures up! (Source: CNN.com, 10/16/09)

They Can’t Get No Satisfaction. . . At a time when airlines are cutting costs across the board to cope with sagging revenues and adding new fees for services and amenities that used to be included in the fare, it might come as no surprise that executives at many carriers are starting to worry that some of their loyal passengers might be getting turned off. A survey of management at 90 airlines worldwide, conducted by Texas-based Sabre Airline Solutions, found that an "overwhelming majority" (86 percent) realize that retaining customer loyalty is the most important factor in positively impacting their business. And some 50 percent said that the key to customer loyalty is improving the kind of travel experience that the airline provides. Sabre’s Gordon Locke remarked that the ways airlines cope with customer retention are especially significant because "customers are less loyal to brands and more apt to switching preferences now than ever before." Locke predicted that in the next couple of years, "we’ll see more experimentation and a greater focus on the customer as airlines sharpen their ability to service customer needs using new technologies available to them." That would be a very good thing. (Source: Executive Travel SkyGuide E-Alert, 10/19/09)

Dinged For Dialing. . . As cell phones became the norm, many travelers avoided using land-line phones in hotel rooms because of exorbitant charges. An increasing number of hotels, however, are now starting to change their stance on in-room phone charges by providing free local calls and, in some cases, free long-distance calls. USA TODAY surveyed 82 hotel bands and found that about 70% offer free local calls in at least some hotels. Nearly half offer free local calls in all hotels, and 15 hotel brands provide free long-distance calls in at least some hotels. This is welcome news for business travelers who prefer hotel phones for conference calls and who have sometimes found cell-phone reception and clarity less than desirable. Skeptics, however, say that hotels will likely raise overall room rates in order to offer free phone calls, so guests may still get dinged for dialing after all. (Source: USA TODAY, 10/19/09)

One Size Fits All. . . Well, not according to tall or heavy travelers, at least not when it comes to airline seats. Passengers with extra inches, vertically or horizontally, are feeling the effects of airlines' penny-pinching moves more acutely than others. The average legroom in coach is getting smaller. The seat width remains unchanged in decades even as we Americans expand our girths. And to make matters worse, airlines are increasingly using small regional planes to serve less-popular destinations. To combat slow demand, they've eliminated capacity, resulting in fuller planes and stiffer competition for upgrades. Adding fuel to the fire, airlines' rules requiring obese passengers to pay for an extra seat are being enforced more strictly. Brandon Macsata, executive director of the Association for Airline Passenger Rights, says the federal Air Carrier Access Act prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in air travel but doesn't cover size. He adds that obesity can result from debilitating or chronic medical conditions and has called for airlines to retrofit at least the first economy-cabin row with wider seats for heavy passengers who mostly wouldn't mind paying "a bit more." (Source: USA TODAY, 10/26/09)