What we have here is a good news/bad news situation. The bad news is that with the double whammy of delayed and canceled flights and snarled, crisis-driven airport security, travelers are more likely to spend more time in airports than ever before. The good news is, airports are growing more attractive - especially if you can get into posh passenger lounges, where options for eating, drinking, working and relaxing abound.
Here are 10 airport lounges around the world where you might not mind being grounded:
MIAMI INTERNATIONAL, American Airlines Admirals Club. Expansive, with comfortable seating, big-screen TVs tuned to news and sports, some basic hot and cold snacks and a decent bar just off a central lobby-like space. The lounge is helpfully divided into snug work spaces and quiet places to chill, with half a dozen private shower rooms. A good place to pass time before those early morning/late night flights to Latin America - a mainstay of AA in this gateway city. Located in the main terminal, concourse D, across from gate D30 and up one floor.
NEW YORK JOHN F. KENNEDY INTERNATIONAL. Lufthansa Airlines Premium Lounge. Opened in January 2009, Lufthansa spent $10 million U.S. upgrading and enlarging this lounge. Actually, it's a 16,000 square foot complex of three lounges: first class, located on the third level, serves the German carrier's highest-level frequent fliers and includes a dining room and shower facilities; the Senator lounge , on the second level, boasts parquet floors, showers and a bar stocked with German beers and wines; business class, on the main level, is 75 percent larger than its predecessor, with a cinema-style theater with four LCD televisions and 18 seats. The food throughout is handled by Vienna's DO & Co., which also caters Formula 1 events. Located in terminal 1, directly behind security.
SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL, United Airlines Red Carpet Club. The largest lounge in SFO's glittering, circa-2000 international terminal, this business-class redoubt has a large expanse devoted to work cubicles, a sweeping runway view for people who'd rather daydream, and a hosted bar good for two free drinks. The only downside is the minimalist food offerings. Downstairs, United has a smaller, quieter, gracious first class lounge with pieces of fine-art. Located in the international terminal, just past security, on the right, up one floor.
LONDON HEATHROW, British Airways Galleries. BA spent a reported $125 million U.S. designing and building a suite of six passenger lounges in the just under 2-year-old terminal 5 at Heathrow, the world's busiest airport for international travel. It shows in quality of materials and attention to detail. The first class lounge has a dining room, dozens of free-access, wide-screen PCs, a Champagne bar and, in a nod to environmental concerns, a virtual hearth. The business class lounge has good food and a huge work area for firing up the laptop, plus free Wi-Fi. Located past security on level 5, in terminal 5.
LONDON HEATHROW, Virgin Atlantic Airways Clubhouse. When Richard Branson's cheeky, upstart carrier opened its Heathrow Clubhouse lounge for Upper Class (Virgin's combined first/business class) fliers back in the '90s, it seemed the Mother of All Airport Lounges, with its manicurist, massage therapist and putting green. The competition has intensified since then, but Virgin's signature lounge is still a gem, with, among other things, a library for quiet time away from mobile phones, a cocktail bar, observation deck and restaurant-style meals. Located in terminal 3, lounge zone H, on the way to gates numbered in the 20s.
ISTANBUL ATATURK International, Millennium Lounge. This spacious lounge, shared by a number of international airlines, is nothing to look at, but it offers decent hot food, non-alcoholic and alcoholic drinks, snug seating areas and refuge from the crowds and high prices in Turkey's largest airport. Moreover, it's open 24 hours, a rarity. Located in the main international terminal, up one level, after main airport security and before a second screening at the departure gates.
ABU DHABI INTERNATIONAL, Etihad Airways Premium Lounge. The sumptuous first class lounge of the United Arab Emirates' national flag carrier boasts a kitchen and chef's table, a spa, cigar lounge, Champagne bar, day beds and sleek modern furniture. The business class lounge also has a spa, plus a cocktail bar, an art gallery and business center. Open 24 hours a day. Located in terminal 1, just past the departures immigration desk.
DUBAI INTERNATIONAL, Emirates Air. This elegant lounge shows what money can buy - which, it turns out, is a lot, even in the Great Recession. The first class lounge has a wine cellar, spa, buffet and juice bars, a childrens' play area and free Wi-Fi. The business class lounge has a spa (for a fee), showers, two business centers, PCs and a conference room. Located in terminal 3.
HONG KONG INTERNATIONAL, Cathay Pacific Airways. Cathay has two blue-chip lounges at its home airport in Hong Kong. The Wing, for both first- and business-class travelers, features the superb Long Bar, which overlooks the concourse and is flooded with soft natural light; the Noodle Bar has some of the best airport food on the planet. Open from 5:30 a.m. till the last flight departs and located on level 6 and 7, the main concourse. Cathay's newest lounge, The Pier, lacks the abundant natural light of The Wing, as it's located on a lower level, but is similarly kitted out and comfortable. The Pier is open daily from 6 a.m. till 11:30 p.m. Located on level 5, northwest concourse, near gates 62-66.
SINGAPORE CHANGI INTERNATIONAL. Singapore Airlines' Silver Kris Lounge and Kris Flyer Gold Lounge host the carrier's frequent fliers and holders of the Star Alliance gold card. Both the
airport and the airline score consistently high on surveys of frequent long-haul travelers, and it's easy to see why. Buffet food offerings are toothsome, there is plenty of room to work and dozens of free PCs. Some work stations look out over Changi's lush signature indoor tropical gardens.
Showing posts with label Emirates. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Emirates. Show all posts
Friday, January 8, 2010
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Award-winning Airlines, Zagat Department
There are but a handful of more over-used words in the English language than "award-winning.'' I'm award-winning, you're award-winning, we're all award-winning. Still, there is undeniably a feel-good factor in winning an award, and some awards do mean something: The Nobel Prize, the Man Booker Prize, the Pulitzer Prize, a MacArthur 'genius' grant, and some others.
In the travel and entertainment fields, the Zagat Awards mean something - along with awards from Conde Nast Traveler, Travel and Leisure, Global Traveler and a few others. Starting out by publishing grassrootsy dining guides written by ordinary people, Zagat in effect anticipated the user-written reviews now found everywhere on the Net. In the meantime, Zagat has grown into something of a media empire - an empire that gives out awards, of course.
All of which brings us to Zagat's 2009 Airline Survey of passengers and travel agents. The results were recently announced, and the winner is - the envelope, please - Singapore Airlines, which won for best international carrier, as well as for best premium class and best economy class. No surprise; Singapore wins a lot of awards, partly because the airline is indeed very good and partly because it carries a halo effect and voters automatically think of Singapore.
Cathay Pacific Airways and Emirates Airways tied for second in premium class, with Emirates also winning second for its economy class service. Virgin Atlantic Airways and Air New Zealand deadlocked for third in premium class, with All Nippon Airways, Air New Zealand and Thai Airways bunching up at third for economy class.
"The 2009 Airline Survey ... covered 73 international airlines and 16 domestic U.S. carriers, rating premium and economy classes on a 30-point scale, covering factors such as comfort, food, in-flight entertainment and luggage polices,'' Zagat said in a statement.
The top U.S. carrier? Continental Airlines, though it scored only 15 points on the 30-point scale. I recently flew from London to New York with Continental. I liked the airline, but its relatively anemic Zagat score shows - accurately, I think, due to aging fleets and flawed customer service - just how far even the best U.S. carriers have fallen compared to the world's best.
In a statement announcing the airline awards, Tim Zagat, CEO of Zagat Survey, sought to explain the low scores of Continental - and lower scores by other U.S. carriers - thusly:
"The newer airlines continue to do well in the survey. Being less expensive to operate, they can therefore afford to provide better service.''
With all due respect to Tim Zagat and his company's accomplishments, I don't think so.
Being new isn't the reason for success - as shown by the overall winner. Singapore Airlines traces its roots to 1947. It became known by its present name in 1972, when it hived off from Malaysian Airlines. The carrier is nearly 40 years old by the most conservative estimate.
Cathay Pacific? Founded in 1946. ANA? Almost as old. Virgin Atlantic? It's been flying since the 1980s. Air New Zealand is not new, nor is Thai. The only young carrier in the winners' circle is Emirates, and Emirates is unusual because it is owned and subsidized by the government of Dubai and fueled by petrodollars - hardly a common business model.
No, the reason some airlines please customers much more than other airlines do has little to do with age. It's because they want to please customers. They make customer service a priority and they work at it. Having adequate funding always helps, to be sure, but staff training, staff attitudes and management priorities shape airlines - and every other business.
That's the secret of success in the travel field - and it's an open secret.
In the travel and entertainment fields, the Zagat Awards mean something - along with awards from Conde Nast Traveler, Travel and Leisure, Global Traveler and a few others. Starting out by publishing grassrootsy dining guides written by ordinary people, Zagat in effect anticipated the user-written reviews now found everywhere on the Net. In the meantime, Zagat has grown into something of a media empire - an empire that gives out awards, of course.
All of which brings us to Zagat's 2009 Airline Survey of passengers and travel agents. The results were recently announced, and the winner is - the envelope, please - Singapore Airlines, which won for best international carrier, as well as for best premium class and best economy class. No surprise; Singapore wins a lot of awards, partly because the airline is indeed very good and partly because it carries a halo effect and voters automatically think of Singapore.
Cathay Pacific Airways and Emirates Airways tied for second in premium class, with Emirates also winning second for its economy class service. Virgin Atlantic Airways and Air New Zealand deadlocked for third in premium class, with All Nippon Airways, Air New Zealand and Thai Airways bunching up at third for economy class.
"The 2009 Airline Survey ... covered 73 international airlines and 16 domestic U.S. carriers, rating premium and economy classes on a 30-point scale, covering factors such as comfort, food, in-flight entertainment and luggage polices,'' Zagat said in a statement.
The top U.S. carrier? Continental Airlines, though it scored only 15 points on the 30-point scale. I recently flew from London to New York with Continental. I liked the airline, but its relatively anemic Zagat score shows - accurately, I think, due to aging fleets and flawed customer service - just how far even the best U.S. carriers have fallen compared to the world's best.
In a statement announcing the airline awards, Tim Zagat, CEO of Zagat Survey, sought to explain the low scores of Continental - and lower scores by other U.S. carriers - thusly:
"The newer airlines continue to do well in the survey. Being less expensive to operate, they can therefore afford to provide better service.''
With all due respect to Tim Zagat and his company's accomplishments, I don't think so.
Being new isn't the reason for success - as shown by the overall winner. Singapore Airlines traces its roots to 1947. It became known by its present name in 1972, when it hived off from Malaysian Airlines. The carrier is nearly 40 years old by the most conservative estimate.
Cathay Pacific? Founded in 1946. ANA? Almost as old. Virgin Atlantic? It's been flying since the 1980s. Air New Zealand is not new, nor is Thai. The only young carrier in the winners' circle is Emirates, and Emirates is unusual because it is owned and subsidized by the government of Dubai and fueled by petrodollars - hardly a common business model.
No, the reason some airlines please customers much more than other airlines do has little to do with age. It's because they want to please customers. They make customer service a priority and they work at it. Having adequate funding always helps, to be sure, but staff training, staff attitudes and management priorities shape airlines - and every other business.
That's the secret of success in the travel field - and it's an open secret.
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Hubris
Hubris, thy name is Boeing ... and Airbus.
The world's two giant aircraft-makers - embracing globalization but stretched to the limit by it - are still struggling to make what they proudly term "game-changing'' new airplanes and deliver them to customer airlines. The latest delay came in June, when Chicago-based Boeing Co. announced there would be yet another delay - the fifth since 2007 - in delivery of its B787 Dreamliner, a long-range airplane made of carbon-composite materials that airlines are counting on to generate less pollution and burn less fuel than do their current fleets. Now, Boeing says its first test flight of the 787 won't take place till the end of this year, with the first deliveries in late 2010 - two and a half years late.
Delays play havoc with the business plans of airlines and put off the day when the traveling public can start to reap the benefits of flying in relatively clean and quiet jetliners.
Toulouse-based Airbus, for its part, is two years behind schedule on its superjumbo A380, due primarily to problems in the extensive electrical wiring needed for the plane. The A380 has been flying for nearly two years but only three airlines are using it, as orders stack up, awaiting faster production by Airbus, a European consortium dominated by the French and Germans with some input from the British and Spanish.
I flew on the first scheduled commercial flight of an Airbus A380, traveling from Singapore to Sydney on Singapore Airlines flight 380. The date was Oct. 25, 2007, and the ride was spectacular - not least because of the movie-premiere-like party going on throughout the seven-hour flight, but also because of the astonishingly quiet performance of the enormous, double-decker plane. Since then, Emirates and Qantas have started flying the A380, too, though both are still waiting for most of the planes they ordered, as is Singapore Air.
The Dreamliner, too, promises to be a fine new airplane, though aviation industry pundits are understandably skeptical about the manufacturer's grand claims for it. "There was a lot of uncertainty, and a lot of the chatter on the street was "Will this aircraft ever fly?'' Alex Hamilton, an analyst with Jesup and Lamont Securities, told Airwise.com after the latest Boeing explanation and apologia.
That's a bit silly. With billions in research and development committed to the 787 and Boeing's prestige on on the line, the aircraft will fly. The question isn't if but when.
In the meantime, imagine being All Nippon Airways, the launch customer for the 787 and buyer of 55 of the aircraft. ANA was expecting to take its first planes in May 2008 and fly them to the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. That plan was dashed.
In Tokyo last year, I interviewed several ANA executives. When the question of the Dreamliner came up, the vexation in their faces was apparent. When I asked if they would seek financial compensation from Boeing for lost business, they said they just might. No one has commented on how much such compensation that could be.
Last week - following a Boeing announcement that it is making headway on resolving a problem left unsolved by an Italian contractor in afixing the wings to the body of the 787 - ANA issued this statement:
"We understand the need to make the best and safest aircraft possible and appreciate that delays due to engineering issues of the current nature must be solved in order to move forward and achieve this. However, as launch customer and future operator of the 787, the length of this further delay is a source of great dismay, not to say frustration.''
Some of Boeing's current difficulties come from overpromising, some from the increasingly globalized nature of manufacturing, with its extended supply chains, worldwide outsourcing and many subcontractors - some relatively unknown to Boeing and Airbus.
Despite their struggles in managing far-flung contract manufacturers, Boeing has said it is looking into starting a second production line for the 787 Dreamliner. If final assembly takes place outside Boeing plants in the state of Washington, that would be a first for Boeing.
Meanwhile, airlines and air travelers alike wait, and wait, to fly the sky of the future.
The world's two giant aircraft-makers - embracing globalization but stretched to the limit by it - are still struggling to make what they proudly term "game-changing'' new airplanes and deliver them to customer airlines. The latest delay came in June, when Chicago-based Boeing Co. announced there would be yet another delay - the fifth since 2007 - in delivery of its B787 Dreamliner, a long-range airplane made of carbon-composite materials that airlines are counting on to generate less pollution and burn less fuel than do their current fleets. Now, Boeing says its first test flight of the 787 won't take place till the end of this year, with the first deliveries in late 2010 - two and a half years late.
Delays play havoc with the business plans of airlines and put off the day when the traveling public can start to reap the benefits of flying in relatively clean and quiet jetliners.
Toulouse-based Airbus, for its part, is two years behind schedule on its superjumbo A380, due primarily to problems in the extensive electrical wiring needed for the plane. The A380 has been flying for nearly two years but only three airlines are using it, as orders stack up, awaiting faster production by Airbus, a European consortium dominated by the French and Germans with some input from the British and Spanish.
I flew on the first scheduled commercial flight of an Airbus A380, traveling from Singapore to Sydney on Singapore Airlines flight 380. The date was Oct. 25, 2007, and the ride was spectacular - not least because of the movie-premiere-like party going on throughout the seven-hour flight, but also because of the astonishingly quiet performance of the enormous, double-decker plane. Since then, Emirates and Qantas have started flying the A380, too, though both are still waiting for most of the planes they ordered, as is Singapore Air.
The Dreamliner, too, promises to be a fine new airplane, though aviation industry pundits are understandably skeptical about the manufacturer's grand claims for it. "There was a lot of uncertainty, and a lot of the chatter on the street was "Will this aircraft ever fly?'' Alex Hamilton, an analyst with Jesup and Lamont Securities, told Airwise.com after the latest Boeing explanation and apologia.
That's a bit silly. With billions in research and development committed to the 787 and Boeing's prestige on on the line, the aircraft will fly. The question isn't if but when.
In the meantime, imagine being All Nippon Airways, the launch customer for the 787 and buyer of 55 of the aircraft. ANA was expecting to take its first planes in May 2008 and fly them to the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. That plan was dashed.
In Tokyo last year, I interviewed several ANA executives. When the question of the Dreamliner came up, the vexation in their faces was apparent. When I asked if they would seek financial compensation from Boeing for lost business, they said they just might. No one has commented on how much such compensation that could be.
Last week - following a Boeing announcement that it is making headway on resolving a problem left unsolved by an Italian contractor in afixing the wings to the body of the 787 - ANA issued this statement:
"We understand the need to make the best and safest aircraft possible and appreciate that delays due to engineering issues of the current nature must be solved in order to move forward and achieve this. However, as launch customer and future operator of the 787, the length of this further delay is a source of great dismay, not to say frustration.''
Some of Boeing's current difficulties come from overpromising, some from the increasingly globalized nature of manufacturing, with its extended supply chains, worldwide outsourcing and many subcontractors - some relatively unknown to Boeing and Airbus.
Despite their struggles in managing far-flung contract manufacturers, Boeing has said it is looking into starting a second production line for the 787 Dreamliner. If final assembly takes place outside Boeing plants in the state of Washington, that would be a first for Boeing.
Meanwhile, airlines and air travelers alike wait, and wait, to fly the sky of the future.
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