Yesterday the World Health Organization declared a pandemic status for H1N1 influenza - a bug spread in no small part by global travel - but the organization stopped short of telling people not to travel or endorsing border closings or travel quarantines.
What does that mean for travelers? At this point, not much. Travelers should continue to exercise common sense - not traveling if you're sick, covering your mouth when coughing or sneezing, washing your hands frequently - but panicing about the pandemic isn't warranted.
The WHO's director-general, Dr. Margaret Chan, allowed that the flu, while it has spread rapidly, is so far at least a mild bug for nearly everyone who comes down with it. This latest flu, derived from swine, has as of this writing infected about 28,000 people in 74 countries, killing about 150 people. The 1968 flu pandemic killed about a million people. The infamous 1918-19 influenza tsunami is believed to have killed tens of millions. The advent of better sanitation and improved public health accounts for the dramatically lower number of deaths. As things stand, ordinary seasonal flu already kills about 500,000 people worldwide, according to the WHO.
Although it apparently started in Mexico and quickly spread to the United States, the contagion is taken most seriously in the Asia Pacific region. Australia, which has had a recent outbreak, has ordered some school closings. East Asia, where memories of SARS and the bird flu are strong, has instituted careful measures at airports. When I visited Malaysia and Korea last week, all airline passengers were scanned by walk-through machines that read our temperatures. At Korea's Seoul/Incheon International Airport, screeners passed a small machine behind - not in - passeners' ears as they deplaned. Some airport workers wore surgical masks. Asian airlines have stepped-up scrubbing of their aircraft, and one carrier, Cathay Pacific Airways, reports it is replacing used pillows, blankets and headset covers instead of cleaning and re-using them.
In both of the major Asian airports I used, the mood was calm and cautious - and that's as it should be. The virus could yet mutate into a more serious form, and experts say it may return next year. So far, though, we seem to have escaped the worst possible scenario.
Would that things stay that way. As long as they do, don't let the fear of flu - and the P word, pandemic - make you stay at home.
Friday, June 12, 2009
Monday, June 8, 2009
KL from SkyBar at Traders
KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA - When I last visited KL, nearly 10 years ago, the city seemed like a garden. Looking out from more than, say, 10 stories up, one saw a canopy of green tropical trees. Many of the trees are still there, but as evidenced from SkyBar, the breezy rooftop bar on the 33rd floor of Traders Hotel, the city has recently sprouted a forest of new highrise buildings.
There are, of course, the brilliant Petronas twin towers - 88 floors high, shaped like two electronic wands or twin ziggurats, connected at the 41st floor by an enclosed metal-and-glass walkway. Since I last visited, the towers have gained some company. Not least is SkyBar itself - graced by spectacular views and cooled by a swimming pool that runs down the center of the space. It draws a hip crowd of spiky-haired individuals at night, hotel guests splashing about in the water by day. Traders, coolly stylish and very well-appointed business hotel, opened in January 2006, and is joined at the hip to the 2-year-old Kuala Lumpur Convention Center. A vacant lot far down below is set to become a Four Seasons Hotel. Also nearby is another high-end hotel, the Mandarin Oriental, also a highrise.
But if development has changed the face of central KL, there are still many trees, some with bright, flaming flowers. The tall buildings near Traders surround a small but fine green park and small lake. Families stroll there on weekends and the occasional hardy jogger, plugging away in KL's smothering tropical heat, is also to be seen.
Me, I relaxed over chicken satays and duck egg rolls with a Tiger beer, watching the city lights come on. A DJ was scheduled to spin and scratch later that night, but I didn't stay to see the place morph into a trendy club, which it does in the wee hours. And not solely for Traders guests -SkyBar is a popular destination in its own right. It was enough to chill out with a drink and watch the nightime haze swirling between the Petronas towers. I half-expected the Batman logo to materialize, projected on the nighttime sky. Maybe with another drink.
There are, of course, the brilliant Petronas twin towers - 88 floors high, shaped like two electronic wands or twin ziggurats, connected at the 41st floor by an enclosed metal-and-glass walkway. Since I last visited, the towers have gained some company. Not least is SkyBar itself - graced by spectacular views and cooled by a swimming pool that runs down the center of the space. It draws a hip crowd of spiky-haired individuals at night, hotel guests splashing about in the water by day. Traders, coolly stylish and very well-appointed business hotel, opened in January 2006, and is joined at the hip to the 2-year-old Kuala Lumpur Convention Center. A vacant lot far down below is set to become a Four Seasons Hotel. Also nearby is another high-end hotel, the Mandarin Oriental, also a highrise.
But if development has changed the face of central KL, there are still many trees, some with bright, flaming flowers. The tall buildings near Traders surround a small but fine green park and small lake. Families stroll there on weekends and the occasional hardy jogger, plugging away in KL's smothering tropical heat, is also to be seen.
Me, I relaxed over chicken satays and duck egg rolls with a Tiger beer, watching the city lights come on. A DJ was scheduled to spin and scratch later that night, but I didn't stay to see the place morph into a trendy club, which it does in the wee hours. And not solely for Traders guests -SkyBar is a popular destination in its own right. It was enough to chill out with a drink and watch the nightime haze swirling between the Petronas towers. I half-expected the Batman logo to materialize, projected on the nighttime sky. Maybe with another drink.
Simplifying Air Travel
KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA - The cascade of glum financial news continued at the world's biggest civil aviation conference, on today's second and closing day.
Airline and airport executives, execs at industry vendors such as Airbus and Boeing and several hundred presslings - that's us journalists - heard insiders such as JetBlue Airways CEO David Barger say the New York carrier will take delivery of only three new planes this year, down from the 36 it thought it was ordering until recently. Blame the global economy for that.
But while the numbers are still bad in the travel business and well beyond it, innovations that will change the way we travel continue to be developed, recession or no.
One of the pet projects of the International Air Transport Association - holding its big annual general meeting here in Malaysia's capital -is called simplfying the business. This initiative led to the near-total disappearance of paper tickets in recent years, in favor of electronic tickets. That saved the airlines a bundle of money, and deeply cut back the use of paper - for them, anyway. Travelers, of course, still use paper when we print out our e-tickets.
Now, particpating airlines are promoting the use of airport kiosks to read two-dimensional check-in bar codes sent to travelers' mobile phones and even kiosks to self-tag your checked bags rather than have an airline employee do it. A prototype of this futuristic form of air travel has gone live at Kuala Lumpur International Airport, where it is in the early stages of testing by the public. Look for much more of this in years to come as automated and tightly integrated systems are rolled out in the world's busiest airports.
The thing these innovations have got in commom is that they encourage and enable travelers to Do It Yourself. That saves the airlines money - they don't have to pay employees to perform these tasks - and if the new systems work as advertised, they will save you a lot of time when you travel, cutting the precious minutes you have to spend in line.
Airline and airport executives, execs at industry vendors such as Airbus and Boeing and several hundred presslings - that's us journalists - heard insiders such as JetBlue Airways CEO David Barger say the New York carrier will take delivery of only three new planes this year, down from the 36 it thought it was ordering until recently. Blame the global economy for that.
But while the numbers are still bad in the travel business and well beyond it, innovations that will change the way we travel continue to be developed, recession or no.
One of the pet projects of the International Air Transport Association - holding its big annual general meeting here in Malaysia's capital -is called simplfying the business. This initiative led to the near-total disappearance of paper tickets in recent years, in favor of electronic tickets. That saved the airlines a bundle of money, and deeply cut back the use of paper - for them, anyway. Travelers, of course, still use paper when we print out our e-tickets.
Now, particpating airlines are promoting the use of airport kiosks to read two-dimensional check-in bar codes sent to travelers' mobile phones and even kiosks to self-tag your checked bags rather than have an airline employee do it. A prototype of this futuristic form of air travel has gone live at Kuala Lumpur International Airport, where it is in the early stages of testing by the public. Look for much more of this in years to come as automated and tightly integrated systems are rolled out in the world's busiest airports.
The thing these innovations have got in commom is that they encourage and enable travelers to Do It Yourself. That saves the airlines money - they don't have to pay employees to perform these tasks - and if the new systems work as advertised, they will save you a lot of time when you travel, cutting the precious minutes you have to spend in line.
Sunday, June 7, 2009
IATA's Post-Crisis Flight Plan
KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA - The financial news in the airline industry continues to be glum, but the International Air Transport Association today revealed ambitious plans for the world's airlines notwithstanding the present economic downturn.
IATA's Director General and CEO, Giovanni Bisignani, told hundreds of industry-insiders and media at today's annual general meeting that his organization of 226 commercial airlines has set a goal of carbon-neutral growth for the year 2020. Presently, airlines generate about 2 percent of the carbon gases believed to contribute to global warming; the steadily increasing number of flights has led observers to expect that number to rise to 3 percent if left unchecked. Airlines take a good deal of flack from environmentalists and national governments for not being green enough, so this new target is an attempt by the airline industry to meet that criticism.
How will the world's airlines meet this lofty goal?
According to IATA, it's do-able, provided airlines get support from aircraft manufacturers committed to cleaner aircraft. Airlines wouldn't mind seeing some of the trillion or so dollars being handed out in stimulus plans to develop cleaner biotech fuels. Beyond that, airlines think they can cut back on carbon emissions by flying new, more fuel-efficient aircraft, making greater use of bio-fuels and prodding regulators to create a new "single European sky' to replace the many bilteral agreements and zigzag air routes with one streamlined continental system.
Additionally, Bisignani called for harmonization of airport security measures around the world, so that millions of air travelers can expect the same set of rules and procedures wherever they may roam; that's certainly not the case with today's maddening crazy-quilt of rules.
In his annual state of the industry speech, Bisignani - a free-market champion - also called on governments to lift restrictions on foreign investment and the outright purchase of airlines in other nations. The present regime is antiquated, he argued, and nationalistic restrictions on ownership make it difficult for airlines to raise sufficient capital to operate and upgrade. It's hard to argue with him, especially when considering the crumbling state of transportation infrastructure in places such as the United States, where I live. The U.S. restricts foreign ownership of American carriers to 25 percent, partly for reasons of national pride and partly in the believe that this saves jobs from being lost to overseas carriers.
IATA insists this only harms airlines and thus airline passengers. Bisignani summed it up nicely with this tart observation: "All we want is access to global capital, but old rules stand in the way of a healthier industry. If we cannot pay the bills, saving the flag on the tail will not save jobs.''
IATA's Director General and CEO, Giovanni Bisignani, told hundreds of industry-insiders and media at today's annual general meeting that his organization of 226 commercial airlines has set a goal of carbon-neutral growth for the year 2020. Presently, airlines generate about 2 percent of the carbon gases believed to contribute to global warming; the steadily increasing number of flights has led observers to expect that number to rise to 3 percent if left unchecked. Airlines take a good deal of flack from environmentalists and national governments for not being green enough, so this new target is an attempt by the airline industry to meet that criticism.
How will the world's airlines meet this lofty goal?
According to IATA, it's do-able, provided airlines get support from aircraft manufacturers committed to cleaner aircraft. Airlines wouldn't mind seeing some of the trillion or so dollars being handed out in stimulus plans to develop cleaner biotech fuels. Beyond that, airlines think they can cut back on carbon emissions by flying new, more fuel-efficient aircraft, making greater use of bio-fuels and prodding regulators to create a new "single European sky' to replace the many bilteral agreements and zigzag air routes with one streamlined continental system.
Additionally, Bisignani called for harmonization of airport security measures around the world, so that millions of air travelers can expect the same set of rules and procedures wherever they may roam; that's certainly not the case with today's maddening crazy-quilt of rules.
In his annual state of the industry speech, Bisignani - a free-market champion - also called on governments to lift restrictions on foreign investment and the outright purchase of airlines in other nations. The present regime is antiquated, he argued, and nationalistic restrictions on ownership make it difficult for airlines to raise sufficient capital to operate and upgrade. It's hard to argue with him, especially when considering the crumbling state of transportation infrastructure in places such as the United States, where I live. The U.S. restricts foreign ownership of American carriers to 25 percent, partly for reasons of national pride and partly in the believe that this saves jobs from being lost to overseas carriers.
IATA insists this only harms airlines and thus airline passengers. Bisignani summed it up nicely with this tart observation: "All we want is access to global capital, but old rules stand in the way of a healthier industry. If we cannot pay the bills, saving the flag on the tail will not save jobs.''
On a Wing and a Prayer
KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA - There is a bright green arrow on the ceiling of my room at Traders Hotel; it points to Mecca, so that devout Muslims in this overwhelmingly Muslim country know which direction to face when praying. Airline executives may wish to pray now, too, as their industry's finances continue in free-fall; if only they knew which direction to turn.
That's the emphatically downbeat sentiment right now on the opening day of 65th annual general meeting of the International Air Transport Association, the trade organization for 226 of world's commercial airlines. IATA's numbers-crunchers, unveiling their research here at the confab in Malaysia's capital and largest city, predict airlines will lose $9 billion US this year, nearly double the loss expected just six months ago. That's down from the $10.4 billion US airlines lost in 2008, but it's scant comfort for executives of the world's struggling carriers - and their millions of passengers.
Why should you care? Simply this: If the numbers continue to be bad for much longer, travelers are looking at fewer flights, more-crowded flights, cutbacks of amenities, older airplanes staying longer in the sky, and delays of long-planned cabin and service upgrades. Airlines have to make money to spend money. Right now, most are counting heavy losses.
Giovanni Bisignani, IATA's smart, peppery director general and CEO, couldn't have been more blunt in his annual state of the industry speech in Kuala Lumpur this morning. "Optimists see growth by the end of the year, but pessimists view this as a mirage and expect an L-shaped recovery,'' Bisignani said to hundreds of assembled airline executives, vendors and suppliers and world media. "I am a realist. I don't see facts to support optimism.''
"After Sept. 11, 2001, revenues fell by 7 percent,'' Bisignani said. "This time we face a 15 percent drop with a global recession.''
Airline CEOs were similarly downbeat. At a oneworld alliance press conference this morning - called in part to promote the application for anti-trust immunity in the U.S. and EU for members such as American Airlines and British Airlines, who want to work more closely on lucrative trans-Atlantic routes - airline honchos' faces were long.
Oneword managing partner John McCulloch said alliance members are concentrating this year on paring their costs. He didn't specify how that will be done, but the implications are not encouraging for consumers who value comfort and convenience in travel.
"It will be a very difficult time for some time to come, I believe,'' Cathay Pacific Airways CEO Tony Tyler sighed. There was more of the same from British Air's CEO, Willie Walsh: "Everyone is facing a weak economic environment and weak consumer confidence,'' Walsh said.
So, where do we go from here?
We'll learn more about that as the meeting unfolds. I'll be posting throughout, with an emphasis on what's new and what airline corporate flight plans will mean for travelers.
That's the emphatically downbeat sentiment right now on the opening day of 65th annual general meeting of the International Air Transport Association, the trade organization for 226 of world's commercial airlines. IATA's numbers-crunchers, unveiling their research here at the confab in Malaysia's capital and largest city, predict airlines will lose $9 billion US this year, nearly double the loss expected just six months ago. That's down from the $10.4 billion US airlines lost in 2008, but it's scant comfort for executives of the world's struggling carriers - and their millions of passengers.
Why should you care? Simply this: If the numbers continue to be bad for much longer, travelers are looking at fewer flights, more-crowded flights, cutbacks of amenities, older airplanes staying longer in the sky, and delays of long-planned cabin and service upgrades. Airlines have to make money to spend money. Right now, most are counting heavy losses.
Giovanni Bisignani, IATA's smart, peppery director general and CEO, couldn't have been more blunt in his annual state of the industry speech in Kuala Lumpur this morning. "Optimists see growth by the end of the year, but pessimists view this as a mirage and expect an L-shaped recovery,'' Bisignani said to hundreds of assembled airline executives, vendors and suppliers and world media. "I am a realist. I don't see facts to support optimism.''
"After Sept. 11, 2001, revenues fell by 7 percent,'' Bisignani said. "This time we face a 15 percent drop with a global recession.''
Airline CEOs were similarly downbeat. At a oneworld alliance press conference this morning - called in part to promote the application for anti-trust immunity in the U.S. and EU for members such as American Airlines and British Airlines, who want to work more closely on lucrative trans-Atlantic routes - airline honchos' faces were long.
Oneword managing partner John McCulloch said alliance members are concentrating this year on paring their costs. He didn't specify how that will be done, but the implications are not encouraging for consumers who value comfort and convenience in travel.
"It will be a very difficult time for some time to come, I believe,'' Cathay Pacific Airways CEO Tony Tyler sighed. There was more of the same from British Air's CEO, Willie Walsh: "Everyone is facing a weak economic environment and weak consumer confidence,'' Walsh said.
So, where do we go from here?
We'll learn more about that as the meeting unfolds. I'll be posting throughout, with an emphasis on what's new and what airline corporate flight plans will mean for travelers.
Friday, June 5, 2009
Korean Air's Comeback Kids
INCHEON, KOREA - Time was when Korean Air couldn't buy a break. Troubled by high-profile disasters, South Korea's biggest airline was dogged in the 1980s and '90s by a poor reputation.
What a difference a decade makes. Korean brought in international aviation experts to consult with company leaders, raised the bar on its product, retooled its once-hidebound corporate culture and is now one of the world's most respected and forward-looking airlines.
I'm seeing the results first hand, having flown from New York JFK to Incheon International Airport, just outside Seoul, Korea's capital and largest city, on a beautifully appointed and well-run Boeing 777. I flew in business class - which KAL calls Prestige - and it was a delight. The food and beverages - who would sneer at Laurent Perrier Champagne and spicy Korean beef? - were first-rate. The flat-bed seat on this triple-7 was just this month made flatter, wider and longer. The LCD monitors at every Prestige seat were enlarged and graced with sharp definition. There were dozens of movies, games and TV shows, accessed through a remote or touch-screen. Best of all, the superbly trained staff was attentive without being intrusive.
I met afterwards at KAL's headquarters on the edge of Seoul with two KAL executives: Steve Sukwan Kim, general manager passenger marketing development team, and Arnold(Boyoung) Song, team leader of the U.S. route management team.They said the carrier would press ahead with cabin upgrades, the purchase of new aircraft and other plans, despite the weak global economy and weakening of South Korea's currency, the won.
Although it's not widely known, KAL operates more trans-Pacific flights between Asia and North America - about 90 departures per week this summer - than any other airline. The carrier flies often to neighboring China and Japan and promotes Incheon International as a major hub and transfer point in East Asia. The sparkling, seaside airport was opened on reclaimed land in 2001 and has expanded continuously since then, with still-more growth in the works.
Kim said KAL expects to take possession of its first superjumbo Airbus A380 in December of 2010, and receive the fuel-efficient Boeing B787 Dreamliner by 2011. KAL, Kim and Song said, will make first use of the A380 on flights to Los Angeles International Airport and JFK. They wouldn't disclose how many seats will be on the huge aircraft, but they did say they won't be putting closed-door suites in first class.
"The cabin crews say it makes it too hard to communicate with passengers, and the passengers feel uncomfortable,'' Song says.
He said KAL plans to spend $200 million USD over the next several years upgrading the seats in all three classes and is considering whether to add a premium economy class. In the present collapse of premium international business travel, many airlines have done well with premium economy, given that companies have forced executives to trade down and/or cut back on air travel. Indeed, business class on my New York-Incheon flight was only about one-third full.
Despite sagging load factors, "We won't consider cutting business class fares,'' Kim says. "We want to maintain a certain level of fares in business class. But we will offer them more.''
This is not the time for Korean to cut back, as many other airlines have done, the two men say. Celebrating its 40th anniversary this year - the former national flag carrier was privatized in 1969 - the company wants to look forward, not backward.
Korean has had a hard history until this decade. In 1983, in a notorious Cold War attack, a Soviet fighter shot down a KAL flight over Siberia with much loss of life, and in 1997 a KAL jetliner crashed near Guam, killing over 200 people.
While no one can afford to be complacent about safety at any time - witness the recent Air France tragedy over the Atlantic - Korean has improved its safety record dramatically, in line with its other broad and deep improvements. The carrier is now one of the world's 20 largest airlines and is actually no. 1 in volume of cargo . In the estimation of this frequent flier, KAL is one of the 10 best airlines for customer for service in the world. The turnaround is quite remarkable. Korean Air's comeback kids have something to be proud of.
What a difference a decade makes. Korean brought in international aviation experts to consult with company leaders, raised the bar on its product, retooled its once-hidebound corporate culture and is now one of the world's most respected and forward-looking airlines.
I'm seeing the results first hand, having flown from New York JFK to Incheon International Airport, just outside Seoul, Korea's capital and largest city, on a beautifully appointed and well-run Boeing 777. I flew in business class - which KAL calls Prestige - and it was a delight. The food and beverages - who would sneer at Laurent Perrier Champagne and spicy Korean beef? - were first-rate. The flat-bed seat on this triple-7 was just this month made flatter, wider and longer. The LCD monitors at every Prestige seat were enlarged and graced with sharp definition. There were dozens of movies, games and TV shows, accessed through a remote or touch-screen. Best of all, the superbly trained staff was attentive without being intrusive.
I met afterwards at KAL's headquarters on the edge of Seoul with two KAL executives: Steve Sukwan Kim, general manager passenger marketing development team, and Arnold(Boyoung) Song, team leader of the U.S. route management team.They said the carrier would press ahead with cabin upgrades, the purchase of new aircraft and other plans, despite the weak global economy and weakening of South Korea's currency, the won.
Although it's not widely known, KAL operates more trans-Pacific flights between Asia and North America - about 90 departures per week this summer - than any other airline. The carrier flies often to neighboring China and Japan and promotes Incheon International as a major hub and transfer point in East Asia. The sparkling, seaside airport was opened on reclaimed land in 2001 and has expanded continuously since then, with still-more growth in the works.
Kim said KAL expects to take possession of its first superjumbo Airbus A380 in December of 2010, and receive the fuel-efficient Boeing B787 Dreamliner by 2011. KAL, Kim and Song said, will make first use of the A380 on flights to Los Angeles International Airport and JFK. They wouldn't disclose how many seats will be on the huge aircraft, but they did say they won't be putting closed-door suites in first class.
"The cabin crews say it makes it too hard to communicate with passengers, and the passengers feel uncomfortable,'' Song says.
He said KAL plans to spend $200 million USD over the next several years upgrading the seats in all three classes and is considering whether to add a premium economy class. In the present collapse of premium international business travel, many airlines have done well with premium economy, given that companies have forced executives to trade down and/or cut back on air travel. Indeed, business class on my New York-Incheon flight was only about one-third full.
Despite sagging load factors, "We won't consider cutting business class fares,'' Kim says. "We want to maintain a certain level of fares in business class. But we will offer them more.''
This is not the time for Korean to cut back, as many other airlines have done, the two men say. Celebrating its 40th anniversary this year - the former national flag carrier was privatized in 1969 - the company wants to look forward, not backward.
Korean has had a hard history until this decade. In 1983, in a notorious Cold War attack, a Soviet fighter shot down a KAL flight over Siberia with much loss of life, and in 1997 a KAL jetliner crashed near Guam, killing over 200 people.
While no one can afford to be complacent about safety at any time - witness the recent Air France tragedy over the Atlantic - Korean has improved its safety record dramatically, in line with its other broad and deep improvements. The carrier is now one of the world's 20 largest airlines and is actually no. 1 in volume of cargo . In the estimation of this frequent flier, KAL is one of the 10 best airlines for customer for service in the world. The turnaround is quite remarkable. Korean Air's comeback kids have something to be proud of.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
A Peek at the "New" Hotel Pierre
NEW YORK - Soft openings - when a hotel is accepting guests and gearing up ahead of its official opening - are by definition works in progress, but they offer fresh, early looks at a hotel before the crowds get there. Such is the case with me right now: I'm staying at the Hotel Pierre, the venerable New York 5-star, looking out over green and leafy Central Park and taking a two-day peek at the reborn Pierre.
The Hotel Pierre has been an important hotel in midtown Manhattan since the early 1930s. With its elegant styling and prime location at Fifth Avenue and East 61st Street, it has long attracted its share of the rich and celebrated and has for years been a favorite of affluent brides. Managed by India's Taj Hotels and Resorts since 2005, the Pierre re-opens this week, following a $100 million renovation that has taken 18 months so far.
What's different? The lobby, for one. Gone is the old bar, replaced by a new, contemporary watering hole called 2 East, that's accessed just off the serene lobby; it's down a few steps and folded within a windowless room. The main lobby itself, marble-clad and more traditional in design, is nicely illuminated, with a high ceiling, somehow combining airiness with solidity.
Taj, a major player in India, regards the Pierre as its flagship in the USA, where it also operates the Boston Taj and San Francisco's Campton Place. The company renovated all of the Pierre's 189 guestrooms and suites, installing 40-inch flatscreen TVs and iPod docking stations. Wi-fi and Ethernet connections are available in all the rooms. The in-room safes are easily big enough to take a laptop and have a power outlet. Bathrooms, in the New York manner, are on the small side and the hotel's prices, also in the New York manner, are on the high side: Think $2 per minute to use the Internet in the 4th floor business center. But while you pay to stay here, quality is usually high. Room rates, which will start at $895 per night when the hotel formally re-opens around Oct. 1, can be significantly lower during the present soft-opening phase.
The Pierre still has a ways to go to reach its accustomed 5-star status, but with a four-month rollout before the grand re-opening, there is time to get operations up to speed. Also coming: The first U.S. location of the tony London restaurant Le Caprice. Hotel public relations staffers say this upmarket fine-dining establishment is expected to debut in the renovated Pierre by late September.
In the meantime, soft-opening glitches notwithstanding it's fascinating to watch Taj put all the pieces - old and new - together. Fully loaded and reset, the Pierre should be a strengthened position to contend in the fiercely competitive New York luxury market.
The Hotel Pierre has been an important hotel in midtown Manhattan since the early 1930s. With its elegant styling and prime location at Fifth Avenue and East 61st Street, it has long attracted its share of the rich and celebrated and has for years been a favorite of affluent brides. Managed by India's Taj Hotels and Resorts since 2005, the Pierre re-opens this week, following a $100 million renovation that has taken 18 months so far.
What's different? The lobby, for one. Gone is the old bar, replaced by a new, contemporary watering hole called 2 East, that's accessed just off the serene lobby; it's down a few steps and folded within a windowless room. The main lobby itself, marble-clad and more traditional in design, is nicely illuminated, with a high ceiling, somehow combining airiness with solidity.
Taj, a major player in India, regards the Pierre as its flagship in the USA, where it also operates the Boston Taj and San Francisco's Campton Place. The company renovated all of the Pierre's 189 guestrooms and suites, installing 40-inch flatscreen TVs and iPod docking stations. Wi-fi and Ethernet connections are available in all the rooms. The in-room safes are easily big enough to take a laptop and have a power outlet. Bathrooms, in the New York manner, are on the small side and the hotel's prices, also in the New York manner, are on the high side: Think $2 per minute to use the Internet in the 4th floor business center. But while you pay to stay here, quality is usually high. Room rates, which will start at $895 per night when the hotel formally re-opens around Oct. 1, can be significantly lower during the present soft-opening phase.
The Pierre still has a ways to go to reach its accustomed 5-star status, but with a four-month rollout before the grand re-opening, there is time to get operations up to speed. Also coming: The first U.S. location of the tony London restaurant Le Caprice. Hotel public relations staffers say this upmarket fine-dining establishment is expected to debut in the renovated Pierre by late September.
In the meantime, soft-opening glitches notwithstanding it's fascinating to watch Taj put all the pieces - old and new - together. Fully loaded and reset, the Pierre should be a strengthened position to contend in the fiercely competitive New York luxury market.
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