Hyatt Place Offers Business Travelers Etiquette Tips

Hyatt Place Hotels has partnered with etiquette expert Anna Post to offer business travelers a series of short etiquette-focused topics meant to help professionals succeed. As she explains on her website, knowing proper etiquette in different situations is helpful, but sometimes the most appropriate response isn't always the most obvious.

Some areas she touches on are using technology appropriately; Be self-reliant - be self prepared; Master the art of small talk; Appearance matters. In using technology appropriately for example, Post offers solutions on how to accept phone calls during meetings, without necessarily upsetting other meeting attendees.

Click here to visit The Etiquette Effect.

Hyatt Place Hotels partnered with Etiquette effect as they continue to roll out their new hotel brand throughout the U.S. The brand, primarily targeted toward the business traveler, includes 24-hour made-to-order fresh food, complimentary continental breakfast, 42" plasma TV's, office desks, complimentary wireless internet, and an over sized sofa-sleeper that is separated from the main sleeping area.

Locally, there are two Hyatt Place locations in the East Bay, and one near Sacramento.

Click here to visit Hyatt Place Hotels.

United Adds Minimum Stay Requirements & Bumps Up Fares

Late Breaking News...
In the continuing battle against rising costs, United Airlines announced in a press release today that they will bring back minimum-stay requirements on nearly all routes, even in markets where they compete with low-cost carriers. The minimum stay requirements apply to those flying on the cheapest fares and for flights starting October 6th. Under the new rules, in order to score the cheapest ticket prices, a minimum stay of 1-3 nights will be required.

And about those cheapest fares...United also announced a system wide increase in fares, from $1-$90 each way. That now makes the least expensive ticket on United Airlines to be $69 each way. It seemed like just yesterday we were showered with $39 airfares from the Bay Area.

inFLIGHTout recommendation: If you have a same-day return flight and you want to avoid the minimum stay requirement but still score the best fare, consider purchasing one-way tickets in each direction. (This does not work in some markets, as United often charges extra for a one-way ticket). For example, rather than a round trip ticket from SFO-Las Vegas, purchase a one-way ticket there, and one way ticket back. The price might be better than the round trip price since it circumvents the minimum stay requirement.

United Airlines To Slash Capacity, Drop Ted

United Airlines will be reducing domestic seat capacity by 12%, including grounding 70 non-fuel efficient 737 & 747 aircraft, and slashing over 1000 jobs by 2009. Additionally, the airline is dropping Ted Airlines, its all-domestic fleet, and reinstalling first class seats. All this in response to record high fuel prices. Read More.

Travelocity Brings Back 'Flexible Dates' Feature For International Travel

Back in July 2006, Travelocity opted to disable the "flexible dates" functionality that allowed customers to search for the best international fares when travel dates were flexible. They did so after failing to reach an agreement with the Department of Transportation on how to show the most accurate fare when factoring in all surcharges, which vary by city and carrier.

Well, that wonderful feature is back! According to our friends at Airfarewatchdog.com, Travelocity reintroduced this functionality late last week.

How it works: Let's say you want to travel from San Francisco to Paris (CDG). On the Travelocity website (and really most travel booking sites) you simply enter the travel dates you want to fly and the site returns with the best available prices. Easy enough. But using the flexible dates feature, which Travelocity again offers, the site searches 330 days in advance and reports back the least expensive travel dates. Most other travel sites do not have this extensive international search feature - farecompare.com being a notable exception.

I have not seen an official press release from Travelocity as yet regarding the recent changes. But let's hope this move is permanent, thereby enabling travelers with more tools when making travel plans. Two thumbs up for Travelocity.

Operation SPOT in progress at airports throughout the country

Behavior detection officers are on active duty at dozens of airports throughout the U.S according to SeattlePI; they're looking for unusual behaviors, facial expressions or questionable emotions and reactions during brief interactions with passengers during the standard screening process.

Screening Passengers by Observation Technique (SPOT) was designed by the TSA to stop terrorist activity. Carl Maccario who helped design the program said, "We're looking for behavior indicators that show a certain level of stress, fear or anxiety above and beyond that shown by an anxious member of the traveling public."

Since January 06' the program has identified 70,000 people for the secondary screening, and made 600-700 arrests for a variety of charges.

Use Caution when buying airline coupons on Ebay

Scam Alert: Auction site Ebay is filled with attractive coupons and discounts for many airlines in the U.S. Whether you need discounted tickets on Southwest, Continental, Northwest and Alaska (to name a few), Ebay seems to have the discount your looking for. Most have rules however stating the certificates cannot be sold, traded, etc., so you need to be mindful of this.

But this story is really about United Airlines $100 off e-certificates on the Ebay site. It seems someone very creative, arguably bored, may have found a way to "crack the code" and is trying to sell fraudulently obtained e-certs by transposing numbers. The technique for doing this is described on travelglitch. The result: some people on Ebay are selling these codes at a steep discount.

This causes duplicated e-certificate numbers, with one person using the code they legitimately obtained from United, the other using the code they ultimately obtained from a fraudster.

inFLIGHTout recommends you ask the seller for a scan or other documentation showing they have the actual e-certificate from the airline before deciding to purchase. If they airline becomes tuned in to the fraudulent situation, you may find yourself, and your mileage plus account under scrutiny. (Yes, they have suspended & closed accounts for not adhering to frequent flyer program rules).

Three global airline alliances include 82% of the world's top 60 carriers

Oneworld 21.6% (ie: American Airlines)
Star Alliance 27% (ie: United Airlines)
SkyTeam 22.5% (ie: Northwest Airlines)
Unaligned 28.9% (ie: JetBlue)


All three airline alliances are seeking to sign carriers out of such emerging markets as China and India.

For the consumer, the added benefit may be more opportunities to earn and spend frequent flyer miles with airlines in each alliance without having to belong to each airline's frequent flyer program.
Contributing source: Business Travel News