Road Warrior

The business of travelling for work

A common approach for high flyers at merged airlines

FOLLOWING THE merger of Continental and United Airlines, from March 3rd, travellers will be using a common system for booking flights, United.com. The premium cabins will also change with common names across the fleet, United Global First and United Business First. Menus, services, content programming for in-flight entertainment and amenities will also be aligned. Signage and operating systems at airports will also reflect the changes. United fly from Dublin, Shannon and Belfast to Newark New York and from June a Dublin-Washington service will begin. United will be using Boeing 757 aircraft.

Frequent flyer programmes will also merge and be called MileagePlus. Continental OnePass members will get new cards and air miles balances will be transferred to MileagePlus.

Budget brand bids for second Big Apple hotel

FOLLOWING THE success of its first hotel in the United States in New York, particularly with corporate travellers, Yotel, the budget brand hotel, has bid for a new property at JFK airport, beside the Jetblue terminal.

Yotel’s 669-bed Times Square area hotel is running at 80 per cent occupancy. Its 16sq m (170sq ft) cabins have movable beds to allow for more work space, free Wi-Fi and complimentary beverages on each floor. There is no room service; you can order food from a local restaurant. Rates are from $269 (€200) plus taxes.

Yotel is also looking at putting hotels in San Francisco and Miami airport. The brand has three hotels in Europe, at Heathrow, Gatwick and Amsterdam. There are plans to add another larger property at Heathrow.

Cashback on seats to Scandinavia with SAS

PLAN BUSINESS trips to Scandinavia, the Baltic States and Poland between March 1st and May 31st and companies can get cash back from SAS.

Spend over €1,000 in this period and companies will receive up to €50 back for every business class seat booked and €30 for economy extra flights. Register on flysas.ie/cashbackby March 9th to participate in this programme.