Features

400th issue of Business Traveller: Quite a journey

30 Mar 2015 by Alex McWhirter
To mark our 400th issue, Alex McWhirter, our consumer champion for more than 30 years, looks back at what business travel was like when the magazine launched in 1976 Back in the mid-seventies, when we launched the magazine, business travel was not as pressurised as today. Fewer people travelled on business and it was considered a perk. All in all, it was a gentler era. Short-haul flying was not as intensive because flights operated at more civilised timings, so trips that would today be completed in a day would often have been a two-day affair. With the exception of Concorde, flights further afield took far longer because there were no truly long-range aircraft, and so short trips lasting under a week to South East Asia were almost unknown. In any case, business people could only choose from first or economy class and, while the latter was superior to what we have today (see last month’s “Feel the squeeze” feature), it was way below today’s best business class standards – in fact, so was the first class offering. Another factor was ticket prices. These were exorbitant by today’s standards, with rates controlled by trade body IATA (the International Air Transport Association). But one IATA advantage was that you could increase the mileage on your ticket by up to 25 per cent either free of charge or for a nominal amount. So the canny traveller would seek maximum value by combining numerous destinations on the same trip. This meant a trip to Asia might be spread over a couple of weeks. Paper tickets were in vogue, and reservations were cumbersome affairs with agents using dial-up phones. Airlines were unable to confirm flights with carriers other than themselves. It meant other flights would be “on request” and you would have to wait hours or days before you found out whether or not you had secured a seat. What computers were available were restricted to airline and hotel use only. There were no loyalty schemes for airlines, let alone hotels or car hire firms. Air passengers received few rewards, even if they provided a carrier with substantial revenue. “Pulling strings” with airlines was not easy. Of course, there would be exceptions – for example, when government departments needed a vital seat on state-owned BOAC (British Overseas Airways Corporation) – but in general, airlines did not look after some of their best customers as one would expect today. US hotel chains had begun to expand globally but the European chains were well behind. Marriott opened one of its first hotels outside the US in 1975. It chose Amsterdam for its European launch and the hotel remains a popular business property today. Reservations were still mainly actioned via the individual hotel itself. One of the wonders of the age was when the US chains opened booking offices around the world so that an international hotel was bookable for the price of a local call. Communications in the developing world were well behind. Direct-dialling could be a problem even between Hong Kong and Japan, so one had to rely on telephone operators to place the call. In some areas of Asia, there was a line shortage. Phoning from West to East Malaysia meant giving a day’s notice for the operator to make the connection. Forget email or fax – it was telex that was state-of-the art. Almost all air tickets were booked through travel agents rather than direct with the carrier. The concept of “managed travel” was alien to the agents, who were little more than order-takers living off fairly generous commissions. But agents acted that way because there was little “selling” involved – all fares were fixed by IATA and, although there was a small amount of covert discounting, any carrier or agent who undercut them risked either being fined or, in the case of the agent, losing their IATA licence to trade. The main way to get a good deal was to book an inclusive package rather than tickets and hotels separately. Savings for long-haul destinations were huge, but generally two people had to travel rather than one. For example, a week-long package at a five-star hotel in Bangkok or Singapore for two people with economy class flights would cost the same as an economy class airfare alone for one person. Forget about cheap excursions. The only “cheap” deal was an Apex fare (Advanced Purchase Excursion), but that had to be booked 60 or 90 days ahead, depending on your destination, and if you changed the flights or cancelled, the penalty charges were high. For short trips there were good ITX (Inclusive Tour Excursion) fares available but, again, you had to book a package and spend a Saturday night away. Canny agents would issue “dummy” or fictitious hotel reservations to bend the rules. Airline ticket offices of that era were luxurious and located in prime city-centre areas. Air France and Lufthansa were to be found on Bond Street, Pan Am and TWA along Piccadilly, and Alitalia and South African Airways at Oxford Circus. BEA (British European Airways) and BOAC maintained separate offices in major UK cities. In line with its higher status, BOAC was to be found in a posher part of Regent Street than was BEA. In many ways, air travel has gone backwards over the years. Without Concorde, some journeys take more than twice as long as they did before. Conversely, planes can now fly two or three times farther than they could in the mid-seventies so those trips that weren’t possible by Concorde take less time. But so much time is now wasted on air travel procedures. Check-in times have been extended, while immigration and security take longer to clear. Airports are busier than ever before, so airlines build “schedule recovery” into their short-haul timetables to allow for delays both in the air and on the ground. A flight to Paris that would have been scheduled for an hour or less is now allowed 90 minutes. At least today’s airport experience is mollified for premium fare passengers, with the provision of lounges and other amenities to while away the time. The airline industry has changed dramatically. Transatlantic flying was in the hands of Pan Am and TWA. Today’s transatlantic heavyweights, American, Delta and United, were humble domestic carriers. JAL was the leading Asian airline, operating almost daily flights over three routes to Japan: via Anchorage, via India and via Moscow. Although JAL operated B747s on the first two routings, the Soviets forbade the use of jumbo jets via Moscow because they did not want locals to see the sort of aircraft the West was capable of designing. So JAL and Western carriers flew over Russia with narrow-bodied B707s and DC-8s. Russia and China refused overflying rights to almost all Western carriers. It meant a flight to Hong Kong or Shanghai – the latter served only by Air France, as the sole Western carrier serving China – would take as long as a flight to Australia today. A London to Tokyo flight via Anchorage would take 19 hours. The Alaskan airport became an important trans-Pacific hub – the stuffed polar bear in its North Terminal remains an iconic sight. All European countries refused traffic rights to Taiwanese airlines, while in the days of apartheid, SAA’s flights between Europe and South Africa were forbidden to overfly Sub-Saharan Africa. Instead, they routed around the “bulge” of Africa. Thai Airways was the first carrier to operate nonstop at that time between Europe and Bangkok. Cathay Pacific didn’t arrive in Europe until 1980, and Singapore Airlines (SIA) was still getting into its stride. It’s hard to believe today, but SIA’s daily B707 flight to Singapore was a multi-stop affair. Two of the most innovative air services are sadly missed. Concorde more than halved transatlantic flight times and drastically cut schedules elsewhere. At its peak, it wasn’t only flying to New York or Washington DC. BA operated a joint venture with SIA that saw Concorde flying to Singapore via Bahrain. Air France’s Concorde service between Paris and Rio de Janeiro made a refuelling stop in Dakar. It meant travellers could have lunch in Paris and yet still arrive in Rio in time for afternoon tea on the same day. BEA’s domestic Shuttle was fast and simple but expensive – there has never been anything like it since. Check-in time with bags was a mere ten minutes, even at Heathrow. BEA guaranteed a seat even at the busiest times (a spare fleet of planes and crew were constantly on standby), and you did not need a ticket to board the plane – passengers paid on the aircraft. There was no in-flight service. What about rail? Nationalised British Rail was not popular on journeys of more than 320km. Most business people would take the plane, not only on Anglo-Scottish routes but also to Manchester, Leeds and Newcastle. International rail travel from the UK involved ferry crossings, which extended the journey time. Today, London to Brussels or Paris is accomplished by Eurostar in two hours or a little more, but using the ferries extended the journey time almost fourfold. The most successful ferry route, even today, is Harwich-Hook of Holland. Popular with business people, when the overnight ferry from Harwich reached Hook the next morning, there would be a range of trains waiting to carry passengers deep into mainland Europe. The ferry still exists, but sadly the onward trains are no more. Over the past four decades, business travel has transformed beyond recognition. Next time around, I wonder just how many of today’s airlines, hotels and services will have survived?
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