News

Just landed

10 Jan 2008 by Mark Caswell

Staff writer
 
Scandinavian Airlines has released its latest English-language guidebook written by the region’s biggest globetrotters – the pilots and cabin staff of the airline itself. The SAS Crew Guide 2008 features 288 pages of travel tips for more than 30 cities around the world, and this year’s edition also includes tips from the staff of some of the carrier’s Star Alliance partners. With spin-off editions including SAS Crew Guide Escapes, the airline is hoping sales will take off this year. Visit sasguides.com.

Building blocks

Budget hotel chain Travelodge has taken prefabricated hotels to new levels, by building its new Uxbridge property out of 88 stacked shipping containers. Each steel crate comes with bathrooms, walls and electrical sockets already in place, and Travelodge says the design will reduce construction time by around 25 per cent. Eager to know what the finished hotel will look like? Here at businesstraveller.com we can hardly contain ourselves.

Picture perfect

A newly-wed couple have won first prize in a wedding photography competition at Singapore Changi’s new Terminal 3. Michael Mah and his fiancée Nikkie Ong beat 30 other couples to win an all-expenses-paid honeymoon to Paris worth over £10,000, including a pair of return business class tickets to the French capital and five nights’ stay. Appropriately, the 30-year-old orthodontist and his wife will be staying at the Crowne Plaza.

Making a meal of it

Scandinavian carrier Sterling Airlines is introducing a range of organic in-flight meals, including yoghurts made from Jersey cows’ milk, sandwiches with organic Il Fornaio bread, and muffins containing high-cocoa content El Rey chocolate. The airline has also reduced the amount of packaging used to wrap its sandwiches, by making them rectangular rather than the usual triangular shape – bet they haven’t got rid of the crusts though.

Good vibrations

An insurance company has paid out nearly US$1 million to a Brooklyn couple who claimed their house was damaged by vibrations caused by a low-flying Air France Concorde aircraft. John and Annette Ferranti said their home had started springing leaks following the incident in 2002, and received a US$995,000 payout ­– now that’s what you call a property boom.

Mood music

Raffles Dubai has employed “sensory brand consultant” Equal Strategy to devise unique playlists which reflect the qualities and values of the hotel chain. The company analysed the environments and activities within the hotel’s lobby, restaurant and bar areas, and came up with musical programmes taking into account the likely “state of guest arousal”. Thankfully, you can still choose your own in-room music.

By Mark Caswell

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