Lounge Chats
Those close to me know I love to travel, as many of us do. What surprises many people, though, is that I also love the act of traveling. Of course, it makes it all better when I can do so in a premium cabin, but traveling is still more than a point A to point B process for me.
This weekend I took advantage of the holiday weekend and visited friends in Stockholm. I never leave much time for myself at the airport, but at Newark I had about 30 minutes to relax in Continental’s Presidents Club. It was like a party in the lounge as it was Friday afternoon and a holiday weekend. I took a seat at the bar and couldn’t help but eavesdrop. Most of the people were dressed casually, but were for the majority, business travelers. They had laptops and Blackberrys at the ready, but what impressed me most was not about the meetings they were recapping from earlier that day, but most of the conversations were focused on air travel, the new types of seats and different aircrafts airlines were buying. For example, one guy even asked his friend “Do you have your ticket yet on the new A380? Won’t you be flying Singapore Airlines next month”
Two weeks before I was in the Asiana lounge at JFK and, once again, couldn’t help but overhear two colleagues talk about all the different types of business class seats. This time I had to go over and introduce myself as I was intrigued by their conversation and wondered if they worked for airlines. They said no and were part of a small business, but the senior guy said he traveled overseas nearly every other week. In fact, they even chose to fly on this Asiana flight from JFK because if they flew the night before, the aircraft would not have been equipped with the new business and first class product. It was essential for this business traveler to have a fully flat bed on board in order to get a good night of rest. Of course, I pointed this business traveler in the direction of our business and first class survey as it is a handy guide for all business travelers.
Well, I suppose the moral of this blog is two fold - it appears the majority of business travelers know and understand the products they fly on almost as well as those actually in the industry and don’t sit near me in a lounge unless you want to start a conversation.
-Alex Young, vice president and associate publisher
