One of the main disadvantages of flying is being unable to use your mobile phone while in the air. For many people this is a serious problem, because being out of touch with texts and emails for several hours at a time can be unbearable.

Virgin Atlantic has the answer though, and will be upgrading systems on ten of their new Airbus A330-300s to allow passengers to use email and text messaging services during flight by 2011.

Virgin announced that for 2011 Virgin will offer the service for passengers using systems such as Blackberry, PDAs and other devices. This news on the back of the announcement that Virgin will be spending $2.1 billion on its ten new planes, Airbus A330-300 aircrafts.

The new planes will be full of technical wizardry, including USB ports and the functionality to use mobile devices, but not for making calls.

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According to a report from Carlson Wagonlit Travel, a company that specialises in managing business travel, 40% of business travel budgets are spent on hotel costs as opposed to flights or train fares. The reason for this is that businessmen and women are prioritising things such as the location of the hotel in relation to the venue of their meetings.

Other things such as high speed Internet access, security, the quality of the service and of course the food are also important.

With such a large portion of business travel budgets being spent on the accommodation, how can businesses keep these costs down and ensure that they don’t spiral?

One way is to understand what their employees need from a hotel before any bookings are made, that way they can look around and compare prices. Booking early is also recommended so that deals can be negotiated with the hotels.

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Despite the recession, a great many people are still making regular business trips both in the UK and internationally. However not everyone is making the most of their business travel by saving Air Miles, and earning free flights and other benefits.

Air Miles can be earned with every flight, and then exchanged for free flights to destinations around the world. You can also earn Air Miles when you stay at hotels by using your credit card, when you fill your car up with petrol and when you buy your shopping each week.

As the recession is eating into everyone’s profits, it becomes even more necessary to save money wherever possible, and by collecting Air Miles you’re able to do that. If you are a regular business traveller and you’re not earning Air Miles, you’re missing out on potentially hundreds of pounds worth of free business flights each year.

Can you or your business afford to do that?

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When you’re working away from home on business you probably need access to your emails 24/7, but what are the best options for making sure that’s possible?

Sure, you’ll have a laptop with you, and you’ve probably got one that’s Wi-Fi enabled, but unless you have a Wi-Fi signal near you that’s not much use to you. Most hotels offer Wi-Fi at a premium, and of course some trains (such as Virgin) offer it as well. Yet, what are the chances that when you really need it it’s not available?

Pretty good usually. Other options for Internet on the move include buying a dongle and using it with a mobile network such as Vodafone. Dongles have limited bandwidth, usually around 15GB per month, but are more than suitable for when you’re on the move. They’re fairly cheap too, starting at around £20 per month.

Another, more portable option of course is with an Internet enabled phone, such as a Blackberry, iPhone or HTC mobile. With one of these you can send and receive your emails wherever you are so long as you have a mobile phone signal. They’re cheaper than using a dongle or paying for a premium Wi-Fi connection too.

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It may seem unlikely, but according to Barclaycard many people aren’t claiming back their business travel expenses. The credit company believes that business travellers in the UK could be losing out on as much as half a billion pounds each year.

That amounts to roughly £373 for every business traveller in the UK.

The figures were revealed in a survey by Barclaycard that showed 32% of business men and women who were questioned said they didn’t claim back all of their travel expenses.

Perhaps unsurprisingly the survey also revealed that men were (more…)

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Virgin Trains has now opened a First Class lounge in Liverpool’s Lime Street. The new lounge cost the rail company £3.4 million and offers seating for fifty passengers. The luxury lounge also comes equipped with top of the range facilities such as free Wi-Fi access and drinks and food.

Keith Millard, the station manager for Virgin, added:

Since last December we have had a high quality train service, using state-of-the-art tilting Pendolino trains from Liverpool to London, and now we have a high quality station facility to complement the trains.

We are confident that the improved facilities at the station will encourage more environmentally-conscious motorists to ditch the car and take the train.

First Class customers using the Liverpool to London route are also able to take advantage of a completely refurbished lounge at Euston station, which opened at the end of April.

Virgin’s new first class lounge in Liverpool adds to their compliment of luxury lounges for business travellers which already exist in London, Manchester, Birmingham, Coventry, Wolverhampton and Stoke-on-Trent.

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A survey by KDS noted that businesses were making severe cutbacks on their air travel, especially during the peak summer months. This has caused business deals between the UK and the US in particular to suffer as UK businesses are reluctant to pay for travel to the US because of the expense.

Businesses have reportedly been cutting back on their flights even when they do travel, with business class travel and first class travel being dropped in favour of cheap flights from budget airlines such as Ryan Air and easyJet.

In addition to air travel, hotels have suffered as businesses are cutting back their hotel stays, and opting for the cheapest locations when they do have to stay overnight.

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According to research, the recession isn’t going to restrict UK businesses from their business travel plans, it’s merely causing them to downgrade their travel plans to cheaper alternatives. Furthermore, the cuts made by flying economy instead of business class have proven so encouraging for businesses, that many UK businesses say they’ll stick to cheap flights even when the recession has ended and the economy has recovered.

The Association of Corporate Travel Executives conducted research of different travel buyers and found that many intending to stick to economy travel even after the recession ends, with Paul Robin, the founder of Business Travel Market, adding:

It would appear that some of the travel restrictions that were forced on many business travellers have proved workable and will be here to stay.

The recession hit us fast and travel buyers responded quickly to fine tune their travel management policies and budgets. The survey that we conducted in conjunction with ACTE implies that the changes have worked to reduce costs, business has continued and when we return to financial stability those changes that have worked well will remain in place.

According to the figures, over 50% of businesses have reduced their travel budgets by downgrading the flights they book.

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With businesses forced to keep expenditures down as much as possible, travel expenses for meetings, especially those abroad, are one of the first areas where cuts are made. Of course, if you cut back on your travel to meetings and pitches, you can be seriously affecting your potential to earn profit and clinch deals.

A much cheaper way of conducting business meetings, client meetings and making pitches is with video conferencing. By using video conferencing facilities, which can be on site or even through your own PC, you’re able to conduct face to face meetings without leaving your office. This reduces your costs in travelling and also saves you the time in getting to your destination.

Video conferencing has proved very popular in recent years as the technology has improved and is used by large corporations and small businesses alike.

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We’ve all been there; you’re in the most important presentation of your business life and things just keep going wrong. Your mouth goes dry, your head empties of thought, your laptop won’t connect to the projector and you can’t find the presentation file.

It’s the worst feeling you can have in business, and you tend to do in front of the most important people. In order to be prepared, we’ve compiled a list of some of the things that go wrong with a presentation, so you know what to look out for.

Laptop battery dies
This is a common problem and would kill your presentation dead unless you have backup. Make sure you have a spare battery and your power cable.

Projector doesn’t work
Connecting your laptop to the projector isn’t always easy so give yourself plenty of time. Make sure you know how to do it and who speak to if the projector needs attention, such as replacement projector lamps.

Your mind goes blank
This can be helped by knowing your presentation backwards. Practice and more practice is the key, so make sure you do your homework and you shouldn’t have any nightmares.

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