This problem has been dubbed as ‘coma mode’ and when your iPhone is afflicted you will not be able to make or receive calls or emails. The phone is useless until you go through a ‘hard reboot’ which is like rebooting a PC when it crashes. To make matters worse you might not notice the phone is in ‘coma mode’ until you pick it up to use it meaning it could be down for hours before you notice there’s a problem.

One iPhone user, Paul Hatton resorted to carrying around a spare mobile phone in case his iPhone failed. He recalled:

“With no warning or indication as to why it happened the wifi access failed completely. (The phone) was not working properly, it became unstable. People would dial in and the tone would be that of a phone that’s been cut off and it would go to sleep. It would fall into what’s referred to as a coma.”

It seems that the problems are due to applications or ‘apps’ as they are called by Apple. These ‘apps’ offer many nifty benefits such as GPS but they can also create issues. He explained:

“The difficulty is that it’s a skittish kind of a thing. It doesn’t happen every time, it just happens in certain circumstances depending on how much you have stored on the Apple phone, how many applications you have, which applications you have and which version of the operating system.”

To keep up to date with this issue read mobile phone reviews and make sure you know how well their products are performing before you buy one. There are plenty of sites like Ciao and Blagger.com to check out.

A spokesperson on behalf of the Air Transport Users Council, James Fremantle, has condemned the charge as being far too high but agreed with the airline’s decision to do away with airport check-ins. He commented:

“We think generally airlines bringing in online check in is a good thing for consumers. It puts the ball in their court, they are now in charge of their own booking, their own check in online, their own bags drop with some airlines as well. So I think this is here to stay we probably will see more of it in the future.”

No more queuing must surely reduce the amount of Ryanair complaints and also give the airline another way to slash costs. This way the airline can focus on its key selling point which is cheap fares.

In addition to this change of policy, Ryanair will start charging for any luggage except hand luggage. Charges for one piece of luggage will rise from £15 to £20 if booked online and rise from £20 to £30 if booked at the airport. This is an attempt to encourage passengers to bring only hand luggage which reduces plane turnaround times and ultimately costs.

To check out whether you’re chosen airline has the cheapest fares and charges don’t forget to refer to airline reviews.

There are currently nine flights per day leaving the airport by easyJet affecting 33,000 passengers every month. So if you’ve already booked flights, where does that leave you?

Although easyJet says they haven’t made any final decisions about their future at the airport the Chief Executive is quoted on their website as saying:

“We cannot see a growing long-term future and we have decided to move our assets to markets with better long-term potential.”

easyJet says that if these flights do cease then those customers who have booked flights after the New Year will have the option of getting a refund or transferring to another airport. However they are unable to offer this service now.

This could cause huge problems if another airport is less convenient or you find your business trip dates don’t tally with the flights available.
The closet airport to East Midlands is 37 miles away at Birmingham International. This is a good hour’s drive and most easyJet flights leave from London Luton Airport taking an hour and half to get to by car.

easyJet advised that they were still evaluating their position with East Midlands after launching a 90 day consultation period with staff. They went on to say:

“We will contact those affected customers at the end of the 90 days and inform them of the outcome of the consultation. This will be in early December 2009. If any decision is made to close the East Midlands operation, we will offer customers the opportunity to transfer their booking to a different easyJet flight at an alternative airport, or a full refund.”

This type of break to service is likely to increase easyJet complaints. If you are looking to book tickets with an airline it can be a sensible idea to check out airline reviews for flights for business so you know what to expect and are aware of any disruption to flight schedules.

Anyone with an O2 mobile was left without a reliable signal and at times the signal was completely down. This was disastrous for businesses and consumers alike and many had to drive outside of the village just to call someone.

The problems with an intermittent signal carried on for a month and eventually the amount of O2 complaints hit the roof. However the mobile phone giant was less than helpful. One of the residents, Jane Wright, explained that after having had a good signal previously she was very concerned when she started suffering coverage problems. When she contacted O2 she was further disappointed:

“When you can finally get through to them, half the time it’s, “we haven’t heard there’s a problem”.

Eventually O2 informed Jane the problem would be resolved and it did get better for a few days but then the old issues resurfaced. Again O2 gave Jane another date but this time advised her that they couldn’t promise it would be put right.

This is when BBC Watchdog stepped in and took a leading expert in mobile communications, John Raw, to investigate. It was identified that it was a simple problem with the signal tower – an issue that could be resolved within 24 hours.

While the Watchdog team were filming an engineer arrived to fix the problem and by the end of that day the village was back in signal.

O2 apologised for the inconvenience to its Lidhook customers and went on to say:

“We are keen to encourage customers who have been affected by the loss of service in Liphook to call our Customer Services team and we will discuss and review their bill with them.”

This highlights how important it is to check out mobile network reviews for business users before signing up for a mobile phone contract. Although the service provider may state there is coverage in an area it is always worth double checking the experience of other users before you commit.

By factoring in some downtime you can ensure that it’s not all work and waiting in airport lounges. If you enjoy sightseeing take time to arrange a walking tour. If you love music seek out the local concerts that are performing during your stay. If you enjoy golf you are bound to find a decent course in the vicinity of the hotel.

You can make your meal a highlight rather than a drab evening. Seek out a high dining restaurant and indulge in a gourmet meal. You can enjoy dinner without distraction and if you feel a little conspicuous take a book to read while you eat.

Take some time to relax outside a café or wandering through a park or even catch a film. Just make sure you schedule some time to unwind.

You need to keep at the forefront of your mind that every evening around a third of all hotel rooms across the UK are empty. You stand a very good chance of negotiating a better rate and you stand a better chance of getting a bargain by dealing with the hotel directly rather than trying to haggle with a reservation line. Its no good to be shy, you have to be hard faced and cheeky!

Never accept the first fee that is offered to you. There will be a variety of rates available in every hotel for the rooms and they will start by quoting their top rate. Questions to ask are: what is the corporate rate? Are there any promotions on? Then see if they can make you a better offer. If you can’t get them to budge and request a suite at a standard room rate or go for a room on a concierge floor.

Hotels operate with the philosophy that a room booked for a low rate is better than the room staying vacant and increasingly hotels are training their staff to make sure they don’t let the customer get away due to high rates. If you are struggling to strike a deal ask to speak to the manager. The manager may be more inclined to make an offer rather than let the room go empty.

Auctions are taking place on the eBay.fr website and during the initial auction period there is likely to be 100 seats put on sale at a reserve price of E380.

There will be staggered auctions with auctions lasting three, five, seven and ten days and there will be 380 seats available on return flights and outbound flights.

Seats are being sold for both business class and economy and when Air France receives the final bid they will contact the winner confirming flight details.

A one-way flight aboard the A380 inaugural flight and a return flight via a scheduled flight on Air France will be received by each lucky winner. There will be a special itinerary for both Paris and New York including shopping and an itinerary of cultural activities.
Winners can also make use of extra hold baggage which allows up to 23 kg on economy and 32 kg for business travellers.

For those who are members of Flying Blue there will be the chance to earn miles on the flights and they can reserve their tickets under another name than that of the auction winner.

The monies are being raised to support the Air France Foundation which takes part in projects giving aid to sick and disabled children.

These allowances in economy, business travel and first class will take effect from 1st October and will increase luggage allowance by 10kg for each class. This is following the Emirates announcement earlier in the year which means both these airlines have some of the most generous luggage allowances in the world.

A further 15 kg luggage allowance will be allowed to those silver members of the Gulf Air frequent flyer programme. Gold members will be allowed to take an extra 20kg over and above the new limits equating to a total luggage allowance of 70kg.

When talking about the announcement, the Gulf Air chief commercial officer, Willy Boulet said:

“Our decision to increase the allowance is in direct response to feedback from our customers who are looking for greater flexibility in the amount of free checked luggage they can carry when flying. Many of our customers travel to destinations on the Gulf Air network for extended periods to visit friends and family as well as for work related commitments and therefore need to carry more luggage than the standard allowance provides for.”

This new technology means that passengers will no longer have to take laptops out of bags to be security checked.
Philip Bowman was talking in Brussels at the European Security Forum and commented:

“Smiths Detection has now developed the kit that we believe can securely screen laptops without first removing them from passengers’ bags. Lifting the laptop restriction could make an early, practical improvement to the lives of the travelling public – perhaps halving the length of Europe’s airport queues. That’s why I believe we should be making faster progress on testing the technology to ensure it meets the right levels of security assurance and to allow it to be used.”

He went on to say that airport security policies in practice relating to laptop security and liquids did a great deal to restrict passenger’s freedom of movement. He continued to say it was understood by everyone that there were important reasons for taking this action highlighting the case of three men imprisoned earlier in September for their part in conspiring to blow up aircraft mid-Atlantic.

However he believed travellers should be allowed to question these restraints, “when, given the developments in screening technology we have seen in recent years, these restrictions will be lifted”.

This is great news for business travel and hopefully it won’t be long before this technology is used across airports.

The airline currently has three existing A330-200 aircraft and two more will be delivered before the end of this year. The Envoy Suite design for US Airways’ A330-300s is still being developed and is expected to be introduced in summer 2012.

These newly designed seats have in-flight entertainment fitted which includes a 12.1 inch touchscreen, satellite telephone, a power outlet of 110-volt and a USB port making these suites perfect for business travel.

A herringbone configuration will be used which was introduced by Virgin Atlantic when it launched its Upper Class suite. However, unlike their rivals, the US Airways suites will be facing forward at another angle. The seating has seats that face the window and centre seats face inward rather than out towards the aisle.

Flat bed seating has been introduced by other US airlines but this is the first with four seats across in the herringbone formation. The seats as the name suggests recline flat and come in a variety of lengths. There are drop down arm rests which provide extra room for sleeping.