Taking off Travel blog

Executive Travel’s 2011 Leading Edge Awards are out-. According the magazine, the companies featured here are among the ‘shining stars’ of the travel industry. Virgin America took the honors for top domestic airline and top domestic airline customer service, while Delta won kudos for the top domestic airline airport lounge and top domestic business class and first class service. Alaska Airlines was recognized for its frequent flier program, while Air Canada offered the best flight experience to Canada. International awards were mostly won by Singapore Airlines, with Thai Airways and Asiana Airlines also taking honors. The full list is on the Executive Travel Magazine site. (Hat tip: Denver Business Journal)

Also worth a look are the magazine’s Editors’ Picks – companies that in their opinion are changing the executive travel game. First on the list is GoGo Inflight Internet, which is a winner in my book.

I recently posted an article on taking business trips with your family. It included some tips on making a business trip with your kids work. But a recent article on Money Talks News takes it even further suggesting that if you’re traveling to a vacation hotspot to do business, you might be able to save money by taking the family and writing off the business related expenses. There’s a video in the article that’s well worth watching – as well as additional info on what’s deductible – and what’s not! And read to the end for what the IRS has to say about it.

In other news, I’ve seen the future of air travel, and it is beautiful, at least according to Airbus. It includes morphing seats, more legroom, better air quality and panoramic views through a translucent nose cone. More on that here – and check out the video too.

And finally the Wall Street Journal reports on the Flights.Camera.Action contest run by American Airlines and SCORE. Companies with between 2 and 500 employees can enter by submitting a video showing how air travel helps their business. Prizes include tickets, advertising, reward points and other perks. Find out more on the Flights.Camera.Action page.

Chalk this up under ‘one to watch’. A startup coming out of Los Angeles aims to do something interesting with that time you spend sitting on a plane – hook you up with people you might want to meet. Called Airpair, the startup is founded by Mike Townsend and Chris Swasey.

The process will work like this. You give your planned itinerary to Airpair and the site will match you up with people who are thinking of traveling around the same time whom you might like to meet. It will be a social travel service which will change your flight from something to be endured to a fascinating chance for networking. This could work for people wanting to do business together, or those looking to get hired.

Sounds like a dating service for business to me. The startup is so new that there’s nothing to see on the site yet, but you can sign up for a newsletter to find out when it goes live.

Business travelers are well accustomed to earning air miles and reward points for their business travel, but now there’s another way to rack up those rewards – Social Rewards. The company’s aimed at travel industry and business professionals (airlines, hotels, conferences, dining, as well as e-commerce and movies) and integrates with their existing reward schemes. All the companies have to do is prepare a great deal and tweet and share it to their existing socially connected members – and who knows, it could go viral.

What’s in it for the business traveler? Well, if you’re already hooked into Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare and other social sharing sites, then you could get a great deal just for sharing with your fans and followers. It’s something you’d be doing anyway, and now there’s a chance to get something back.

What do you think? Is this something that would appeal to you when you take business trips? (H/T Inc)

The discussion about the need for business travel continues to pick up steam. In an article on the Forbes blog, Tony d’Astolfo weighs in on why business trips are still necessary. He accepts that with gas prices rising, there will be questions about which trips are really needed, and argues for a case by case evaluation of when business trips are necessary and when they can be replaced by virtual meetings. Tony suggests three questions to drive business travel strategy:

• Will this trip drive revenue?
• How does this trip further our strategic business goals?
• What is the downside of conducting this meeting without travel?

He points out that the various travel fees and surcharges makes it hard to control travel and entertainment costs, but points to the use of mobile apps as one solution to help business travelers manage their trips and preferred providers easily and cost effectively.