Traveleads E News Bulletin, Issue 46
Welcome to the June Traveleads Newsletter. This month we have all the latest news, offers and your chance to win a stay at the Norton House Hotel & Spa including a nine course tasting menu. For further details on any of the items featured please contact your friendly Traveleads teams on 0113 245 7745 or 0131 718 4000.
Norton House Hotel & Spa
Norton House Hotel & Spa, one of the finest country house hotels in Edinburgh. Norton House built in 1840, was always intended as a traditional country retreat removed from the bustle of the city.
This four red star hotel in Scotland is just a 20 minute drive from Edinburgh City Centre and a mere ten minutes from Edinburgh Airport.
Situated in 55 acres of grounds, Norton House offers 83 bedrooms, including 36 luxury executive rooms, junior suites and penthouse suite, all with complimentary Wi-Fi. The hotel offers a three AA rosette restaurant and a popular contemporary brasserie.
The hotel also boasts 13 meeting rooms with the capacity to cater for 250 guests. Day delegate rates start from £29.00 per person.
For your chance to win an overnight stay for two including breakfast and a nine course tasting menu in Ushers Restaurant answer the following question. How many accolades does Ushers restaurant hold? Please send your answer to [email protected] along with you name and contact telephone number.
Residence 6 Luxury Serviced Apartments in Leeds
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Are you looking for an alternative to traditional hotel accommodation, or perhaps something a little different to help celebrate a special occasion?
Residence 6 was the first VisitBritain five-star graded property in Leeds and is located in The Old Post Office Building on City Square, directly opposite the railway station and ideally placed for both corporate and leisure visitors. A full refurbishment of all the apartments in early 2014 has enhanced the property's character with a boutique ambience.
Residence 6 offers stays from one night upwards with significant discounts for longer staying guests. Each luxury serviced apartment is typically three times the size of a hotel room and features include a fully equipped kitchen, a spacious living room with plasma TV's, DVD players and Play Station 2's, separate bedrooms and en-suite walk-in wet-room-style shower rooms.
All rates include: Wi-Fi Internet access, complete housekeeping services, use of the residents only gym and business lounge and a 24 hour concierge service, as well as access to a range of unique services such as dry-cleaning, personal shopping and fresh flower delivery. Residence 6 can also securely store items over a weekend to help reduce travel inconvenience for regular guests.To book call Traveleads for our exclusive rates. |
G&V; Royal Mile Hotel : New Name, Same Five-Star Luxury
| The Hotel Missoni Edinburgh has been re-named the G&V; Royal Mile Hotel. The G&V; Royal Mile Hotel in Edinburgh is a stunning, contemporary landmark, and the only five-star hotel on the historic Royal Mile, set in the heart of the Scottish capital, featuring iconic design characterised by its local Scottish heritage. The property has joined the Quorvus Collection, a new generation of expertly curated luxury hotels in Carlson Rezidor’s growing global portfolio. The hotel will remain a design hotel at heart and all of the unique and much loved interiors, style, ethos, staff and friendly five-star service will not change. Award-winning restaurant Cucina will also remain at the heart of the hotel and will continue to serve some of the finest, authentic Italian cuisine in the city. |
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New Routes from Edinburgh Airport
Nine million travellers a year pass through Edinburgh Airport served by more than 40 airlines to over 100 destinations, and figures are set to grow as Scotland's international connections develop to provide even more new routes.
Air Canada rouge™ The New Leisure Airline from Air Canada
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Air Canada rouge™ is a stylish and affordable new leisure airline from Air Canada. On the 13th June 2014 a new summer service from Edinburgh to Toronto will be introduced three times weekly, and this service will increase to five times weekly from the 3rd July 2014. As well as these non-stop services to Canada's largest city, travellers can benefit from convenient connections to destinations throughout Air Canada's global network via Toronto Pearson International Airport. | |
US Airways' First Route from Edinburgh
| US Airways, part of American Airlines, has commenced a seasonal daily non-stop service to its Philadelphia hub, the airlines first route from Edinburgh! US Airways, which flies to over 230 worldwide destinations, will operate flights on a 176-seat dual-class Boeing 757 aircraft. Travellers from the region will benefit from this convenient service and opportunities for onward travel. US Airways hopes to expand its global connectivity and pave the way for more flights in the future. |
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Qatar Airways Strengthens Edinburgh's Links to Asia
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Qatar Airways has begun operations from Edinburgh Airport to Doha with five flights a week. The Middle Eastern carrier, renowned for its five-star service and quality, will fly Scotland's first scheduled 787 Dreamliner to Doha offering seamless connections to over 130 destinations worldwide including the Middle East, Indian Subcontinent, Asia, the Far East and Australasia. For further information and competitive fares please contact your Traveleads teams. | |
United Airlines Five Weekly Flights to Chicago
| From May United Airlines began five times weekly flights from Edinburgh to Chicago. Frequency to the 'Windy City' will increase to daily flights from the 12th June to the 2nd September and then change to four times weekly until the 6th October. United is operating the service with a Boeing 757-200 aircraft with a total of 169 seats: 16 flat-bed seats in United BusinessFirst and 153 in United Economy, including 45 Economy Plus seats with added legroom and increased personal space. |
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New Aberdeen to Houston Business Class Only Concept
Starting from the 20th August 2014 SAS is launching a nonstop service between Stavanger, the oil capital of Norway and Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport, with excellent connections from Aberdeen. The route will be operated on a Boeing 737-700 and will feature the SAS Long Haul Business Class concept.
Pre-flight, passengers can check in up to 22 hours in advance online or via SMS and to print their boarding pass or travel with a mobile boarding pass. Travellers can take advantage of SAS' Fast Track security service and also benefit from two pieces of 32kg checked baggage.
On board the spacious cabin a dedicated crew of four will provide VIP treatment for all 44 travellers. The SAS fully-reclining Business Sleeper seat offers passengers greater comfort and privacy with plenty of personal living space, whether they wish to work, relax, sleep or be entertained.
A complete food and beverage service includes a four course superior meal with multiple choices and the finest selection of wines and premium spirits. The modern entertainment concept features a 10.4" screen, offering movies, music and games on demand.
Business travellers can have access to the SAS Business Lounge in Houston which is furnished in Scandinavian style and displays functional, comfortable, design features so you can work, relax or have a bite to eat. Complimentary Wi-Fi and free IP telephony via Skype are also included.
SAS EuroBonus members receive 200% EuroBonus points when traveling in Business class. For further details on how to join SAS EuroBonus, more information about SAS Business flights or to book please contact your friendly Traveleads teams on 0113 245 7745 or 0131 718 4000.
Air France and KLM: New European Routes
Air France and KLM have expanded their European network with new routes to Norway, Spain, Italy and Croatia. Fly via Paris or Amsterdam and benefit from even more options when travelling to Europe.
Stavanger: In March Air France started a new route to Stavanger, Norway's oil and gas capital, becoming the second destination to the Nordic country after Oslo. Air France operates twice daily flights and KLM operate five daily flights from the UK.
Bilbao: From May, Bilbao, one of Spain's most populous metropolitan areas and an important industrial hub, became the third KLM destination in Spain. KLM operate a daily flight and Air France operates four daily flights from the UK.
Turin: From May, KLM launched a new service to the Italian city of Turin, becoming KLM's sixth Italian destination after Rome, Milan, Florence, Bologna and Venice. KLM operate a twice daily flights and Air France operate four daily flights from the UK.
Zagreb: From May, KLM began a new daily service to the capital and largest city of Croatia, Zagreb meaning that with the existing daily flight via Paris with Air France, you will now have more options from the UK.
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No1 Traveller are offering complimentary fast track at security for travellers booking selected lounges. This offer is available for bookings made in No1 Traveller lounges at London Gatwick, Stansted and Edinburgh, and partner lounges at Manchester. Contact your Traveleads team to book on 0113 245 7745 or 0131 718 4000. | |
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Delta Air Lines has completed the installation of full flat-bed seats with direct-aisle access in Business Elite across its entire international wide-body fleet. With these modifications complete, Delta Air Lines is the only US carrier to offer full flat-bed seats, direct-aisle access on all overseas flights and personal, on-demand entertainment at every seat on all long-haul international flights. | |
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Choose Business Class on your next Finnair flight and travel in luxury and style with the new full-flat seat guarantee. The spacious full-flat and lie-flat seats make your time on board truly relaxing and enjoyable. Full-flat seats are guaranteed on selected routes from Helsinki to Tokyo, New York, Beijing and Seoul, and from the 1st June 2014 from Helsinki to Hanoi, Nagoya, Osaka and Shanghai. | |
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Cathay Pacific has announced a new four times weekly direct winter service from Manchester to Hong. The service will be launched on the 8th December 2014 and operate on a Boeing 777-300ER with business class, premium economy and new economy seats. The route will complement Cathay Pacific's existing five flights a day from Heathrow. | |
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British Airways is launching five new routes from London Gatwick in summer 2015, in response to commercial demand. London Gatwick to Bodrum, Cagliari, Dalaman, Heraklion and Rhodes services will commence from the 26th April 2015. Fares start from only £49 one-way to Cagliari and £69 one-way to Heraklion, Rhodes, Bodrum and Dalaman and are now available to book. | |
We're starting to include a blog/interview section in our monthly newsletter, on a variety of topics, and this month we're featuring some thoughts on measuring ad-hoc spend associated with business trips. These thoughts formed part of an interview with one of our Directors, Gary McLeod, which was published in "The Business Travel Magazine" last month, on the same topic.
It is very easy for organisations to lose sight of how "incidental" travel costs can mount up to a fairly high sum over a financial year. If this type of expenditure is not included in the formal travel policy framework, costs are often paid by the traveller en route and submitted as "regular" expenses - so they are not recognised as travel-related costs on an organisation-wide basis. To counteract this, organisations could try to find ways of including all regular traveller cost items in their travel policy governance and, where practical, book them as part of the overall trip preparation process through the regular travel management booking process. This ensures that the organisation has a far clearer view of the end-to-end trip costs and these can be then built into future budgeting exercises.
What do we mean by incidental costs? The list can be quite long, but key items regularly appearing in spend reports are:
- airport/station car parking
- taxis or chauffeur drive transfers
- tube or rail shuttles to airports
- pre-flight hotel stays (often booked at short notice by the traveller who suddenly decides not to have an 03:00 start from home!)
- airport lounge access
A high proportion of organisations are quite well aware that these costs are going to be incurred, but don't often really get to grips with legislating for them and looking at ways of standardising them within their travel expenses policy. This isn't particularly something which affects the SMEs, as we've seen all sorts of organisations having the attitude of "these costs are what they are", but not making the time to identify them closely - which we feel we can help them to achieve.
There is no reason why travellers shouldn't be able to route the arranging of more of their necessary ancillary services via Traveleads, much as we also provide visa and passport assistance. It makes sense for the client as it reduces time in making bookings, reduces administration costs, reduces expenses processing costs and gives much clearer MI on "total trip" costs.
Can you get discounts on things like parking and airport hotels? Depending on volumes, the vendors offering these service are no different from any other supplier and are always open to discussing the topic of volume rebates or incentive programmes.
If this is a topic you'd like to look into in greater detail, please contact your Account Manager who will be very pleased to assist you.
| We'd like to send warm congratulations to Jen in our Edinburgh office on her recent marriage to James Harden. Jen and James were married at Houston House, near Edinburgh, on April 5th. |
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