Demanding more than just a touch of class

It is an obvious truth that travelling business class is one of the perks of executive success. It is less widely recognised that for many road-weary business travellers it is an essential element of being able to function efficiently during long stretches of time away from home. It's one thing to spend 12 uncomfortable hours flying to London in an economy-class middle seat if you plan to do nothing at the end of your journey but relax and unwind. It's quite another if your intention is to get off the red-eye and go straight into a meeting in which millions of dollars worth of business may be at stake. The needs and demands of the business traveller have evolved, and so too have the expectations of cost-conscious executives as travel budgets become tighter. Where once hotels and airlines were expected to do little more than offer a higher level of comfort and additional space, they must now focus on points of fine detail. Executives on the move require access to specialised in-room technology, and spa and health services, and have food and beverage requirements also geared to maximising their efficiency. Carriers are now looking at ways to keep their customers connected in the air, and increasingly we can expect to see high-flying executives surfing the net, e-mailing and, on some airlines, talking on mobiles. At the same time mid-class facilities are becoming important to company accountants, keen to make economies without sending important personnel over long distances in economy. The result across the business travel industry has been a shift in emphasis from old-fashioned luxury to comfort and convenience conducive to efficiency. Spa services, for example - now regarded as essential not just to resorts but to city hotels with a primarily business clientele - are increasingly geared not just to leisurely pampering but to invigorating treatments that can be completed in a short time, allowing executives to sharpen their faculties and get back to business quickly. The InterContinental Hong Kong's I-Spa, for instance, offers a massage treatment specifically geared for jet-lag recovery. It can be completed in 11/2 hours or 'fast-tracked' to one hour if the sufferer, as is usually the case, has a packed schedule. Special treatments for the business traveller, who has lost track of what day or time it is, are also available at the Chuan Spa at Langham Place in Mong Kok, the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group's spas at its international properties, and at The Peninsula's ESPA. None of them are cheap, but they could make a major difference to how the business traveller functions in that crucial meeting. Healthy eating on the road is also crucial to effective executive performance. Healthy - usually meaning less tasty - options have been available on most hotel restaurant menus for a while, but the InterContinental recently took things a step further by introducing an 'I-health' menu, designed to combat the top health risks of stressed out executives - heart disease, diabetes, and hypertension. The menu is available round the clock from room service and in the Harbourside Restaurant, so there's no excuse for ordering that cheeseburger if you check in at midnight. The business traveller has always been the main focus of the airlines' premium classes, with chief executives of successful corporations enjoying the decadent delights of first-class cabins, while senior management roughs it in a new generation of business class flat-bed seats. For the time being at least luxury is still alive and well at the front of the plane as Singapore Airlines Suites, available aboard its new Airbus A380 aircraft and the first-class cabin of its new Boeing 777-300ERs, attest. 'Developed with our most valued and distinguished customers in mind, the concept of the Singapore Airlines Suites is nothing less than groundbreaking in the luxury travel market,' said Singapore Airlines senior vice-president, product and services, Yap Kim Wah. The suites offer those who give orders to the company accountant, rather than the other way around, the opportunity to enjoy the privacy of their own room in the air, with a seat and a bed rather than the first converted into the second, while the 35-inch wide fine-grain leather upholstered seat in first-class is the largest in the sky, according to the airline. Business-class seats are at least 30 inches wide, and 'the most spacious the world has ever seen'. Are suites in the sky the future of first-class air travel or its last gasp? It is hard to say for certain, but with doubts hanging over the immediate prospects for the United States economy and its implications for the rest of the world, Singapore Airlines' timing couldn't have been better. Even seemingly bulletproof companies and institutions are tightening their belts, according to Oasis Hong Kong Airlines chief executive and veteran industry analyst Stephen Miller. 'More and more passengers from the established companies, such as HSBC, Ernst & Young and Goldman Sachs, will now travel in business class with us. Once the 'r' word gets around - recession - the counters start to sharpen their pencils and look at ways they can save a bit of money. And if they're going to get a reliable service, and their executives can sleep and be entertained, then why not travel with us? 'A year ago they didn't even think about it, but now it's going through people's minds. We get far more inquiries from the multinationals than we did because the drop down from, say, HK$40,000 to us at HK$20,000 or HK$22,000 is huge,' Mr Miller said. Surveys over the years have repeatedly shown that for most premium-class passengers the most important requirements are not fine wines, gourmet food, or a huge selection of film and television channels, but space and comfort. This is precisely what many carriers now provide in premium economy classes, and it seems likely that the growth of this sector will be at the expense of first and business. Although companies will still cover the cost of business class tickets for executives on long-haul flights, all but the most senior management personnel are usually required to settle for premium economy or even the back of the bus on shorter regional trips of less than about five hours. Even chief executives used to turning left on boarding planes are now more inclined to lead by example and sit with their employees. It may be that the future of business class is more moderately priced tickets with fewer frills and more seats in the cabin. Travelling on business will still be done in comfort, but perhaps in the future with a little less style. Business travel will, increasingly, be about getting down to business.