Our Premium Economy offering now rivals the business classes of many airlines. With chauffeured car transfers, a fully flat and horizontal 6′ 7.5′ long bed with a proper mattress, sit-down bar, a-la-carte dining in a trolley-free
cabin, as well as pyjamas.

Virgin Atlantic’s signature Upper Class cabin is the business.
A clever angled seat design in a 1-1-1 configuration means that all Upper Class seats face forward, have direct aisle access and an ottoman foot rest that doubles as a seat for a guest. Highest sit-down bar on the planet. The next highest sit-down bar is Cloud 9, a mere 87 floors above the streets of Shanghai. Freedom to dine anytime. No annoying trolleys to impede your progress to the bar.Σ

Slow-paced, yet quick to charm

Vietnam’s thousand-year-old capital is one of the most beguiling cities in Southeast Asia – a stylish, European-influenced metropolis with manicured lakeside promenades, tree-lined boulevards, ancient pagodas and French-colonial buildings painted in a peeling palette of jade, turquoise and burgundy.

Following years of rampant inflation, poverty and repression, the government introduced economic reform (doi moi) in 1986, allowing people to own their own businesses. Nearly sixty percent of the population in Vietnam was born after the war ended in 1975, and Hanoi feels like a city of teenagers.

Heading for the heart of Hanoi

Hoan Kiem Lake isn’t Hanoi’s biggest, or deepest, or even cleanest lake – but it is the spiritual center of the city.

It was from the depths of the lake, according to legend, that the 15th-century emperor Le Loi received a magic sword with which he routed Chinese occupiers. Hoan Kiem means Return of the Sword, commemorating the ceremonial moment when the emperor restored it to the lake. In one version of the legend, a golden turtle rose up to receive the sword, and giant turtles still inhabit the lake today.

Hoan Kiem is at its most crowded when few outsiders see it, at dawn. As the sky grows light, it reveals a throng of people in their underwear and pajamas, all around the banks, bending, twisting, punching the air, marching in place, flexing their torsos from side to side in a morning ritual of health. The lake’s tree-lined shores are perfect for people-watching, meditating, strolling and enjoying a glass of coffee.

U.S. Department of Justice gives okay

Delta Air Lines said it completed its acquisition of Northwest Airlines on Oct. 30, hours after the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) said it would not challenge the merger that creates the world’s largest airline operating more than 800 mainline aircraft and generating more than US$35 billion in annual revenue.

In a statement, Delta CEO Richard Anderson said, “The airline industry faces a very difficult economic environment around the world and this merger gives Delta increased flexibility to adapt to the economic challenges ahead.” He added that the carrier “will be at the front of the pack in achieving the benefits of consolidation and is well positioned to navigate the tough waters ahead.”

DOJ said its antitrust division conducted “a thorough, six-month investigation” and concluded that the merger “is likely to produce substantial and credible efficiencies that will benefit U.S. consumers and is not likely to substantially lessen competition.”

The airlines had touted the tie-up as a combination of two carriers with complementary networks that would generate at least US$1 billion in annual cost savings/synergies, a line of reasoning endorsed by DOJ. “The two airlines currently compete with a number of other legacy and low-cost airlines…on the vast majority of nonstop and connecting routes where they compete with each other,” the DOJ statement said.

The decision was far different from the department’s block of the last major merger it reviewed, United Airlines’ proposed acquisition of then-USAir in 2001. It also rejected Northwest’s earlier effort to take control of Continental Airlines. DOJ’s primary contention in 2001 was that “a vigorously competitive airline industry is vital to our economy” and that consumers benefited from a wider variety of flying choices. It appears that the growth of low-cost carriers in the U.S. market, among other factors, has convinced it that the creation of a mega-airline no longer is anticompetitive and hurtful to consumers.

In today’s volatile economic climate, corporate travel management companies (TMCs) are even more valuable to their clients as they can secure the best travel and accommodation deals for their clients.

As a global corporate travel agency, BCD Travel is in a particularly strong position to negotiate top discount rates for their corporate travel clients, operating in 90 countries on six continents and in 1500 locations worldwide.

A new report, the 2009 Industry Forecast, produced by Advito which is the independent consulting unit to BCD Travel, predicts that net retail airfares will increase by an average of 6-8 per cent in 2009, but softening demand in the hotel market will strengthen negotiation power on room rates, which are tipped to increase by an average of 4-8 per cent.